Worship Resources for
the Center for Faith and Giving
World Communion Sunday
World Communion Sunday allows us to focus our worship hour on God’s love made known in the Lord’s Supper, celebrated each year across denominations on the first Sunday of October.
Call to Worship (adapted from Thom Shuman)
One: From north and south, from east and west, we come:
Many: people called to the Table
where simple grace nourishes us.
One: From down the street to across town,
from single households to apartment dwellers:
Many: God’s people are called to community,
where we live and serve one another.
One: From every class, every race, every status;
from little ones with sippy cups to elders with overflowing hearts:
Many: As God’s people we seek to increase our faith,
to offer peace to a shattered world,
to feast together at one table of love.
Consider using this YouTube video or another to help the congregation visualize world communion.
Opening Prayer
Holy God, from all corners of earth, your people sing your praise and prepare to feast at your Table. Thank you for the opportunity to share worship with sisters, brothers, and siblings from around the globe as we sing in different languages, eat varied types of bread, and share this joyful communion with believers of different ages, races, and languages. Gather us all into your loving embrace as we rejoice, sharing Christ’s love made visible in the loaf and in the cup. AMEN
Moment for Stewardship
Invite several folks to bring coins or bills from a variety of countries (or use images on the screen), to help identify how congregations around the world are receiving an offering this morning.
Whether we share kwatcha, francs, pesos or dollars, we are invited to bring an offering today, to support this congregation and our world-wide ministries. (Describe one or two specific outreach ministries which are underwritten by your offering.)
From the smallest coin to the largest check, every gift is valued, appreciated and will be used to sustain the work of Christ in the world.
With generous hearts and open hands, let us share our offering.
Prayer of Thanksgiving
God of all good gifts, we’ve gathered to grow in faith, to share our voices and to offer our gifts. We’ve brought these gifts, grateful for all we receive from your hand. Receive this offering. Fill us once more with your Spirit, and help us spread the Table love known here to all we encounter in the coming days. AMEN
Invitation to Communion*
People will come from east and west and north and south
to sit at table in the Kingdom of God.
They will come with hope and they will come with doubts.
They will come with faith and they will come with fears.
They will come with love and they will come with regrets.
They will come across all sorts of barriers and boundaries.
Joining God’s people across the globe and joining the saints of every time and place, we come to this table today.
All are invited.
God longs to feed us – all of us –
with the bread of life and the cup of salvation.
*Adapted from Presbyterian Outlook 2025 Liturgy written by John Wurster and Keatan King and provided for free distribution.
Great Prayer of Thanksgiving (adapted)
The Lord be with you.
Lift up your hearts!
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
Blessed are you, O God our Creator, whose image dwells in every face of the human family.
In the faces of the matriarchs and patriarchs of Israel, we see your desire to raise up a chosen people.
the faces of judges and rulers, we behold the beauty of your law.
In the faces of your priests and prophets, we witness your passion for justice and righteousness.
So now, joined with the global chorus of our siblings in Christ around the world, we glorify you and pray for the day when the earth will be filled with the knowledge of you as waters upon the face of the sea.
We give thanks that you sent your Son into the world to show us your many faces:
Unexpected child,
Unwelcomed refugee,
Unhoused wayfarer,
Lover of the unlovable,
Toucher of the untouchable,
Loved by the least,
feared by authority,
friend of the weak and foe of the strong.
Come, Mighty Spirit, upon this bread and cup that they may be the communion of the body and blood of Christ.
As once you set your face to Jerusalem to relieve your people’s suffering once and for all— send now your Holy Spirit
to the people of Palestine, starving and tired of being starved…
the people of Burundi, impoverished and tired of being impoverished…
the people of Ukraine, war-ravaged and tired of being war-ravaged…
the people of El Salvador, corrupted and tired of being corrupted…
the people of North Korea, silenced and tired of being silenced…
the people of the United States, divided and tired of being divided.
By your Spirit unite all peoples in Christ until we feast with him and all the saints in light. Through Christ, with Christ, in Christ, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor are yours, Almighty God, now and forever. Amen.
Gracias a Dios! We thank God for beauty, heard in various languages.
Grazie Dio [Grat-zia Dee-O] (Italian) We offer thanks for worship in many forms.
Sin isiyeo gamsahabnida (Korean)
(Shin Ni Ye O Gamshab nit ha) We thank God for Jesus, whose compassion fills us, so we might share whenever we see brothers and sisters in need, whether next door or on the other side of the globe.
Come! The feast is prepared, and you have a place.