The Bread

[Rich Koster]

What kind of bread does your congregation serve for communion?
How is it distributed?

 

[Tripel]

We use an unleavened bread, similar to pie crust. Distributed in small squares.

 

[KMK]

We mix it up.

 

[Rev. Todd Ruddell]

We use a loaf of common bread, usually home made by a member of the congregation. It is broken in the presence of the congregation then distributed around the table.

 

[Martin]

Hawaiian Sweet Bread. You break it off from the loaf yourself.

 

[Joseph Scibbe]

My church uses a pita like bread. I think this is the best one I have seen. I disdain the little crackers.

 

[Rich Koster]

We mix it up.

Is that a variety of anything from matzoh to pumpernickel or a more limited variety?

 

[Wayne]

Covenant PCA here in St. Louis uses a sort of shortbread. I once found an interesting quote along that line from some Scottish Presbyterian who said they used shortbread because they wanted to use their best.

 

[Joseph Scibbe]

We mix it up.

Is that a variety of anything from matzoh to pumpernickel or a more limited variety?

I think mostly Jewish Rye....

 

[Skyler]

Matzoh.

Although I think we've done tortillas in the past.

 

[Backwoods Presbyterian]

We use a Pita-type of bread that a lady in the congregation has made for thirty years. We distribute it in the "normal" plates that most congregations use and take it corporately.

 

[Herald]

What kind of bread does your congregation serve for communion?
How is it distributed?

Matzoh. The elders pass it out by row.

 

[Skyler]

Oh, I forgot to mention distribution--we line up in a circle around the sanctuary and pass it along, letting each person get their germs on it as they tear off a chunk.

 

[MarieP]

My church uses a pita like bread. I think this is the best one I have seen. I disdain the little crackers.

My church uses pita bread as well. Once, we used a slightly different kind of pita bread. I've been to a church that uses Hawaiian rolls (it was a church largely made up of Filipinos).

I also loathe the little crackers (hopefully that isn't sacrilegious)- they're nothing but air and they stick in your teeth! The Lord's Supper was meant to be tasted!

As for the discussion of unleavened versus leavened, I heard a really good argument once that the disciples used unleavened bread, but that's what they had on hand because it was the Passover. It doesn't mean all churches must use unleavened bread.

As for the cup, we use those small plastic communion cups. Ours sometimes can have a little rough edge to it. I have to remind myself of this, lest I taste blood and consider becoming a Catholic! (don't worry, that's never happened).

Then there was the time our grape juice was a little....aged. Hope that happens again soon...

 

[jawyman]

We get our bread from Panera. Whatever they are going to throw-out on a Saturday night we use Sunday morning for communion.

 

[Scottish Lass]

Two of our members make unleavened bread at home. They make one piece that Tim breaks and distributes as a common loaf and they also make small squares from the rest of the dough for individual pieces. I think Tim and I are the only ones who take from the common piece, though.

We get our bread from Panera. Whatever they are going to throw-out on a Saturday night we use Sunday morning for communion.

I like that.

 

[Rich Koster]

I have been to several congregations and they have done it a little differently in each of them. This is what prompted me to ask the questions.

We use a soft crusted loaf. It is broken before the congregation as the scripture is being read. It is then placed on two platters and brought to each row, where we break off a piece and pass it on.

 

[Andres]

We use a soft crusted loaf. It is broken before the congregation as the scripture is being read. It is then placed on two platters and brought to each row, where we break off a piece and pass it on.

We do something very similar to this. I think it's important that the bread be visibly broken and I think it's important that the congregation partake from the one loaf as we are unified as one body in Christ. I would actually prefer we share one cup of wine too (no juice), but we pass the little glass cups for the wine. Reading The Lord's Supper:Eternal Word in Broken Bread by Robert Letham did much for my understanding of the sacrament, including specifics on how the actual Supper is done.

 

[Peairtach]

There are lots of bread threads - or threads about breads - already if you're interested.

 

[Rich Koster]

Thanks Richard. However, I'm doing this to get a global sampling to satisfy a personal curiosity. I'm looking to see if there is a preference in certain cultures or denominations. I'm looking to avoid debate about the bread used and how it is distributed and just take a survey without pre-selected boxes to check, because I suspected a large variation.

