Two Thoughts on World Communion Sunday 

First, in the Apostle’s Creed, we testify that we believe in, “the holy catholic church.” The word catholic, with the lowercase “c,” means universal.  We recognize that the church is the body of Christ, and that we are brothers and sisters with Christians around the world. Holy Communion is a sacred oneness with God and with our brothers and sisters in Christ. We are the church. We are members of the larger church. We are in ministry together. We come to God’s table together on World Communion Sunday. It is a glimpse of the people of God feasting together at God’s heavenly banquet.

Second, because God intends for the life of the church to be a sign of God’s purposes for the world, World Communion Sunday is not an end in itself, nor is its ultimate focus Christian unity. Christians eating the bread and drinking the cup across the world is a sign of the community of love, peace, justice, and mutual support that God seeks for all.

Disagreement about how to interpret what happens in the blessing of loaf and the cup often bitterly divided the church in previous generations. Indeed, at the time World Communion Sunday began in 1940 (then known as Worldwide Communion Sunday), churches could be quite partisan not only in their theological understanding of the Meal but in whom they allowed to commune and in those they denied.

The founders of World Communion Sunday did not insist that all churches aspire to the same theology of the Supper or to the same form. They honored the inherent diversity in the churches’ thinking and practices while insisting that God’s love both transcends every difference and gathers all churches in community”

When we Christians disagree fundamentally on aspects of God’s purposes, we will witness to our own perceptions with respect for Christians who see things differently. We will not increase the fragmentation of the world by expressing hostility towards one another. We will remember that at a level far deeper than our understanding, we have communion.