Preparations For The Lord's Supper
Worship
He Took A Towel
Sermons And Services For Communion And Feetwashing
Some time before the Lord's Supper the group assigned to organize the event should meet to delegate the tasks involved in the preparation of the meal. In some churches this might be a group known as deacons, or congregational ministers. The pastor may be present or should send along a representative so there is agreement about the service.
Practices will vary from church to church, but most churches will want to determine who will help in the following categories:
Meal Preparation: Including determination of size of purchases, the actual purchasing, advance preparation, cooking, and serving for the Love Feast.
Table Settings: This should include determination of what constitutes a place setting, including plates and spoons and forks if needed, which items should be cleaned ahead of time, which should be purchased ahead of time, who will do such things as fold napkins and place settings on tables, and who will put up tables and take them down afterwards. Some will consider candles to include on the table.
Cleanup Crew: Determine who will be cleaning up the facilities before and after the love feast.
Bread and Cup: Determine who will do the purchasing for and preparation of the communion bread, and which recipe will be used. Also, determine who will purchase the grape juice and/or wine (depending on local custom).
Arrangements for Feetwashing: Preparations should be made for rooms, towels, drop cloths, chairs, wash tubs, and arrangements for hand washing afterwards.
Preparing The Congregation In Advance For The Sights And Sounds Of The Feetwashing And Love Feast
Persons finding themselves in a new country, or even just an unfamiliar part of their own land, fear that innocent actions will embarrass them. It is always helpful to have a guide who can clue you in to the local customs before you make a mistake.
For many people the church is a foreign country. Many are unfamiliar with the practices of their local church, imagining that strange rituals await them. They are unsure if they should stand, sit, or kneel.
The way of the cross is a difficult one, and in the full communion service we call others to something with the strange name of Love Feast and the stranger and more threatening name of Feetwashing. It is important to acquaint the membership with what happens at feetwashing and Love Feast, and just as important to let those familiar with the service from another congregation know that this particular church practices the ordinance.
Well before the service is held, or even announced, church leaders would be wise to contact the families closest to individual new members and arrange a joint visit to talk about the service, and to make a special invitation to observe and participate. It is important to emphasize this particular ordinance not as an innovation, but an ancient rite practiced in obedience to the command of Jesus to do this in his memory.
In addition, the minister should prepare sermons and newsletter meditations in advance on the subject which explain why communion will be celebrated in this manner, and what it will look like.
Communion Bread Recipe
10 cups unsifted flour
1 pound butter
1/2 pint whipping cream
1 pint half and half
1/2 teaspoon salt
Mix dry ingredients, cut in butter. Add liquid and mix to make medium dough. Knead thirty minutes. Roll dough to thickness of ruler, on baking pans, into rectangles about twelve inches by eight inches. Use knife to cut sections one inch wide by six inches in length. Score with three-pronged fork.
Bake at 375 degrees for 25-30 minutes. Bread should remain pale in color.
After bread is baked turn upside down on cloth. Fold over extra cloth and cover until cool. When time to use break into pieces one inch by six inches.
Alternate Recipe For Communion Bread
6 cups flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 pound butter
1/2 pound whipping cream.
Sift flour and mix with sugar in a large bowl. Cut in butter until it forms a fine meal-like texture. Stir in whipping cream. Mixture will be very stiff and crumbly. Divide into four parts and knead thirty minutes on a lightly floured board. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spread dough evenly about 3/8-inch thick on two flat cookie sheets. Score into 3/4-inch squares and prick each section with fork tines. Reduce oven temperature to 300 degrees when cookie sheets are put in. Bake at least one hour (will not look done as it does not brown). Cut immediately along scored lines into double sections.
Agape Meal Instructions
(For Love Feast beginning around 7:00 p.m.)
The day before the Love Feast order twenty pounds of boneless chuck roasts, cut in two-pound pieces.
Morning of Communion: Tables and chairs are set up. The communion bread is made. The tables settings are set out. Three or four slices of white bread are broken up in each white enamel communion bowl (one lid and one bowl per table). Lid is placed on bowl and set aside until the evening.
Cooking of Meat: Use hot water to clean the kettle.
