20 August 2024

Preaching most Sundays of the year has allowed me to discover several different congregations in the Presbytery. The lack of children and young people has been a great discouragement and part of the aging demographic of the Church of Scotland.

More recently, I have begun to be concerned about the lack of opportunity to celebrate the Sacrament of Holy Communion. Within the last year, for example, I have not been invited to celebrate it. I have made enquiries. The simplest answer has been to put the blame on Covid.

Although Calvin and our Scottish Reformers desired to reinstate the Sacrament to a weekly celebration at which the people would partake in both kinds (unlike the medieval church where the people hardly received the bread never mind the wine) it did not happen because of the shortage of ministers.

In addition, the Reformers were very keen that the celebration of both sacraments should not be separated from the preaching of the Word. It is not that the Word was more important than the Sacrament but that they should both take a central place within the life of the Kirk.

Because of this neglect, I have begun to wonder whether this has had a negative impact not only on our perception of what it means to be the  Church but also on our witness to the world. Our worship remains very cerebral without the Sacrament and our concept of mission to the world is dominated by the idea of sharing the good news.

No one could deny that telling the tale is crucial but perhaps the witness of the Church in the Sacrament is just as important precisely because it is not cerebral. But it is the place where the Church finds its true identity, Christ has promised to be present and the joy of living in Christ finds its apogee. This is witness of a less tangible but more divine kind!

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