Salvation Army Opens Door for Members to Take Communion

The worldwide Salvation Army, after a century of rarely serving Communion in worship services, has signaled that members now have the freedom to practice openly and more often the rite that nearly all of Christianity observes.

The uniformed officers and members “are encouraged to use the love feast”--a Salvation Army euphemism for Communion--”and develop creative means of hallowing meals” in homes and at local corps, or congregations, said a cautiously worded report endorsed recently at a meeting of Salvation Army leaders in Australia.

The long-awaited report “does open things up,” said Robert L. Docter of Northridge, a retired educator who is editor of the organization’s newspaper for the U.S. Western Territory based in Rancho Palos Verdes.

“Nothing in the statement prohibits individuals from participating in the sacraments,” Docter said, referring also to water baptism--another sacrament almost never observed by Salvationists.

The Salvation Army is widely known for its uniforms, brass bands, Christmas kettles, clothing collections and social service to the poor. But relatively few know of its Sunday services and organization as a 3-million-member evangelical denomination, including 450,000 members in this country.

Fewer still are aware that the Salvation Army, for most of its history, avoided Communion, also called the Eucharist or Lord’s Supper, and baptisms on the grounds that those outward symbols of Christian faith were unnecessary and might substitute for a fully lived life of faith and love.

“It’s hard to imagine them going back to Communion because it was such a defining stance for the Salvationists,” said Diane Winston of Princeton University’s Center for the Study of American Religion and author of a forthcoming book on the Salvation Army as a modern urban religion.

“This is the kind of dilemma in which the Army finds itself today--wanting to retain its traditions but also wanting to be flexible and respond to the contemporary world,” Winston said.

Salvation Army officials said that conversion of new members in some parts of the world has been hampered because people have not understood the denomination’s substitute ceremonies for baptism and Communion; some felt the lack of those rites meant the church body was not Christian.

Founded in 1865 in London by Gen. William Booth, the Salvation Army regularly took Communion at first. Historians say that some followers were offended by women evangelists in the Salvation Army serving the grape juice and bread of Communion--especially in an era when women generally were not clergy.

But Catherine Booth, the influential wife of the founder, admired the piety and practices of Quakers, who did not perform baptisms or Communion rites. In keeping with the Salvation Army’s theology of sanctification--the Holy Spirit active in the lives of holy people--she saw all of life as sacramental. Although not prohibiting the sacraments, William Booth declared in 1883 that the rites would not be endorsed as official worship of the Army.

Coincidentally, some Quaker churches have recently relented on the issue. Most Quaker congregations still do not baptize or serve Communion, but the Friends Church Southwest, an association of 45 churches, changed that position in 1994 to give greater latitude.

“Some churches have been more aggressive than others in making changes, and some probably never will,” said Don Worden, director of development for Friends Church Southwest.

When William Booth announced 115 years ago that the two sacraments would be essentially dropped from Salvation Army worship, he also said that the decision might be reviewed at a later time “when we have more enlightenment.”

Some say that time is now. Scottish-born Maj. Chick Yuill, co-pastor of the large Pasadena Tabernacle Corps, said in an interview that he does not speak for everyone, but that he suspects the Army is definitely moving toward more frequent Communion services.

“I think the time has come,” said Yuill, whose corps Sunday service averages about 300 worshipers. Some 15 to 20 years ago, he said, even suggesting a change would not have been possible, and serving Communion “came to be a sign of dissension in the past.”

But when Salvation Army officers participate in ecumenical or evangelical services at other churches, they have often taken Communion. Indeed, the recently endorsed Army report reaffirmed that Salvationists “may partake if they choose to do so and if the host church allows.”

Yuill noted that Salvation Army corps members typically have Communion on the Thursday preceding Easter, when many churches commemorate Jesus’ last supper with his disciples.

“We call it the love feast, but it looks the same and tastes the same as Communion,” Yuill said. “The emphasis is on sharing and the priesthood of all believers--concepts on which we stand firmly.”

The baptism issue is less important because it is not a recurring event, he said.

Yuill said he wished that the 15-member International Spiritual Life Commission, which issued the report after two years of study, “could have given a little stronger encouragement for exploration” of Communion.

Part of the caution stems from the religious organization’s care not to suggest that salvation comes from certain ceremonial acts rather than by grace and an ongoing relationship with Christ, said Docter, a former Cal State Northridge professor who edits New Frontier, the organization’s Western territorial newspaper. The newspaper printed the full report.

Nevertheless, Paul A. Rader, the first American ever elected general of the London-based Salvation Army, strongly praised the findings of the commission he created. “They call every Salvationist to explore with vigor and anticipation the God-given freedom the Army has in Christ. . . .” said Rader, who was the western territory commander when he was elected to the top post four years ago.

One of the commission’s three lay members, Warren Johnson, an administrator in the Army’s Orange County headquarters in Tustin, said the commission chose not to reintroduce sacraments on a regular basis but allowed some leeway for the rites. “The word we received was that the issues were real critical for survival in some areas of the world,” Johnson said.

“I’m a third-generation Salvationist and I’ve enjoyed Communion when we’ve held it,” he said.

Johnson said the infrequency of the ceremony in Army services has made it awkward for worshipers.

A few years ago at the Tustin Ranch Corps Church, Johnson said, “our officer-pastor spent five or six minutes explaining the meaning of the rite.” For what seemed like a long time, no one responded to the invitation to take Communion, he said.

“But the first one to go up was my 85-year-old mother, who had not taken Communion since she was 14,” he said. “That was a very important moment for us.”