The Parish Communion movement is a movement in the Church of England which aims to make Parish Communion on a Sunday the main act of worship in a parish.
The movement's aims are often summarised as "the Lord's people around the Lord's table on the Lord's day".[1] The movement has been significant in that parish communion is now the usual act of Sunday worship in Church of England parishes.[2]
Prior to this movement, the main act of parish collective worship on Sundays had been Morning Prayer or Evening Prayer or Evensong.[2][3]
As the Book of Common Prayer states that it is only "binding on everybody to communicate three times a year", it was not the norm prior to the movement for the average layperson to receive holy communion every week.[2] That said, the Prayer Book does envisage communion being celebrated every Sunday and on feast days.[4]
Prior to the movement, the sacrament of Holy Communion was seen as an individual "making his communion"[2][5] as a private act of devotion. Communion usually occurred on Sunday either at a Eucharist in the early morning (often around 8.00 am) or after the non-communicants had left the church or chapel following a late-morning (normally at 11.00 am) Morning Prayer. The movement is regarded as having changed the current Anglican practise such that a more collective service of Communion in the mid-morning is often central to a parish's Sunday worship. The practice of non-communicants leaving the church while communion is offered has also retreated.[5]