Communion table meaning

Noun: communion table

Communion table meaning:

• The table in Christian churches where communion is given

Synonyms: altar, Lord’s table
Derived forms: communion tables

Quotations:

1. Mina Loy – We might have coupled in the bed-ridden monopoly of a moment or broken flesh with one another at the profane communion table where wine is spill’d on promiscuous lips we might have given birth to a butterfly with the daily-news printed in blood on its wings.
2. Mike Slaughter – Unfortunately, many of us start that journey with enthusiasm but fail to sustain it. Our faith goes on cruise control as we start seeking comfort and not a calling. It doesn’t help that too often in our churches we pigeonhole Jesus safely behind the altar rails and communion tables of our tame religious traditions, teaching people to revere Jesus instead of following Jesus sacrificially every day in the trenches of life. Jesus call is not to revere; his call is to follow. When we do so, reverence will naturally result.
3. Thomas McKenzie – Sacraments   I once met a man whom I’ll call Steve. He grew up in a nondenominational charismatic church. He was a highly motivated, highly talented individual. He was also a strong leader and an excellent communicator. Given his personality and gifting, it’s no surprise that he became the pastor of a successful independent church. His life seemed to be going great until the day he discovered that his wife was having an affair with one of his best friends. The situation got worse when his church fired him for not being able to control his family. Unemployed, going through a divorce, and cut off from the community that had always surrounded him, a friend invited Steve to join him at an Anglican church. There he discovered the power of liturgy and the mystery of the communion table. Steve didn’t have the kind of spiritual life he had always relied on. Nothing about God made any sense to him. He couldn’t sing praise songs, he couldn’t read the Bible, he couldn’t even pray. But he could eat.   Steve’s mind needed answers. His heart needed to be comforted. His soul needed grace. Sermons weren’t giving him answers and praise music wasn’t comforting, but the body of Christ was feeding his inner self. Steve discovered that God was real to him when he ate and drank Holy Communion. Even though Steve was at the lowest point of his life, a time when he could do nothing to help himself, he was still able to receive the sacrament.

Sample sentences:

1. Grape juice at the communion table symbolizes the historical impotence of Christ’s blood, Christ’s gospel, Christ’s church, and Christ’s expanding kingdom. Grape juice stays bottled up, confined to the historical skins of Palestine.
2. As I watch my priest lay the communion table for the gathered believers, I remember why eating attentively is worth all the effort: The table is not only a place where we can become present to God. The table is also a place where He becomes present to us.
3. Whatever men please to think or say, the Romish doctrine of the real presence if pursued to its legitimate consequences obscures every leading doctrine of the gospel and damages and interferes with the whole system of Christ’s truth. Grant for a moment that the Lord’s Supper is a sacrifice and not a Sacrament, grant that every time the words of consecration are used the natural body and blood of Christ are present on the communion table under the forms of bread and wine, grant that everyone who eats that consecrated bread and drinks that consecrated wine does really eat and drink the natural body and blood of Christ, grant for a moment these things and then see what momentous consequences result from these premises. You spoil the blessed doctrine of Christ’s finished work when He died on the cross. A sacrifice that needs to be repeated is not a perfect or complete thing. You spoil the priestly office of Christ. If there are priests that can offer an acceptable sacrifice to God besides Him, the great High Priest is robbed of His glory. You spoil the scriptural doctrine of the Christian ministry. You exalt sinful men into the position of mediators between God and man. You give to the sacramental elements of bread and wine an honor and veneration they were never meant to receive. You produce an idolatry to be abhorred by faithful Christians. Last but not least, you overthrow the true doctrine of Christ’s human nature. If the body born of the Virgin Mary can be in more places than one at the same time, it is not a body like our own and Jesus was not the last Adam in the truth of our nature.
4. Nine candles flickered at the Communion table near the pulpit. “These candles are lit in memory of these nine individuals.
5. When these blacks approached the communion table, however, some white persons seriously objected, inquiring whether it was possible that slaves should go to heaven anyway.
6. The sacred edifice was far-famed for its magnificent yew trees, and for the position of the communion table in the centre.
7. A stone screen, erected before the communion table, in 1461, is much admired for the richness and lightness of its sculpture.
8. Is it not spiritual effrontery to despoil a man, then invite him to the communion table?
9. Mason heard him mutter something under his breath, and knew at once that the use of his reading-desk and Communion table had struck home.
10. They laid it, bleeding, in front of the little communion table at which they had so recently celebrated the Lord’s Supper.
11. There were sweet flowers, he remembered, upon the Communion Table, and on the organ.
12. The cloth of the communion table is elegantly wrought in silk, by Mrs. Abigail, who employed seven years in completing it.
13. The centrally placed communion tables were to be placed at the east end within railings and called “altars”, or “mercy seats” as if for mass.
14. It was subsequently removed in a steamer to Quebec, where it was interred close to the communion table in the Anglican Cathedral.
15. His remains were interred on the following Friday in the chancel of Rugby chapel, immediately under the communion table.
16. Further, all bowing at the name of Jesus or toward the east end of the church or toward the communion table was forbidden.
17. Before we leave the little edifice, a look into the tower, and a glance under the communion table.
18. “I think it would look strange for a person to be going to the communion table before he was baptized,” said Dorothy.
19. A communion table and a reading desk with a small window on each side of the desk concluded the specified alterations.
20. Altar and communion tables must not be raised but leveled.
21. He made some new regulations in regard to the Communion Table and the Lord’s Supper.
22. Disputes have frequently arisen as to whether the Holy Table was to be called the Communion Table or the Altar.
23. I think, Mr. Garland, that I ought not to go to the communion table until I have been baptized.
24. Mr. Porter offered the prayer of institution, and broke the bread at the communion table.
25. At the Reformation the stone altar was displaced by the communion table, which at first occupied the position vacated by the altar.
26. The communion table has a very handsome cover, with red frontal, elaborately embroidered with old Roman work.
27. The Governor furnished it with a communion table of black walnut and with pews and pulpit of cedar.
28. At the far end of the room were two reading desks and a sort of communion table.
29. Her eyes were fixed upon the old Communion Table, so shadowy in the single lamplight.
30. You believe, do you not, Doctor, that no one ought to come to your communion table who has not first been baptized?