Methodists and the Table

While there may be many ways contemporary Methodists have strayed from their Wesleyan roots, the practice of the Lord's Supper is a more glaring example.  When I was first introduced to Methodism as a boy in rural south Georgia, the Sacrament was offered at best on a quarterly basis.  During the four decades of my ministry, a monthly first Sunday observance became the norm.  Only in recent years have some of our Methodist churches started making the Sacrament available weekly, though usually at a time other than the primary service on Sunday morning.    

Wesley himself communed weekly whenever possible and encouraged the people who were a part of the Methodist movement to do likewise.  In 1784 through a published sermon, he encouraged American Methodist to celebrate the Lord's Supper weekly.  The early American Methodist experience did not lend itself to such a practice.  It was not anchored in the expanding American culture by a building and weekly worship, but by a circuit riding preacher who moved westward along with the edge of the frontier.  The infrequency of the appearance of the circuit rider and the American mindset which had a strong aversion to anything English and Anglican also explains why the practice of the Sacramental meal was more infrequent than frequent.  

Thus, for such a long time Methodism has been a preaching, or pulpit oriented tradition rather than a table oriented one.  Older churches featured the pulpit in the center of the holy space and only in more recent years has the split chancel format allowed for the communion table to be seen front and center.  What is still lost among so many is that Methodism is deeply rooted in a weekly table tradition instead of one that places it on the edge of the congregation's life.