World Sunday – Liturgy for October 4, 2020

Invitation On this ‘World Communion Sunday’, we gather to celebrate the Lord’s Supper with Christians around the world: with Palestinians and Colombians and Syrians and Guatemalans and Germans and Kenyans and people of no nation. Today our communion table stretches beyond all borders and all walls. The invitation to our table asks not about citizenship status, nor any other status we might contrive. All the languages of our lips and hearts are spoken and understood here. The table ever-extends, making more room for anyone who seeks a place. Great Prayer of Thanksgiving The Lord be with you. And also with you. Lift up your hearts. We lift them up to the Lord. Let us give thanks to the Lord our God. It is right to give our thanks and praise. Almighty and Creating God, it is a good and joyful thing, always and everywhere, to give thanks to you. In the beginning you created humankind in your likeness. In your likeness you created people who multiplied and became many–––people of all races, nationalities, genders and abilities. Boundless God, you created the world and all that is in it without borders or walls, and you called it “good.” Holy are you, and blessed is your Son Christ, who you sent to teach us how to live and to redeem us when we stumble. On the night when he gave himself up for us, Jesus had gathered in an upper room with his closest friends. He took bread, gave thanks to you, broke it, and shared it with his friends, saying “Take, eat. This is my body, given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, after the meal he took the cup, saying, “Drink from this, all of you. This is my of the , poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” And so, in remembrance of your mighty acts in Jesus Christ, we proclaim the mystery of our faith: Christ has died; Christ has risen; Christ will come again. Pour out your Holy Spirit on us gathered here, and on these of bread and wine. Make them be for us the body and blood of Christ, that we may be for the world the , redeemed by his blood. By your Spirit make us one with Christ, one with each other, and one in ministry to all the world, until Christ comes in final victory and we feast at his heavenly banquet.

Sharing of the Bread and Cup.

Prayer Following Communion Most Merciful and Forgiving God, you bring us to life, and move between us with love. You refresh in us a vision of ourselves as one body. We rise from your table feeling fed and renewed for your wondrous and diverse world. Lord, make us ever steadfast in our endeavor to pull down the walls of exclusion. Guide us that we might live and love—boldly—into the promise of your resurrection. Amen. i

i This liturgy is loosely based on the following source document: https://www.presbypeacefellowship.org/resources/communion-liturgy-for-world-communion-sunday-2017/. Permission was given (on website) by author Emily Brewer to ‘please use and adapt as needed’.