Is It Appropriate to Serve Communion to Shut-ins?

It is most certainly appropriate for the elders of the church to serve communion to members who are, for health or other reasons, unable to attend the gathering of God’s people on the Lord’s Day. Before we get to how and why, however, let me list a few caveats. First, the sacraments are given to the church, and are under the authority of the local church. We ought not, if we are shut in, arrange a private communion ceremony on our own. Neither should a non-elder, except perhaps in the most dire circumstances, serve communion to a shut in. Read more

It is not the Reformed practice to reserve the consecrated bread and wine of the Lord's Supper. Reservation is also not the practice of historic Anglicanism. Article 28 decries the practice, noting that it was not ordained by Christ. The Canons of 1604 make no provision for the reservation of the consecrated elements. The rubrics of the 1662 Communion Service direct that any left-over consecrated bread and wine should not be carried out of the church but should be reverently consumed immediately after the blessing by the priest and such communicants as the priest calls to him. The 1662 Prayer Book permits the celebration of Holy Communion in the houses of sick persons and provides lessons for such celebrations. The Convocation of Canterbury in 1885 declared that reservation was contrary to the order of the Church of England as expressed in the Book of Common Prayer and that reservation for any purpose was inconsistent with the rule of the Church of England. The Archbishops of Canterbury and York in 1900 refused to allow any tampering with this prohibition. Among the reasons that Parliament rejected the Proposed 1928 English Prayer Book was that it permitted the practice of reservation.