1

Statistics show that Lutherans in Australia communed twice as frequently in the 1980s as they did in the 1960s.

2

This is a welcome development. It gives witness to what the church is about, and is cause for thanksgiving. It is to be further encouraged and wisely used as an opportunity for spiritual and church growth in all dimensions.

3

Greater participation in the sacrament by the people of God in our time has been prepared by more openly sacramental preaching. Such participation directly affects all aspects of education in the faith, and promotes the fruits of faith in daily living.

4

The deepest reasons for regular and frequent communion lie in the Lord’s invitation to sinners to come to his table, in his giving of himself, and in his gracious command: ‘Do this in remembrance of me’ (1 Cor 11:24). His generosity matches and overcomes our poverty, and daily meets our greatest need.

5

A church correctly centred on the word of the gospel will be at the same time focused on the sacraments of grace.

6

For various reasons, attendances at the Lord’s supper have been dismally low over long stretches of Christian history. But the following (perhaps somewhat idealistic) statement of Dr Hermann Sasse indicates our catholic and apostolic tradition as Lutherans in this respect: ‘No Christian of the [Lutheran] Reformation ... could conceive of a Sunday divine service without the Lord’s Supper, just as already in the church of the New Testament there was no Lord’s Day without the Lord’s Supper’ (We Confess the Sacraments, Concordia, 1985, 99).  The Augsburg Confession confirms this ideal of Lutheran practice: ‘One common Mass is observed among us on every holy day, and on other days, if any desire the sacrament, it is also administered to those who ask for it’ (Art. 24). Calvin also urged that the sacrament be ‘dispensed in the church very frequently, at least once a week’ (Institutes 4.17).

7

The church should not lay down laws about frequency in an area where the gospel is so central, as from time to time it has been tempted to do. At the same time, it needs to be aware of the danger that the sacrament could become routine. As celebrations become more frequent, congregations will need an adequate practice of confession, and consistent, instructive, and gospel-centred preaching.

8

The promises connected with God’s means of grace are not empty or unsure. God makes them effective. Therefore, wherever these means or ‘instruments’ are faithfully used, we can confidently expect spiritual growth and divine gifts, in both individuals and congregations. In this way God creates and sustains his holy church on its pilgrimage through time.

9

For God’s people on earth, the holy supper is, in all its regular simplicity, a climax beyond compare. Here frequent regularity need not reduce the unique to the ordinary — because of the riches and goodness of the great Lord who gives himself. Rather, we should appreciate frequency as a further sign of God’s bounty. As we are so regularly called to the heights of heavenly joy in the holy eucharist, we anticipate the riches to come and experience a foretaste of the everlasting banquet of God.