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With in-person worship suspended, we’ve moved to online worship. Join us for music, a short message, and a time for prayer. Join us at 10:30 am. Our platform is Facebook Live on CPC’s public Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/catonsvillepresb/ Facebook membership is not required to access it.

Session has authorized the celebration of the Lord’s Supper this Sunday, which is Pentecost Sunday. This will be our first Online Communion experience together.

The Office of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has given churches the freedom to celebrate the sacrament in this way. You can the read the advisory opinion from J. Herbert Nelson, Stated Clerk of the General Assembly, here. Celebrating the Lord’s Supper online certainly isn’t conventional. And it raises important theological questions about the nature and meaning of the Eucharist within the Reformed tradition. But little about the living of these challenging days is conventional.

On the day we celebrate the presence of the Holy Spirit, the giver and renewer of life, it seems fitting to remember the Spirit’s presence binding the church in one – a church scattered and dispersed, yet still the church, the holy people of God.If you would like to share in Communion from your home this Sunday, here’s what you need to do:

• You will need to prepare elements to use before the service.
• Communion modeled after Jesus’ meal includes bread and wine or grape juice.
• If you don’t have bread or grape juice or wine please select something that is close, for instance a cracker or a tortilla, apple juice or water.
• You may want to bake your own bread for this sacrament.
• Before the service begins you may want to arrange the elements on a paper/cloth napkin or placemat. Maybe light a candle. Think of your kitchen or dining room table can become the Lord’s Table.
• When the time comes in the service – after scripture is read, the Word is proclaimed, the Great Prayer of Thanksgiving is lifted up, and the communion Words of Institution are said – you will be invited to eat some bread and drink from your cup.

The different parts of the Communion liturgy, as provided by the church, through the work of the Holy Spirit, are a gift of grace for us during this time of crisis.

If for any reason, you do not wish to partake of Communion in this way, that is okay also. God’s grace is showered on us in other ways, too.

It’s going to be a very special Pentecost Sunday, with several new elements added to our online experience. You don’t want to miss it. And be sure to wear something red.

The Revised May 31, 2020 – Order of Worship is at this link.