Table Manners: Presiding at Communion
This is a three-week online course being prepared in case the General Assembly approves the initiative to allow lay leadership of communion in certain circumstances. The purpose of the course is to enable elders to understand the communion service more thoroughly and to conduct communion effectively and with dignity. The course will include a brief survey of the history, theology and practice of celebrating communion in Presbyterian churches. The various elements of the communion service will be analyzed, and the most common ways of administering communion and their advantages and disadvantages will be discussed in detail.
The course is aimed primarily at those elders who may be authorized in the future to preside at communion. It will also be a useful refresher for ministers and an introduction to the theology and practice of the Presbyterian Church in Canada for ministers coming into the denomination from other traditions. Any elder who assist at communion may also find this an interesting and valuable course.
*Pending approval by General Assembly of commissioning ruling elders or members of the Order of Diaconal Ministers to administer communion