Weekly Communion

*Please Note: We offer three options to receive the bread and the cup.

We practice open communion (also referred to as the Lord’s Supper) on a weekly basis. For us at Altamesa, this is a time in our worship service during which our focus is on Jesus Christ, the forgiveness offered at the cross, and the new life in Christ that we now offer back to God. We do this by partaking of a small piece of bread and a small cup of grape juice as the communion trays are passed down the rows.

Open communion means that we don’t have any restrictions for who can participate in communion. Each person, Altamesa member or guest, can determine for him/herself. There is no pressure or judgment. If you are uncertain, feel free to pass the tray to the next person. However, please consider taking the opportunity to experience the grace and love of God through the presence of Christ by participating in this simple act.

Different churches do communion in different ways. Here's how we do it most of the time at Altamesa. A communion leader will make a short presentation about communion and/or read a scripture and then pray. Servers will come and pass one tray. When you receive a tray you will see two two different ways to take the communion elements.

One is a sealed individual communion packet. This packet contains two sealed layers. The first layer opens to the bread (a wafer), and the second layer opens to the juice.

Another is a two-cup stack. The juice is in the top cup and the bread is in the bottom cup—just lift the top cup out of the bottom cup to get to the bread.

For both options, lift it out of the tray and pass the tray on. Once you have consumed the bread and the juice, hold on to the cups. You can throw them away upon exiting the worship service at the end. 

For further study, read the about this shared meal in the gospels (the same story told three times in slightly different ways): Matthew 26:17-30; Mark 14:12-26; Luke 22:7-23. There is always more, but this is a start.