Dear Friends:

In the latest issue of Friends' Journal there is an article, featured on the cover, called 'Quaker Communion' by Bruce Neumann.  The author writes, 'for many years, I harbored a rather untypical Quaker longing.  Occasional oblique comments to other Friends didn't seem to engender interest, so I held the longing to myself . . . the longing was to share communion with a small group of other Quakers, after the fashion of Friends.'

Eventually the author, through connections with the School of the Spirit, and other Friends, was able to find a small number of Friends who felt similarly drawn to Quaker Communion.

I was uplifted and delighted by this simple article because I have had such a leading myself.  Beginning late in 2011, I began to feel a strong attraction to the idea of taking Communion.  But I didn't want to do it in a way that is dependent on a priesthood.  I wanted to do it in the manner of Quakers.  But that is the difficulty as Quakers are noted for not taking communion.

What to do?

I decided to begin taking communion on my own.  I integrated a very simple commnion service into my morning prayers.  I read the passage from 1 Corinthians relevant to communion, partake of bread and grape juice, and conclude with the Lord's Prayer.

I have found taking communion on a daily basis, as part of my overall morning prayers, to be richly rewarding.  Still, I hoped to finding other Quakers who have a similar leading.  And that is why I found the article in Friends' Journal so encouraging. 

I brought the article to the attention of my Meeting and reactions covered a wide range; all the way from not liking the idea at all to finding the idea of a simple Quaker Communion Service to be something attractive.  It didn't surprise me that there would be this range of reaction.  I was only pleased to discover that there are others who find the idea possibly efficacious.

So I would like to recommend the article to Quakers in general.  I think it is thoughtful and opens up a possibility for Quaker Faith and Practice which, I think, is a new direction.  By 'new direction' I mean new for unprogrammed Quakers.  It's not new for Christianity.  And here I would like to close by pointing out that Quakers thought of themselves as 'primitive Christianity revived.'  And there is a lot of truth to that view.  But in some ways I think Quakers may have, at times, thrown the baby out with the bathwater.  There is a lot of evidence for communion going all the way back to the very earliest Christian communities.  Paul notes communion service in 1 Corinthians (about 50 AD) and says he had received this service from others.  Communion is noted in Matthew, Mark, and Luke.  It is also noted in the 'Didache', a very early non-canonical work which appears to have been one of the first, perhaps the first, manual for those entering the nascent Church.  I am suggesting that communion is part of 'primitive Christianity' and that practicing communion can assist in connecting with that era.

Thy Friend Jim