World Communion Sunday October 5, 2025

1 Corinthians 11:23-26
For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body that is for[a] you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

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This Sunday was World Communion Sunday and the beginning of our Stewardship season. Illustrated Ministry has a great set of lesson plans for World Communion Sunday. I used it to organize our time together, in addition to worship elements from our stewardship materials and some of Carolyn Brown's lesson plan on 1 Corinthians. 

Here's some of the things we did together in worship: 

Practiced saying "hello" and "welcome" in languages other than English. 
Illustrated Ministry offered this suggestion.

One of the simplest ways we can make someone else feel welcome is by telling them they are! When we greet and welcome someone, it shows them we appreciate and are grateful for them. I asked people if they knew how to say "hello" and "welcome in languages other than English. People shared words from Mandarin, Spanish, French, Arabic, Dutch, German, and others. Below are a couple examples.

Spanish:  
Hello = Hola  
Good morning/day = Buenos Dias (bwen ohs dee ahs)  
Welcome = Bienvenido (bee in veh need oh) 

French: 
Hi= Salut (sal-oo) 
Welcome= Bienvenue (bee-in-ven-ew) 

German:
Hello = Hallo (hah low)  
Good day = Gutentag (goo ten tahg) 
Welcome = Willkommen (vill koh men) 

 Peskotomuhkati-Wolastoqey 
We welcome you= Kulasikulpon (ku-la-zi-kulpin) 
(thanks to the folks who run this website for the information: https://pmportal.org/dictionary/ulasihkuwal)

Mi’gmaq 
Welcome/come in and sit down= Pjila'si (up-chi-laa-si) 
(thanks to the folks who run this website for the information: https://mikmaqonline.org/entries/p/pjila'si/pjila'si.html)

American Sign Language:  
Below are two videos of how to greet people in ASL 

We also talked about how a minister named Hugo Thompson Kerr first came up with the idea of celebrating World Communion Sunday. And, we answered some questions from the Illustrated Ministry lesson about how we experience communion at our church.

• Think about the first time you had communion here. Do you remember it?
• How did you know that it was ok for you to eat and drink? 
  
• How can you make sure that people who have never eaten here before know that they are welcome to eat here the first time they come?  

Resource links: 
I looked up words in two Wabanaki languages. I found that information on these websites: 
-https://pmportal.org/dictionary/ulasihkuwal
-https://mikmaqonline.org/entries/p/pjila'si/pjila'si.html

Carolyn Brown talks about the Corinthians text and about how it is used in the liturgical year here: : https://worshipingwithchildren.blogspot.com/2016/01/year-c-maundy-thursday-march-24-2016.html
Illustrated Ministry's whole lesson plan, which includes some things I left out: https://store.illustratedministry.com/products/childrens-bundle-world-communion-sunday?_pos=1&_psq=world+commu&_ss=e&_v=1.0