This month’s question is: ‘How does your church make communion meaningful?’

The Rev Dr Grant Barclay, minister, Orchardhill Church, Giffnock

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“At Orchardhill we’ve tried three things to make communion meaningful. We’ve moved chairs, moved times – and removed some ties!

“We celebrated communion last Christmas morning around a large, circular patio table. Moveable seating meant everyone sat entirely in the round, so all those worshipping saw both the table and, beyond, the faces of those who were there. There was something special, and unusual for many worshippers, in seeing the faces of those present as well as the elements on the table. It emphasised Christ’s bodily incarnation and our belonging together in him as well as seeing the more familiar elements of bread and wine on the table.

“While our formal communion services are held on Sunday mornings, we also celebrate the sacrament from time to time through the week. Perhaps the service is later on weekday mornings, followed by lunch; or in the early afternoon followed by afternoon tea. Not everyone finds it easy to get out on a Sunday morning, or in the morning at all, and meeting later enables others to attend. Sharing food and friendship after celebrating the sacrament also matters, and has echoes of agapemeals.

“We’ve moved a long way from tail coats and black ties in the 1970s. It is still special, but that doesn’t demand sombre outfits. More relaxed clothing might help make the sacrament more accessible for people not so set in church ways, and for a younger generation.”

The Rev Alex Shuttleworth, minister, Tulliallan and Kincardine, Alloa

“The last time I conducted a communion service it was in a hospital ward in Dunfermline.

“An elder and I had come to give a member communion, but another lady in the four bed ward asked to take part. I asked another patient if she would like to join us. She just smiled. That seemed to be the limit of her communication. But she took bread and wine. Her baptismal status, denomination, fullness or absence of her faith did not seem to be relevant. And the liturgy began: ‘This hospital trolley is now the Lord’s table.’

“So when I was asked the question ‘How does your church make communion meaningful?’ my response is ‘do I accept the premise of the question?’ Is the meaningfulness or otherwise of communion subject to what we do at all? That hospital communion was one of the most meaningful I have ever been part of.

“There are things we do that make a difference. In Saline children are fully part of the communion. In my first charge we abandoned the business of bearing in the elements in a tense procession. And we never make mistakes. We are relaxed about ‘unintended variations in procedure’.

“I hope we ‘let go and let God’. And we join the faithful who went before us, and the family who are at a distance, and the friends absent through illness or care. And the bread and wine is set aside for holy use and mystery. And we open ourselves up to meaningfulness.”

The Rev Catherine Collins, minister, Broughty Ferry New Kirk, Dundee

“A minister once reminded me that we cannot make any service meaningful: what people bring to it affects what they take from it. But it helps if people can relate to it.

“Our congregation came from different communion traditions: some expected ‘Ye gates’ while others preferred Iona Community worship. The challenge was to ensure the whole body could worship without excluding anyone, that the language of faith was not lost in translation.

“So our communion services have developed gradually. We want people to feel they belong to each other and God, to have a sense of occasion and thanksgiving: servers are reminded to smile. More people are involved: children take part and non elders also serve. We use responses and playmusic while serving the elements since people found the traditional silence unhelpful.

“Many find the Maundy Thursday communion especially meaningful. We eat in the church hall round a long table, with elements of the Passover tradition in the food: bitter herbs, unleavened bread and sweet ‘charoset’ alongside oatcakes, cheese and hot cross buns. The service includes readings at the table, responses, a common cup and uncut bread. We are joined every year by friends from other denominations.

“There seems to be an extra spiritual dimension in eating together, passing food and chatting with neighbours, so that the words of the service and sharing of bread and wine in communion arise naturally from ‘at the end of the meal he took bread’.“

The Rev Graeme Beebee, minister, Cameron l/w St Leonard’s, St Andrews

“Before I came to St Andrews, I was based in Guernsey.

“Like most congregations, communion occupies an important place in the life of St Andrew’s in the Grange, where we share the bread that is blessed and broken and the wine that is blessed and poured as part of worship on the first Sunday of most months, as well as at special services during Holy Week and Easter.

“While the pattern for the communion itself remains traditional, elements of the liturgy have evolved over the years to build the connection between the sacrament itself and the lives of those sharing it, between the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and our own attempts to live out our faith day by day.

“So the questions I try to keep in mind aren’t just focused on how we do communion, but why it matters to us.

“It is also about why it is such an important part of our identity as individual Christians and as a fellowship.

“It also concerns what is it about this basically simple action of breaking bread and sharing wine that continues to fill our minds with peace and touch our hearts with grace.

“For myself this finds its most powerful expression in the Emmaus Communion that I’ve shared on the evening of Easter Day for most of my ministry; as we stand around a central table to share the bread and wine, reflecting on the words Cleopas and his friend spoke to the stranger they met on the road, ‘Stay with us’.”

The Rev George Cowie, minister, South Holborn, Aberdeen

“In many congregations we become quite used to formal Holy communion services. Yet, such gatherings don’t always feel very personal. At times our celebration perhaps seems to be a ritual, rather than an event in which we are spiritually involved.

“During my ministry I have often taken home communion to people who have been housebound. I usually do this in the company of a district elder, although sometimes on my own.The dynamics of such occasions are quite different from services held in church.

“Sometimes, there have been practical challenges when taking communion to people at home. I once visited a lonely lady who, out of the kindness of her heart, had taken a stray dog into her home. During the communion service I had to snatch the elements from the table, holding them at head height, to prevent the dog from scoffing the lot! Yet who was I to judge, or to criticise, when this lady had found a companion?

“The majority of home communion services are relatively uncomplicated. For years I have followed an order which was prepared by the former Panel on Worship. Recently, while conducting such a service, I fleetingly wondered whether I should start using something different or new. Oddly, as though they had read my mind, at the close of the service both the lady and the elder volunteered how much they appreciated the form of words that I use.

“Communion is made meaningful in that which is familiar, accepting and personal. ‘For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.’”