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Appendix E-5: The Selection, Training and Authorisation of Elders to Administer the Sacrament of Holy Communion, and the Roles of Presbytery and Session
(Adopted by General Assembly 1993)
(for ‘Session’ read also ‘Parish Council’)
1) No Session shall be required to nominate any elder under this procedure, and any Session may resolve that all Communion services within the parish shall be administered only by an ordained minister.
2) A Session may request permission to nominate to Presbytery up to two elders to administer Communion under the authority of Session and minister or interim moderator and the oversight of Presbytery.
3) A Presbytery may give permission for more than two elders in any parish to be nominated only after obtaining the concurrence of Council of Assembly. At no time may there be more than three elders authorised in any one parish.
4) When the Presbytery has approved the request, Session shall nominate the elder to Presbytery for training and authorisation. Elders so nominated must:
a) Show evidence of active spiritual life;
b) Be in good standing with the local congregation;
c) Have a proven gift of leading worship;
d) Be able to preach the Word competently;
e) Be willing to accept this responsibility, and in humility see it as a servant role within the worshipping community.
5) The Presbytery shall provide training, using training material approved by Assembly.
6)
a) After training, the Presbytery may approve the elder as qualified to administer Communion and shall inform the Session.
b) That authorisation may be recognised by Session in the local church with prayer.
c) Authorisation shall expire on a date each year set by Presbytery. Session may submit nominations for authorisation for the ensuing year. Elders previously authorised may be approved by the Presbytery without further training, but presbyteries may on occasion require further training.
d) Presbytery shall keep an annually updated list of elders so authorised.
e) Presbytery has the authority to withdraw an elder’s authorisation.
7) Where the Parish Council of a Union or Co-operating parish nominates an elder or elders the Presbytery shall inform the regional courts of the Churches involved in that parish and proceed only with their concurrence to training and authorisation. At the same time the Presbytery should invite comment from the Joint Regional Committee. Authorisation is by the Presbytery only, and not by a partner Church.
8) The celebration of Holy Communion shall be consistent with the guidelines on the content of the Communion services as approved by Assembly in paragraphs 158 and 159 of the Plan for Union 1971:
158: In every celebration of the Lord’s Supper, bread and wine shall be set apart, with the unfailing use of Christ’s words and acts of institution with thanksgiving, and there shall be communion using both bread and wine by presbyter and people. Any consecrated bread and wine remaining after the Communion of the people shall be disposed of in a reverent manner.
159: The service of Holy Communion shall normally include:
a) Prayer of humble approach to God with self-examination and confession, and the declaration of God’s mercy to penitent sinners;
b) The ministry of the Word, including reading from the Scriptures with preaching;
c) Affirmation of faith;
d) Intercession for the world and the Church;
e) The offering to God of his gifts to his people including the bread and the wine, of their praise and thanksgiving and of themselves;
f) Invocation of the Holy Spirit;
g) Praise for God’s glory and goodness in creation; thankful commemoration and showing forth of the redemptive work of Christ in his birth, death, resurrection, ascension, and in his institution of this Sacrament; thanksgiving for the hope of his coming again in glory;
h) The breaking of the consecrated bread;
i) Expression of communion with God, with one another, with the whole people of God on earth, and with all the company of heaven;
j) The Lord’s Prayer.
9) It remains the prerogative of Session to set the time and place of all communion services within the parish.
10) It shall be the prerogative of the minister or interim moderator with the concurrence of the Session, to invite an authorised elder to administer Communion. No authorised elder may administer any Communion within the parish without the invitation of the minister or interim moderator and the concurrence of the Session.
11) Elders so authorised will normally administer Communion in their own parish but may do so in another parish at the invitation of that parish minister or interim moderator and with the concurrence of its Session.
12) It remains the responsibility of the Presbytery to oversee the administration of Communion within the parish and its effectiveness shall be reviewed at the time of the visitation.