2:00 p.m. Put two gallons of cold water in kettle. Put on the lid. Turn up the heat and leave it this way until you see steam coming out around the lid. Add meat and continue to boil.
2:30 p.m. (approximately) Turn down the heat and let the meat simmer. (Be sure heat is high enough to have some steam always coming out around the lid.)
4:30 p.m. Check meat, continue cooking on low heat until 5:30 p.m.
5:30 p.m. Add 1/2 gallon of water, 1/3 cup salt, 1 teaspoon pepper. Turn up the heat until the broth boils again and then turn down to simmer.
6:00 p.m. Selected individuals lay out platters with strawberries, grapes, cut carrots, slices of apples or slices of bananas with the peeling still in place, pitted olives, sliced kiwi fruit, and whatever else is deemed appropriate. Keep dietary requirements of members in mind as you prepare these platters.
6:45 p.m. Take up meat into two stainless steel pans from the kitchen. Put the broth in two aluminum bowls from the kitchen. Now put pieces of beef on top of the broken bread in the bowls and then fill each bowl half full of broth. Put on the lids and they are ready for the tables.
7:00 p.m. Ready to serve.
Preparation For Feetwashing
The following supplies should be prepared for the feetwashing.
1) Large aprons
2) Foot tubs
3) Hand towels
4) Disinfectant
5) Hand basins
6) Soap
7) Candles for tables
A foot tub and a hand basin should be set at the head of every table. A cake of soap can be placed on its wrapper next to the hand basin. A little disinfectant can be poured in the foot tubs. An apron and towel can be folded and placed at each end of the table, so that fresh aprons and towels can be used when half the people at a table have washed feet.
About fifteen minutes before the service is scheduled to begin, tubs should be filled with hot water, disinfectant should be added, and the candles should be lighted. Each table should have a leader sitting next to a basin, where feetwashing will begin. Try to fill up tables completely.
Following the feetwashing (see description in service) someone should be in charge of gathering up towels and taking them home to be washed. All the foot tubs and hand basins should be rinsed and cleaned in an appropriate place and left to dry, and later put away in storage for the next service.
In most places men sit at one set of tables and women at another, but in some churches men and women who wish to sit together in groupings of family or friends are given a third area as an option.
Practices will vary from church to church, but most churches will want to determine who will help in the following categories:
Meal Preparation: Including determination of size of purchases, the actual purchasing, advance preparation, cooking, and serving for the Love Feast.
Table Settings: This should include determination of what constitutes a place setting, including plates and spoons and forks if needed, which items should be cleaned ahead of time, which should be purchased ahead of time, who will do such things as fold napkins and place settings on tables, and who will put up tables and take them down afterwards. Some will consider candles to include on the table.
Cleanup Crew: Determine who will be cleaning up the facilities before and after the love feast.
Bread and Cup: Determine who will do the purchasing for and preparation of the communion bread, and which recipe will be used. Also, determine who will purchase the grape juice and/or wine (depending on local custom).
Arrangements for Feetwashing: Preparations should be made for rooms, towels, drop cloths, chairs, wash tubs, and arrangements for hand washing afterwards.
Preparing The Congregation In Advance For The Sights And Sounds Of The Feetwashing And Love Feast
Persons finding themselves in a new country, or even just an unfamiliar part of their own land, fear that innocent actions will embarrass them. It is always helpful to have a guide who can clue you in to the local customs before you make a mistake.
For many people the church is a foreign country. Many are unfamiliar with the practices of their local church, imagining that strange rituals await them. They are unsure if they should stand, sit, or kneel.
The way of the cross is a difficult one, and in the full communion service we call others to something with the strange name of Love Feast and the stranger and more threatening name of Feetwashing. It is important to acquaint the membership with what happens at feetwashing and Love Feast, and just as important to let those familiar with the service from another congregation know that this particular church practices the ordinance.
Well before the service is held, or even announced, church leaders would be wise to contact the families closest to individual new members and arrange a joint visit to talk about the service, and to make a special invitation to observe and participate. It is important to emphasize this particular ordinance not as an innovation, but an ancient rite practiced in obedience to the command of Jesus to do this in his memory.
