The Ordinance of Communion was instituted by Jesus on last night of His life in a home (Luke 22:7-20). An Ordinance is an outward institution, prescribed and ordered by Jesus, to be observed by all Christians to the end of the age, commemorating an essential gospel fact and declaring an essential gospel truth.

There are two Ordinances most Christians agree upon which Jesus instituted and established for His Church. They are, Baptism and Communion (the Emblems). There is debate over a third one, that of Foot Washing.

The Emblems is the term 2x2s use to refer to breaking of bread and partaking of the fruit of the vine (wine, grape juice) in every Sunday Fellowship Meeting. Other terms used by outsiders for this Ordinance are: The Lord’s Supper, Eucharist, Communion, Holy Communion, Sacrament, Sacrament of the Table, The Blessed Sacrament.

The Emblems are served at the end of the Sunday Fellowship Meeting service. A prayer of thanksgiving is made by a member or the Elder before each are passed around the room, hand to hand.

The 2x2s use leavened bread, usually a slice of white bread with the crust trimmed off. A common cup is used to hold the fruit of the vine, and everyone takes a sip from the same cup. In some parts of the world, such as South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, real wine is used. In North America, grape juice is used.

In the Sunday Convention Meeting in Australia and New Zealand, the Emblems are passed; however, this is not the practice in most other countries, including North America.

ELIGIBILITY: Professing baptized members of the 2×2 Fellowship may partake of the Emblems. At times, in some places, the Emblems are withheld from members who are divorced and remarried; who are pregnant without being married; and who married an outsider.

Worker Quote: We cannot over-emphasize the importance of the emblems and to regard them with the greatest of respect and reverence.

Worker Quote: When we think of the “first day of the week,” we remember the custom that existed in the New Testament days when the disciples of Jesus came together on the “first day of the week” to break bread. The breaking of bread is simply a symbolic way in which we renew our fellowship with our Master and Lord and with each other. (Jack Carroll, Arizona, 1951)

Worker Quote: Called “Emblems” because the bread is the emblem of the broken body of Jesus, and the cup is the emblem of the poured out blood of Jesus. Called ‘Communion,’ the act of conversing together spiritually or confidentially.

Worker Quote: If you were not in this meeting this morning, you would be in a little fellowship meeting. Gathering together like the New Testament Christians did. And in the center of that room there would be a little table and on the table a white napkin and under the napkin the emblems of the broken body and shed blood of Jesus. And do you know, folks, why we partake of this week after week, in accordance with the Lord’s command? There are several lessons we learn from taking of the Lord’s communion. One of the reminders is, that ALL that we are and ALL that we have, and ALL that makes our life worth while has been made possible through the sacrifice of Jesus. We don’t want to forget that. God forbid that the time would ever come that we would partake of these emblems and it would be just formality and a routine thing in the meeting. But may they remind us each time of the fact that ALL that I am and ALL that I have and ALL that makes my life so rich and full and complete has been made possible through the sacrifice of Jesus (Howard Mooney).