This Sunday is a celebratory day in churches around the world. May this liturgy remind you that every Sunday is World Communion Sunday.
Invitation to the Table
Friends, this is the joyful feast of unity. Christ calls us all to this table, to share in a meal that binds us with the faithful around the world. At this table, all are welcome. At this table, Christ is the host. At this table, it is always a day of World Communion.
So come to this table, and bring all of who you are. Come to this table, and find a piece of who God is. Come to this table, and be nourished in body and in spirit.
Great Prayer of Thanksgiving
The Lord be with you.
And also with you.
Lift up your hearts.
We lift them up to the Lord.
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right to give God thanks and praise.
It is with great joy that we praise you, Oh God, joining our voices with your faithful people around the world. We give thanks for who you are, for who you have been, for you who you promise forever to be. From the very beginning—from before there was a beginning—you have been a God of abundance–of abundant creation, overflowing grace, and bountiful love. You create all things good, you lovingly shape people—male and female—in your image, and you graciously keep your covenant with us, even when we turn away. When your desert people cried out to you in hunger and in thirst, you gave them bread from heaven and brought water from the rock. When your desperate people cry out to you in humility and in faith, you wash us in abounding grace and bring peace from our chaos. Since the time of the prophets, you have spoken holy words through ordinary people; created holy spaces in ordinary places.
In your holy trinity, you pattern our community—many people in one covenant, one spirit, one baptism. You love us when we are unlovable, you empower us when we are powerless, you forgive us when we cannot forgive ourselves.
Therefore we praise you, joining our voices with the faithful of every time and place, who forever sing to the glory of your name:
Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might, heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is the One who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.
In your son Jesus Christ, your love became tangible; he ate with outcasts, taught with passion, lived with risk, and was executed by his own people. His resurrection is the content of our hope. Where there is death, life. Where there is despair, hope. Where there is darkness, holy light. Where there light, holy darkness.
Great is the mystery of faith:
Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.
Pour out your Holy Spirit upon us, O God, and upon these gifts of bread and wine, that they may be for us the life of Christ and that we may be the body of Christ. Fill this space, this table, these people, with your Holy Spirit, and move us to know you in every space, every table, every people. May this meal nourish us that we may love as you love, serve as Christ served, and rejoice with thanksgiving for your Spirit in our midst.
We join our voices with the church of all ages by praying the prayer that Jesus taught us, saying, Our father…
Words of Institution
On the night of his arrest, Jesus shared a meal with friends. He took common bread, and he broke it, and he gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, given for you. Take. Eat. Do this in remembrance of me.”
In the same way, he took the cup, and said, “This cup is the new covenant sealed in my blood, shed for you and for the forgiveness of sins. Whenever you drink of it, do so in remembrance of me. “
Whenever we eat this bread and drink this cup, we proclaim the life, death, and resurrection of our Lord until he comes again. These are the gifts of God for you, the people of God.
Communion of the People
And also with you. 