I wrote last year about Quakers and Easter, both
what
it can mean from a community perspective, and
what
it can mean from a spiritual perspective. This year, I wish to
reflect on a Christian story that forms part of the Easter narrative,
but which has led to a practice that is undertaken regularly, year
round, by most Christian and derived traditions – though not,
largely speaking, by Quakers (certainly not by those who worshipped
in an unprogrammed manner, and not consistently by those in
programmed traditions). I refer, of course, to the story of the Last
Supper, and the practice of the Eucharist – also known as Holy
Communion, the Lord's Supper, the Blessed Sacrament, Sacrament of the
Altar, the Breaking of Bread (a term which can relate to wider and
older traditions), and other names besides. For those who do not
recognise those terms, this is the symbolic (or more than symbolic,
depending on your denomination) consumption of the body and blood of
Christ – in the form of bread or wafers and wine (or grape juice or
water, depending on denomination) – during the main worship service
in most Christian churches.