In addition, the minister should prepare sermons and newsletter meditations in advance on the subject which explain why communion will be celebrated in this manner, and what it will look like.
Communion Bread Recipe
10 cups unsifted flour
1 pound butter
1/2 pint whipping cream
1 pint half and half
1/2 teaspoon salt
Mix dry ingredients, cut in butter. Add liquid and mix to make medium dough. Knead thirty minutes. Roll dough to thickness of ruler, on baking pans, into rectangles about twelve inches by eight inches. Use knife to cut sections one inch wide by six inches in length. Score with three-pronged fork.
Bake at 375 degrees for 25-30 minutes. Bread should remain pale in color.
After bread is baked turn upside down on cloth. Fold over extra cloth and cover until cool. When time to use break into pieces one inch by six inches.
Alternate Recipe For Communion Bread
6 cups flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 pound butter
1/2 pound whipping cream.
Sift flour and mix with sugar in a large bowl. Cut in butter until it forms a fine meal-like texture. Stir in whipping cream. Mixture will be very stiff and crumbly. Divide into four parts and knead thirty minutes on a lightly floured board. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spread dough evenly about 3/8-inch thick on two flat cookie sheets. Score into 3/4-inch squares and prick each section with fork tines. Reduce oven temperature to 300 degrees when cookie sheets are put in. Bake at least one hour (will not look done as it does not brown). Cut immediately along scored lines into double sections.
Agape Meal Instructions
(For Love Feast beginning around 7:00 p.m.)
The day before the Love Feast order twenty pounds of boneless chuck roasts, cut in two-pound pieces.
Morning of Communion: Tables and chairs are set up. The communion bread is made. The tables settings are set out. Three or four slices of white bread are broken up in each white enamel communion bowl (one lid and one bowl per table). Lid is placed on bowl and set aside until the evening.
Cooking of Meat: Use hot water to clean the kettle.
2:00 p.m. Put two gallons of cold water in kettle. Put on the lid. Turn up the heat and leave it this way until you see steam coming out around the lid. Add meat and continue to boil.
2:30 p.m. (approximately) Turn down the heat and let the meat simmer. (Be sure heat is high enough to have some steam always coming out around the lid.)
4:30 p.m. Check meat, continue cooking on low heat until 5:30 p.m.
5:30 p.m. Add 1/2 gallon of water, 1/3 cup salt, 1 teaspoon pepper. Turn up the heat until the broth boils again and then turn down to simmer.
6:00 p.m. Selected individuals lay out platters with strawberries, grapes, cut carrots, slices of apples or slices of bananas with the peeling still in place, pitted olives, sliced kiwi fruit, and whatever else is deemed appropriate. Keep dietary requirements of members in mind as you prepare these platters.
6:45 p.m. Take up meat into two stainless steel pans from the kitchen. Put the broth in two aluminum bowls from the kitchen. Now put pieces of beef on top of the broken bread in the bowls and then fill each bowl half full of broth. Put on the lids and they are ready for the tables.
7:00 p.m. Ready to serve.
Preparation For Feetwashing
The following supplies should be prepared for the feetwashing.
1) Large aprons
2) Foot tubs
3) Hand towels
4) Disinfectant
5) Hand basins
6) Soap
7) Candles for tables
A foot tub and a hand basin should be set at the head of every table. A cake of soap can be placed on its wrapper next to the hand basin. A little disinfectant can be poured in the foot tubs. An apron and towel can be folded and placed at each end of the table, so that fresh aprons and towels can be used when half the people at a table have washed feet.
About fifteen minutes before the service is scheduled to begin, tubs should be filled with hot water, disinfectant should be added, and the candles should be lighted. Each table should have a leader sitting next to a basin, where feetwashing will begin. Try to fill up tables completely.
Following the feetwashing (see description in service) someone should be in charge of gathering up towels and taking them home to be washed. All the foot tubs and hand basins should be rinsed and cleaned in an appropriate place and left to dry, and later put away in storage for the next service.
In most places men sit at one set of tables and women at another, but in some churches men and women who wish to sit together in groupings of family or friends are given a third area as an option.
