A HOLY COMMUNION SERVICE
During the service of Holy Communion Christians celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus.

The symbols of bread and wine are used to help people to remember the death of Jesus.

The service of Holy Communion carries many different names and each one has its own special significance.
The most important service in most churches is Holy Communion. This is the service during which Christians celebrate the death of Jesus for their sins andhis rising from the dead [the resurrection]. At this service worshippers come together to eat bread and drink wine just as Jesus did with his disciples at their last meal together.

The photographs of a Communion service on this page were taken at St Mary's church in Baldock n December 2000. The officiating priest is the Revd. John Stone, then the Rector of Baldock.

In the photograph below Revd. Stone is lifting the priest's wafer; this is larger than the usual wafer so that the congregation can see it more clearly. He will then bless the bread and wine which symbolise the body and blood of Jesus Christ.
Most Churches have their own name and meaning for this most important act of Christian   worship.

Roman Catholics call it the Mass. They believe that during the service the bread and wine become the body and blood of Christ. This belief is called 'transubstantiation.'

Orthodox Christians call it the Holy Liturgy. A 'liturgy' is a very old and unchanged service and the   Holy Liturgy of the Orthodox Church goes back to the fourth century AD/CE.

Anglicans like the Revd. Stone call it the Eucharist [ thanksgiving] or Holy Communion. Anglicans hold a similar view to the Roman Catholics about the bread and wine while others are closer to      the Nonconformists, who call it the Breaking of Bread or the Lord's Supper. They believe that the Breaking of Bread is simply a time for remembering the death of Jesus and what it meant.   
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