Family Communion

The second family service happened by accident. It was meant to be a regular service but Sunday school take a well earned rest through August and there was no one to cover. The rota said the service was around the theme of education and it was communion.

I made the reluctant decision to make it a family service (I really struggle with family services) and I ditched education and centred in on the last supper.

For me a family service needs to be short, simple in message and in short snippets. That way you have a hope of engaging people and people are not there long enough to want to kill the children. As a parent I struggle with family services which are really traditional services with an extra bit for the kids. I just end up yelling at my children in hushed tones (a must ability for any parent) and praying it will end soon.

My trepidation around this service was that I was to let the children administer the communion. I didn't know how that would go down. I never know how things like that will turn out.

I set some tables at the front of the church and got the children to act out the last supper at the front. We then got two of the children to stay at the table and invited the community to come up and sit and receive the bead and wine from them at the table. When there was a space then we asked that someone else should come and take their place and receive.

The effect of the children serving in this way was incredible frankly. I am sure that the kids did not fully understand what they were doing (not least because one of them was my son and I asked him about it later). However the gravitas of the event seemed to get hold of them so they served with a seriousness which went beyond their ages of 7 and 8 years. This meant that those coming to the table were served this most incredible meal by those that are our smallest and most vulnerable. In this meal the children became those serving, administering, those blessing those that arrived at the table. There was an innocence about the children acting in this way and with such childlike maturity that it seemed the table did actually become the Lord's.

While it was happening I couldn't work out if what I felt was because my Son was presiding or because this was of God. I later heard from others that they felt God with them. With the children in this role, a family service was occurring that had brought Jesus into the centre.

I am still pondering this service. I am still going over it because there have been too few times that I have celebrated this feast so fully and so thankfully.