If by "Communion" we mean - explicitly - the Christian sacrament (the Eucharist), then Communion is without meaning in a UU context ("in the absence of a belief in Christ"). No Christ, no Eucharist. I suppose one is free to invent a new "Christ-free" metaphor/ritual - but why co-opt these symbols? 

Warmly, J (UU Apostate) 

James!! namaste! How are you??!

By "communion" I mean a ritual involving the consumption of food and drink whereby we affirm the bonds of community between those who participate.

As for "co-opting symbols," it's no different than Christianity "co-opting" from Judaism and Pagan/earth-based traditions.  The sun/son is born around the winter solstice.  God/new life is resurrected in the spring.  And the Jewish Pesach meal becomes the Last Supper becomes holy communion. 

The ritual of sharing food and drink to strengthen communal bonds is not uniquely Christian.  In fact, when I've participated in Jewish shabbat, we shared wine and bread as part of the service.

This is natural.  Christianity did not create this symbols ex nihlo.  It used the symbols that already existed, with which its people were already familiar, and made sense out of them from its own perspective.   And that is what I'm suggesting, that UUs take the symbols with which we are already familiar and make sense out of them from our perspective, instead of tossing everything out to be left with nothing. 

Actually, the reason I posted this question on UU communion over five weeks ago was because the Christian Holy week had just passed and I was disturbed by the fact that All Souls had had communion on Good Friday, immediately following the Tenebrae service.  This makes no sense theologically nor symbolically.  We spent an entire service ritually observing Jesus' betrayal and crucifixion, focusing on the brokenness in this world, the lights growing ever dimmer, and then we end the service by taking communion, which is a symbol of the reversal of this brokenness - the restoration of life thru Christ.  And we did it on Good Friday, not Easter.  We do communion only once a year and we did it at the time when Christians do NOT do it for obvious reasons.

That to me is an example of UUs taking the rituals/symbols of other religious traditions and using them without respect for what they mean.  It's disrespectful to Christianity and theologically confusing for us.  What I'd like to do instead is to develop a communion ritual that is not based on the Eucharist, and is certainly not done on Good Friday, but serves the equivalent function of the Eucharist - to affirm the communal oneness of those who participate.

I know about the Congregation of Abraxis communion ritual but was wondering if other people had any opinions on the matter.

Hello Sweets

Agreed - every living tradition co-opts (or re-imagines) the rituals and symbols of its antecedents, and there is no fault to be found in that. And it's certainly true that shared, "holy" meals figure in every tradition. I certainly couldn't object to any contemporary denomination's explorations of the theme.

But I share your discomfort with the inappropriate - or at least clumsy - Good Friday service you describe (and I've witnessed similar). I suppose one could argue that what was on display was a (well-intentioned) digest of the Easter Triduum - the collation of aspects of Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, etc.

So I guess the question remains: why? Why this squashed Christian ritualism? I'd guess - not without cause - that this service recurs annually to cater to those UUs with some lingering residue of Christian Easter sentiment - offered on Friday so as to not pollute the regular Sunday service with excessive references to Jesus and His Passion (for the greater mass of UUs who find such references distasteful at best).

I am reminded of the description of UUs as "a post-Christian, Protestant denomination"... so the Easter/Communion message is still relevant, but not the Christian trappings. Like you (I think), I hope UUs can wash away the last of the problematic Christian residue - and stop mangling Christian holy days - and arrive at a more authentic UU re-imagining of the "agape feast" - one that doesn't risk giving offense.

(Perhaps in another post I'll outline how my "church" has done away with nearly all ritual and "outward sacrament", just to seed further conversation - just a bit of liberal religionist interfaith dialog.)

Warmly, J