How many PCA communion tables are “being decently covered”? How many churches are limiting themselves to wine? How many communicants are sitting there “gravely” in demeanor? How many elders in our typical PCA practice are “sitting around” the table, or even “before it,” as opposed to standing there?

Anyone wanting to pursue the intinction issue on the basis of the PCA’s Book of Church Order is opening a can of worms.

BCO Section 58-5 says:

The table, on which the elements are placed, being decently covered, and furnished with bread and wine, and the communicants orderly and gravely sitting around it (or in their seats before it), the elders in a convenient place together, the minister should then set the elements apart by prayer and thanksgiving.

So right there, in just two and a half lines, are several more issues with which we might beat each other to a pulp. How many PCA communion tables are “being decently covered”? How many churches are limiting themselves to wine? How many communicants are sitting there “gravely” in demeanor? How many elders in our typical PCA practice are “sitting around” the table, or even “before it,” as opposed to standing there?

More critically, where are all these details warranted in Scripture? We would all save ourselves much fuss and bother if we simply applied “sola Scriptura” to this whole debate. Maybe we should also skinny down our BCO with the same “sola” in mind.

Joel Belz

Asheville N.C.