Tying the Rites Together

A recent paper I wrote for a course that I'm taking has made me stop and think about the Church's practice regarding Baptism and Communion. Growing up, Communion was reserved for those who had been baptized and were in good standing with the local church. The Communion service was a separate service, usually taking place Sunday evenings. In our tradition footwashing followed Communion as part of the service. (We will leave the footwashing for another post.) Since then I have witnessed and participated in the gradual opening up of the Communion table.

Now, many of the churches that I know have opened Communion to anyone who has professed faith. I think some of the reason for opening it up was to make celebrating the Lord's Supper something more public. Opening it up allowed the service to be done as part of the regular Sunday morning service without offending anyone who was not baptized. (For those of you reading this from a mainline church background, this may seem like an odd issue. Anabaptists are fairly strong that Baptism is an "adult" confession of faith.) The invitation to participate in Communion is usually phrased in such a way that it is up the individual to determine whether they are "suitable" to take communion.

I have some questions that I'm wrestling with:

• Why has this change in our practice gone unchallenged for the most part?
• How has our narcississtic culture impacted our practice (and our theology)? Is our faith so personal that it means only I can determine my standing before God?
• Are we so careful not to offend that we will stop from thinking through a theological argument before making such a change in the way in which we worship?
• Does being identified as part of the body of Christ (baptism) give us the entrance into participating in taking the elements representing his body and blood?

I am curious about how you practice Communion in your worship? Is it something open to all, to those who are believers, or just to those who are baptized?