Year-Before-Election-Day Communion

Thanks to Karen Lange at the Presbytery of Minnesota Valleys newsletter and the Minnesota Council of Churches for sharing this Great Idea and its supporting liturgical resource!

Recognizing that Sunday, November 5, 2023 is exactly 365 days before Election Day, 2024, the MN Council of Churches offers these wonderful resources.

Karen Lange writes,

‘Because of their use as polling sites, faith communities are core elements of America’s civic engagement infrastructure. At their best our houses of worship contain multitudes of people who faithfully discern a path to following Jesus that may or may not involve supporting a particular party’s platform or candidates. While Presidential candidate fundraising reports reveal the millions that are about to be spent in part on dividing us into smaller and smaller marketing segments to mobilize or frustrate in the polls, Communion can remind us that whatever our partisan identities may be we are all indivisible from the love of God. This year, 365 days before the 2024 election, remind your congregants of God’s love and presence even in campaign season by employing one or more of the liturgies collected by Election Day Communion.

The Minnesota Council of Churches writes:

‘To remind us that we are saved not by a political officeholder but by God; to remind us that God in Christ calls us to love our opponents; to remind us that our fight is not against flesh and blood but against spiritual forces of darkness; to remind us that true discipleship bravely engages in dialogue across difference; and to remind us that wherever 2 or 3 are gathered in Christ’s name there He [sic] is: Minnesota Council of Churches invites all congregations to celebrate Election Day Communion on November 5, 2023.’

TIP: Every year our local, immigrant and BIPOC-run Sahan Journal shares a Voter Guide featuring hard-to-pin-down candidates. For 2023, they offer interviews with the St Paul School Board candidates. Support Sahan Journal and learn about this year’s slate of candidates here. Share this in your congregation before Election Day this year!!!

The Year-Before-Election-Day Communion: November 5, 2023 resources hail from Disciples of Christ, Episcopal, Mennonite, and UMC perspectives. They are free to use and share as deemed applicable.

Worship. Pray. Heal. Repeat often!