 

[raekwon]

A number of different types, but communion with Hawaiian sweet bread is my favorite.

A pastor and someone else (usually an elder) each hold half of the loaf while folks file up and tear their piece off and dip it into the wine. (Please, no one turn this into an intinction thread. There are enough.)

 

[Jack K]

My church uses the unleavened cracker squares. When we first started attending it was large French loaves and we'd each break off a piece. I don't know if they switched for the sake of cost/convenience, dirty fingers, or because someone made a case for unleavened being more appropriate. I've never asked, though I personally think leavened is preferred. (Plenty of threads on that already, too.)

 

[Joseph Scibbe]

We come an take the pre cut bread from a basket and dip it into either wine or juice and eat. (Again, please no intiction arguing)

 

[KMK]

We use a loaf of common bread, usually home made by a member of the congregation. It is broken in the presence of the congregation then distributed around the table.

We mix it up.

Is that a variety of anything from matzoh to pumpernickel or a more limited variety?

We do the same as Rev Ruddell. So far no matzoh or pumpernickel.

 

[Gage Browning]

We pre-tear ups a common loaf, and then put it in the plates for sharing. We go up to the chancel (the front for all my baptist friends as families and are ministered to by the pastors and elders.

 

[dudley]

We use a loaf of common bread, usually home made by a member of the congregation. It is broken in the presence of the congregation then distributed around the table.

I think this is the way the Lords Supper should be memorialized. I wish more congregations followed this style and around the table.

 

[Edward]

Commercially sold communion wafers.

 

[Peairtach]

The imagery of avoiding the evil leaven of Egypt has given way to the imagery of feasting on the nourishing and filling and satisfying body of Christ which in the symbol is bread which contains the good leaven of the promised Land.

Leaven doesn't always = "bad" or "evil" in Scripture. The leaven of Egypt/the immoral World is bad. The leaven of the Land/the Heavenly Eschatalogical Kingdom that with Christ has entered this world, is good. It represents growth and expansion from small beginnings, whether that is good or bad growth.

Christ was the first fruits of the good leaven of the Heavenly Eschatalogical Kingdom, not the bad leaven of the World that lies in the wicked one. The good leaven of Christ's Kingdom is progressively leavening the world:

And again he said, "To what shall I compare the kingdom of God? It is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, until it was all leavened."(Luke 13:20-21)

"Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land that I give you and reap its harvest, you shall bring the sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest, and he shall wave the sheaf before the LORD, so that you may be accepted. On the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it. And on the day when you wave the sheaf, you shall offer a male lamb a year old without blemish as a burnt offering to the LORD and the grain offering with it shall be two tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil, a food offering to the LORD with a pleasing aroma, and the drink offering with it shall be of wine, a fourth of a hin. And you shall eat neither bread nor grain parched or fresh until this same day, until you have brought the offering of your God: it is a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. You shall count seven full weeks from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering. You shall count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath. Then you shall present a grain offering of new grain to the LORD. You shall bring from your dwelling places two loaves of bread to be waved, made of two tenths of an ephah. They shall be of fine flour, and they shall be baked with leaven, as firstfruits to the LORD. (Lev 23:10-17, ESV)

This points to Christ's resurrection and the beginning of the New Covenant Church on the Day of Pentecost. The good nourishing leaven of Christ and His Church and Kingdom has superseded the bad leaven of the world under the Evil One.

Therefore - to the extent that getting the form of the Lord's Supper right is important - a good quality leavened bread with plenty of body should be used In my humble opinion.

Our congregation uses pre-cut little squares, which I think is less than ideal. You should be able to break off a substantial morsel as desired.

In many ways the state of our hearts at the Lord's Table is more important than form - e.g. have we cleansed ourselves of the bad leaven of our wicked hearts and are we approaching the Table in faith, repentance and new obedience, are we at peace with our brothers, etc? - but getting form right isn't unimportant, as in its teaching it impinges on our hearts, apart from anything else.

 

[C. M. Sheffield]

We use unleavened bread that I make at home and my deacons distribute the elements to the church in their seats.