World Communion Sunday

October 5^th, 2025, is World Communion Day. It is observed by several Christian denominations on the first Sunday of every October. The goal is to promote Christian unity, ecumenical cooperation, and to celebrate communion, knowing that you are part of a local church unified with a larger body worldwide.

World Communion Day started in 1933 with the initiative of Hugh Thomson Kerr. He pastored at the Shadyside Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh, PA. I know exactly where this church is, and it is beautiful.  Dr. Kerr first conceived the idea of World Communion Sunday in 1930, as he observed divisions within his own denomination and the church. He attempted to bring churches together in a service of Christian unity, in which everyone might receive both inspiration and information, and, above all, to know how important the Church of Jesus Christ is and how each congregation is interconnected with others.

It was adopted throughout the Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) in 1936 and subsequently spread to other denominations. In 1940, the Federal Council of Churches (now the National Council of Churches) endorsed World Communion Sunday and began promoting it among Christian churches worldwide.

We need a similar call today; maybe it won't reach the world, but I do want it to at least reach us at FBC Massillon.

Photo by Tim Wildsmith on Unsplash

When Jesus gathered the disciples together on Passover, energy had been building all week. They had entered the city of Jerusalem on the Sunday before (Palm Sunday) with the chants of the crowds and the laying of palm branches and clothes in the road. The disciples were sure that this was the week; it was their time. Jesus would proclaim he was the Messiah, and he and his faithful followers would close out the week sitting on thrones in a place of honor. We all know that Holy Week ends in a completely different way. Jesus had told them frequently what would happen, but they really did not listen.

Jesus invites them to share the Passover with him on Thursday. This had to be the night! The Passover meal was a special, family event. Usually, you would gather with your family, as you would for Thanksgiving or Christmas. What would it take to get you to give up your Thanksgiving with family to go and eat with your boss or even your pastor?

The disciples ask Jesus where they should celebrate, and Jesus tells them. Basically, we have rented a room, and someone will cater the event. How nice!  Everyone gathers, the room has energy… Then Jesus says some things that don’t fit the mood.

 When the time came, Jesus and the apostles were sitting at the table. He said to them, “I wanted very much to eat this Passover meal with you before I suffer. I will not eat another Passover meal until it is given its true meaning in the kingdom of God.” Then Jesus took a cup, gave thanks, and said, “Take this cup and share it among yourselves. I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until God’s kingdom comes.” Then Jesus took some bread, gave thanks, broke it, and gave it to the apostles, saying, “This is my body, which I am giving for you. Do this to remember me.” In the same way, after supper, Jesus took the cup and said, “This cup is the new agreement that God makes with his people. This new agreement begins with my blood, which is poured out for you. “But one of you will turn against me, and his hand is with mine on the table. What God has planned for the Son of Man will happen, but how terrible it will be for that one who turns against the Son of Man.”  Then the apostles asked each other which one of them would do that. (Luke 24:14-23)

Wow, the evening took a hard turn very quickly. No one saw any of that coming…except Jesus. Jesus knew what would happen in just a few short hours. Despite all of it, the disciples went on arguing about some of the stuff that they had argued about earlier in the week. Who was the greatest? Who was going to be second in command on Inauguration Day?

Photo by Rey Proenza on Unsplash

Even at this late point, Jesus is still modeling for them an attitude different from the world's. The disciples' reaction is typical. We cannot look at them with disdain or judgment. When we hear bad news, things don’t go our way. We tend to act this way. I know I do. If you have ever had that awkward feeling that what is happening in the room or what you are hearing is not going the way you planned or hoped. I know I want to run away, hide, be left alone.

And in fact, the disciples do that later in the garden. When Jesus is arrested, they run, scatter, and hide. They want to be alone. Jesus knows this is their tendency, and he knows the same for us.

Maybe they thought they wasted the last 3 years of their lives. Perhaps they feared being arrested. Maybe the voices of family and friends, telling them they were fools for leaving their fishing nets or tax-collection business, began ringing in their heads. A sense of embarrassment and shame began to emerge.

This is what communion is for. It reminds us of the New Covenant. It RE-symbolizes some Passover items and gives them new meaning. But it forces us, at the core of our beliefs, not to run off and be alone. It calls us to come together to RE-Member.

Alone and Christianity do not go together. One popular idea in the United States, in particular, is that we do not need a church. I can do it all on my own: my prayers, my devotion, my personal relationship with God (all of which are important). I can do it all on my own. I can find God in a field. I can go out and pray on my own without people around me.  Yet every time I am on Route 30, I look around and never see anyone walking in the fields praying or singing.

Y ou need your church, you need each other. Yes, all of them. Your best friends, the people you respect. And even the ones you don’t particularly like or care for. The ones that annoy you. Yes, Jesus wants you to gather with them, too.

To remember means to put something back together. To dismember something is to take it apart. To RE-member is the opposite. Communion is a time for us to RE-member. To RE-call and RE-cite, but literally for the members to come together again. To RE-Member. The idea has always been that communion is best celebrated not as an individual act but as a community.

Photo by David Goldman on Unsplash

For a few years, there was a trend in the wedding world. Maybe you have seen this. The couple receives communion at a kneeling altar during a wedding service. Eventually, some ministers caught on to the problem. It is not right to serve communion to only the couple. Everyone who is in the room is invited to the table.

Everyone includes you. It is time to RE-member. It is time for you as a member to “Re.” RE-kindle, RE-engage, RE-attend, RE-volunteer, RE-lead. To Re-member.

Have you had moments when you wanted to run off and be alone? Sure, we have all had them. Are there some folks or situations that force you to set aside some things to be in the room with them? Absolutely.

Jesus served the first communion in a room just like that. And He is calling you to return to a room to remember his grace, mercy, and forgiveness in community with other members in the same situation.