Is it okay to take the Lords Supper alone?

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I belong to a church I really like. However the pastor is very lax in doing the Lords supper. Sometimes we'll go 2 to 3 months before (we) have communion. Last time we had communion was because I said something. This said, rather than "waiting", can I do my own Lords supper at home and participate when our pastor gets around to having (it) at church?

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@curieux,

The Lord's supper is a commemoration of Jesus' instituting the New Covenant. It took place on the Passover in the year 33 C.E.. Since it replaced the Passover, why would it be celebrated more often than the original?

If you feel the need to celebrate it by yourself, find on the Hebrew calendar the 14th day of the month of Nisan. Nisan begins on the new moon closest to the spring equinox. The 14th would be March 23 in 2016. It's always a full moon.

Hope that helps.

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@curieux,

You certainly cannot take Lord´s supper alone.
Lord´s Supper is a sacrament and that should be done by a pastor or priest.
You can harly bless yourself and give yourself God´s grace .
Nor do you have the blessed wine or bread at home except if you have stolen it out of the church.
There have been traditions is certain churches to have holy communion only at Christmas and Easter and a few more times.
Talk to your pastor about it. He has a reason for this.

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@saab,

I should maybe add that the sacraments vary a bit in the Catholic Church, the Orthodox and Lutheran church but for all following sacrements are the same.
Baptism, Lord´s Supper, Confirmation and Wedding.
None of these you can do on your own .

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@curieux,

curieux wrote:

I belong to a church I really like. However the pastor is very lax in doing the Lords supper. Sometimes we'll go 2 to 3 months before (we) have communion. Last time we had communion was because I said something. This said, rather than "waiting", can I do my own Lords supper at home and participate when our pastor gets around to having (it) at church?

It would be helpful to know the denomination to which you belong. Clearly, you're a Protestant. I can deduce that because it's simply inconceivable that a Catholic priest would omit communion from the mass. And, besides, Catholics don't call their priests "pastors."

Since you're a Protestant, my initial reaction would be: "do whatever the hell you want - that's what being a Protestant is all about." But it sounds like you actually take this religion thing seriously, so you'd need to determine your particular denomination's attitude toward communion. It could very well be that you belong to a sect that is doctrinally noncommittal or even opposed to communion as a sacrament (there are quite a few of those). If that's the case, and if it's that important to you, you might have to choose between the church that you like and the the ritual that you insist upon.

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@joefromchicago,

I'm still scratching my head over the term 'Lord's supper', It's been called Communion as far back I can find. Never Lord's supper.

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@glitterbag,

The Lord´s Supper seems to be mostly used by Baptist. So if you have little or nothing to do with them you would not have heard it.
I have in connection with some old Lutherans in USA

Those mentioned below in relation to the term "Eucharist" rarely use the expression "the Lord's Supper", but it is the predominant term among Baptist groups,

Eucharist" is the name still used by Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Catholics, Anglicans, Presbyterians, and Lutherans.

Communion or Holy Communion are used by some groups originating in the Protestant Reformation

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The emblems used for the "Lord's Supper" are exactly the same as those used by Jesus at the last Passover: unleavened bread and unfortified red wine. And, whle persons in prison or enforced isolation may have celebrated the Passover, such circumstances, though permissable, would be rare today.

I reject the idea that a specially ordained priest or minister would be necessary. Neither Jesus nor any of the early Christians had any priestly training. In fact Acts 4:13 describe how the pharisees marvelled over their being ordinary.

It should be noted that the Passover meal was not eaten until after sundown. Most of the additions to and digressions from the celebration of the New Covenant can be traced to the apostasy that slithered into the congregation after the death of John and particularly in the time of Constatine.

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@saab,

My husband was raised Baptist and my cousin Howard was a Baptist minister. I was raised as a Catholic, and since Communion is an essential element of celebrating mass I would argue that the Protestants didn't think it up on their own.

I suspect 'the Lord's supper' is a more recent addition to the terminology Baptists favor. All Churches make subtle changes over the long haul, they don't tamper with core beliefs but they do update their terminology if they think something more modern will be more easily understood and accepted by new members.

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@glitterbag,

The "good book" needs to be revised with the times. The age of the earth was one of the first ones.

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@cicerone imposter,

cicerone imposter wrote:

The "good book" needs to be revised with the times. The age of the earth was one of the first ones.

An intelligent reading of Genesis allows an indefinite time for creation. So, your statement is just another straw man.

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@cicerone imposter,

Just pack a lunch and go to Santa Maria delle Grazie.

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@cicerone imposter,

How old earth is according to the Bible you cannot take litteraly and very few do.
If you read further and notice how earth was created nothing, water, fish animals and the last we human beings.
It is a story but how could people thousands of years ago be so close to reality that amazes me.

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@saab,

To be fair, it's a little more complicated than that:

Quote:

1:24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.
1:25 And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

Compared to:

Quote:

2:18 And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.
2:19 And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.
2:20 And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.
2:21 And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;
2:22 And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.

http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb192/DinahFyre/dunno_1.gif

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@FBM,

This is how I learned it . And that is why I find it fashinating that people thousands of years ago were thinking in a way - even if there are differences - which modern scientists can prove is correct.
Day 1. God seperates the light and the darkness and calls the light day and the darkness night
Day 2 God seperates water on earth i two pieces and something God calls sky or heaven seperates them (the swedish word can mean both sky and heaven
Day 3 God creates the dry land and on the dry land God creates all things that can grow
Day 4 God creates the sun, the moon and the stars to tell time, days andyears
Day 5 God creates all animal living in water and all birds after their kind
Day 6 God created the animal living on land wild animal, domesticated animals and creeping animals after their kind
And at last God creates the humna being in jis own image
Day 7 God rests from his work of creation and blesses the seventh day

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@neologist,

neologist wrote:

The emblems used for the "Lord's Supper" are exactly the same as those used by Jesus at the last Passover: unleavened bread and unfortified red wine.

A stained window (by an unknown artist around 1500 A.D) in a nearby church (the Wiesenkirche [St. Mary in the Meadows] in Soest) shows the Last Supper complete with boar's head, beer in large tankards, ham and pumpernickel.

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@saab,

I vaguely recall growing up hearing both versions, but never thinking about the fact that they contradict each other. Nobody else mentioned it, either. Just curious: How do you reconcile the fact that two contradictory stories are in Genesis?

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@FBM,

Two witnesses often see things differently and when a story is told to others and sometimes over generations it hardly ever come out the same way.
I read the two versions and look at what people want to tell me without getting upset about the details.
It is a beautiful story.You can read it, tell it, make lovely paintings about it, tell god jokes about Adam and Eve.
On the other hand we have the scientific proof that things went differently.
How often is the scientific story told as nice story, or how many paintings have been made about the big bang?
As a child I loved the sories about the Nordic Gods and how the earth was created in that version. I made lots of drawings of all the gods and Valhalla and the good food they were eating and drinking. I was around 8-10
In the Norse mythology we have the Midgard Serpent which certainly was not a nice creature.
I think it is interesting that people far up north and far down south both have an evil serpent. These peoples probably never heard about one another.

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@saab,

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@saab,

What I have observed is the fact that different cultures created different gods. It seems to me that humans have a need for gods; some superpower that created 'all of it.'

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Is it okay to take the Lords Supper alone?

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