United Methodists & Communion

Do United Methodists believe the communion elements actually become the body and blood of Christ?
I am not a member of The United Methodist Church. Can I still take communion?
Can children take communion?


Do United Methodists believe the communion elements actually become the body and blood of Christ?
“No, we believe that the change is spiritual. They signify the body and blood of Christ for us, helping us to be Christ’s body in the world today, redeemed by Christ’s blood. We pray over the bread and cup that they may make us one with Christ, “one with each other, and one in service to all the world.”

This Holy Mystery: A United Methodist Understanding of Holy Communion, the official statement on communion, says, "The Christian church has struggled through the centuries to understand just how Christ is present in the Eucharist. Arguments and divisions have occurred over the matter. The Wesleyan tradition affirms the reality of Christ’s presence, although it does not claim to be able to explain it fully...

Article VI of The Confession of Faith of The Evangelical United Brethren Church, speaks...of the sacraments: “They are means of grace by which God works invisibly in us, quickening, strengthening and confirming our faith in him. . . . Those who rightly, worthily and in faith eat the broken bread and drink the blessed cup partake of the body and blood of Christ in a spiritual manner until he comes.”

United Methodists, along with other Christian traditions, have tried to provide clear and faithful interpretations of Christ’s presence in the Holy Meal. Our tradition asserts the real, personal, living presence of Jesus Christ. For United Methodists, the Lord’s Supper is anchored in the life of the historical Jesus of Nazareth, but is not primarily a remembrance or memorial. We do not embrace the medieval doctrine of transubstantiation, though we do believe that the elements are essential tangible means through which God works. We understand the divine presence in temporal and relational terms. In the Holy Meal of the church, the past, present, and future of the living Christ come together by the power of the Holy Spirit so that we may receive and embody Jesus Christ as God’s saving gift for the whole world."

This Holy Mystery: A United Methodist Understanding of Holy Communion Copyright © 2003, 2004 The General Board of Discipleship of The United Methodist Church, PO Box 340003, Nashville TN 37203-0003 (800-972-0433).

I am not a member of The United Methodist Church. Can I still take communion?
The table of Holy Communion is Christ’s table, not the table of The United Methodist Church or of the local congregation. The table is open to anyone who seeks to respond to Christ’s love and seeks to lead a new life of peace and love, as the invitation to the table says.

The United Methodist Book of Worship says, “All who intend to lead a Christian life, together with their children, are invited to receive the bread and cup. We have no tradition of refusing any who present themselves desiring to receive” (page 29). This statement means that in practice there are few, if any, circumstances in which a United Methodist pastor would refuse to serve the elements of Holy Communion to a person who comes forward to receive.

By Water and the Spirit affirms: “Because the table at which we gather belongs to the Lord, it should be open to all who respond to Christ’s love, regardless of age or church membership. The Wesleyan tradition has always recognized that Holy Communion may be an occasion for the reception of converting, justifying, and sanctifying grace.”

(From The United Methodist Book of Worship. Copyright © 1992 by The United Methodist Publishing House. Used by permission.)

Can children take communion?
In The United Methodist Church, children are welcome to take communion. It is up to the parents to decide when their child should begin receiving communion.

The official document on baptism, By Water and the Spirit: A United Methodist Understanding of Baptism, says about communion, “Because the table at which we gather belongs to the Lord, it should be open to all who respond to Christ’s love, regardless of age or church membership.”

The United Methodist Book of Worship explains, “All who intend to lead a Christian life, together with their children, are invited to receive the bread and cup.”
(From The United Methodist Book of Worship. Copyright © 1992 by The United Methodist Publishing House. Used by permission.)