Eucharist will be served at the Presbyterian Center
By Paula R. Kincaid, The Layman Online, February 26, 2001
LOUISVILLE – A weekly service that includes the celebration of the Eucharist will be held at the Presbyterian Center, the headquarters of the Presbyterian Church (USA) beginning with the season of Lent.
The Congregational Ministries Division Committee has endorsed a plan that will allow the celebration of the Eucharist following a liturgy consistent with the Directory of Worship and supervised by the Office of Theology and Worship, which prepared the proposal.
The General Assembly approves when and where the Eucharist can be served.
A memo from the Office of Theology and Worship said it “laments the fact that Eucharist is celebrated so infrequently in our churches, and yearns for a richer expression of the integral unity of Word and Sacrament.”
To address this deficit, the Office of Theology and Worship proposes celebrating Eucharist weekly “as a service for the whole Church, locally and nationally.”
The service will be presided over by parish pastors, and all Presbyterians in the area will be invited to participate.
“We would publicize this initiative locally and nationally so that Presbyterian and non-Presbyterian Christians alike would know that, when they visit the Center, the nurture of the Table awaits them,” the memo stated.
The service will be simple and include a reading of the previous Lord’s Day lections and a brief homily by the leader. It will be designed to last 30 minutes.
“One of the salutary effects of this gathering would be to establish a concrete, regular point at which area churches may participate in the life of the Center,” the memo stated.