The diocesan online worship services will offer communion on the fourth Sunday of the month for the remainder of the year, on September 27, October 25, and November 22. (The December Eucharist will be available for the 24th/25th. Details on December services will follow at a later date.) Communion in this manner will likely continue into 2021.
The other three Sundays of the month will continue to be Ante Communion (The Liturgy of the Word) services as they have been. The diocesan services are each Sunday at 10 a.m. at the Diocesan YouTube Channel and at Facebook.com/DioFW.
This communion service has been carefully planned in consultation with Bishop Scott Mayer, not only theologically, but also logistically, in order to keep everyone safe in this time of Covid-19.
While two different churches — St. Luke’s in the Meadow, Fort Worth, and St. Stephen’s, Hurst — are helping make this Eucharist happen, these Eucharists are open to all who wish to participate.
How it will work
Early in the week, the altar guilds at St. Luke’s and at St. Stephen’s will prepare communion kits for those households who have notified them they wish to take communion. Wearing masks and gloves, they will place wafers in a small paper envelope, then put that envelope inside a zip lock bag along with an instruction sheet. The prepared bags will be placed in the offering basket, where they will remain untouched for three days.
Then the priests will consecrate the bread at the church altars at St. Luke’s and St. Stephen’s. Keeping safety as a top priority, they, too, will be masked and will only touch the basket during the Eucharistic prayer.
Decide at which location you will pick up your wafers. To ensure that enough wafers are consecrated at each location, please email that priest to let her how many wafers you will be picking up at the assigned times below:
- If you are picking up wafers at St. Luke’s in the Meadow, 4301 Meadowbrook, Fort Worth, TX 76103, please let the Rev. Karen Calafat know by the third Sunday of each month HOW MANY WAFERS you will pick up OR if you need to arrange an alternative pick-up time. Email her at karen.calafat@edotn.org. Wafer pick-up at St. Luke’s is on the Friday prior to the 4th Sunday between 9:00-10:30 a.m. in the church parking lot. (This is before 4Saints begins food distribution). For example, the pickup date at St. Luke’s for Sunday, September 27, is Friday, September 25.
- If you are picking up wafers at St. Stephen’s, 463 W. Harwood Rd, Hurst, TX, 76054, please let the Rev. Allison Sandlin Liles know by the third Sunday of each month HOW MANY
WAFERS you will pick up OR if you need to arrange an alternative pick-up time. Email her atAllison.liles@edotn.org. Wafer pick-up at St. Stephen’s is on the Saturday prior to the 4th Sunday between 10 and noon at the church parking lot. For example, the pickup date at St. Stephen’s for Sunday, September 27, is Saturday, September 26.
These are consecrated wafers, so they must be treated with care and respect, and kept in a safe location in your home until ready to be consumed.
Taking communion
On those fourth Sundays, take part in the 10:00 am service on the Diocesan YouTube Channel or at Facebook.com/DioFW from your home. A priest will celebrate the Eucharist in the usual live streamed service from St Luke’s in the Meadow. When it is time to take communion the service will look much as it always has:
THE BREAKING OF THE BREAD
Priest Alleluia. Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.
People Therefore let us keep the feast. Alleluia.
THE INVITATION TO HOLY COMMUNION
Priest The Gifts of God for the People of God. Take them in remembrance that Christ died for you, and feed on him in your hearts by faith with thanksgiving.
If you have a consecrated host at home, please join us in sharing communion at this time.
At this time, if alone, serve communion to yourself. If with other family members or housemates, take turns serving the wafers to one another, saying, “The Body of Christ, the bread of heaven. ” The person receiving the wafer replies, “Amen.”
If you do not have a consecrated host at home, you will be invited to join in by sharing spiritual communion with the following prayer:
In union, O Lord, with the faithful of your Church where the Holy Eucharist is now being celebrated, we desire to offer you praise and thanksgiving. We present to you our souls and bodies with the earnest wish that we may always be united to you. And since we cannot now receive you sacramentally, we beseech you to come spiritually into our hearts. We unite ourselves with you and embrace you with all the love of our souls. Let nothing ever separate you from us. May we live in you, and may you live in us, both in this life and in the life to come. Amen.
The rest of the service continues as always.
Maps to the pickup locations