Communion Prayers

These are the words said over the bread and wine (usually grape juice) before they are served during the communion service (called the "Eucharist" in some denominations).

The Book of Mormon records an instance of Jesus sharing the communion with his followers. This is given in III Nephi 8:28-41 (Community of Christ Book of Mormon):

And it came to pass that Jesus commanded his disciples that they should bring forth some bread and wine unto him. And while they were gone for bread and wine, he commanded the multitude that they should sit themselves down upon the earth. And when the disciples had come with bread and wine, he took of the bread, and break and blessed it; and he gave unto the disciples, and commanded that they should eat. And when they had eaten, and were filled, he commanded that they should give unto the multitude. And when the multitude had eaten and were filled, he said unto the disciples, Behold, there shall one be ordained among you, and to him will I give power that he shall break bread, and bless it, and give it unto the people of my church, unto all those who shall believe and be baptized in my name. And this shall ye always observe to do, even as I have done, even as I have broken bread, and blessed it, and gave it unto you. And this shall ye do in remembrance of my body, which I have shewn unto you. And it shall be a testimony unto the Father, that ye do always remember me. And if ye do always remember me, ye shall have my Spirit to be with you. And it came to pass that when he had said these words, he commanded his disciples that they should take of the wine of the cup, and drink of it, and that they should also give unto the multitude, that they might drink of it. And it came to pass that they did so, and did drink of it, and were filled; and they gave unto the multitude, and they did drink, and they were filled. And when the disciples had done this, Jesus said unto them, Blessed are ye for this thing which ye have done, for this is fulfilling my commandments, and this doth witness unto the Father that ye are willing to do that which I have commanded you. And this shall ye always do unto those who repent and are baptized in my name; and ye shall do it in remembrance of my blood, which I have shed for you, that ye may witness unto the Father that ye do always remember me. And if ye do always remember me, ye shall have my Spirit to be with you.

This is further expanded on in Moroni chapters 4 and 5 (which are short):

The manner of their elders and priests administering the flesh and blood of Christ unto the church: And they administered it according to the commandments of Christ; wherefore we know the manner to be true, and the elder or priest administered it: And they did knelt down with the church and prayed to the Father in the name of Christ, saying,

O God, the eternal Father, we ask thee in the name of thy Son Jesus Christ, to bless and sanctify this bread to the souls of all those who partake of it, that they may eat in remembrance of the body of thy Son, and witness unto thee, O God the eternal Father, that they are willing to take upon them the name of thy Son, and always remember him, and keep his commandments which he has given them, that they may always have his Spirit to be with them. Amen.

The manner of administering the wine. Behold, they took the cup, and said,

O God, the eternal Father, we ask thee, in the name of thy Son Jesus Christ, to bless and sanctify this wine to the souls of all those who drink of it, that they may do it in remembrance of the blood of thy Son which was shed for them, that they may witness unto thee, O God, the eternal Father, that they do always remember him, that they may have his Spirit to be with them. Amen.

A similar statement is made in the Doctrine and Covenants.

The problem is this: English is not the same now as in 1830. For example, the words "thee" and "thy" are not in common usage, and other words could be picked out as well. Some regions complain that the prayers are very paternal. Therefore, there has been a movement in the church to allow some places to use updated versions of these prayers.

To complicate things further, these have been translated into many languages, and in each case they were translated into common language. In some cases, there is no special word for "father" apart from "parent," so these regions are basically asking the church to do the same thing for English as they do in other languages: allow the prayers to be in modern language.

This issue was brought up by the church in Australia in resolution G1. This asks the First Presidency to authorize some new prayers. (One person pointed out that, in fact, this is not binding. The First Presidency could authorize new prayers without the resolution, and could decide not to with it. Therefore, this resolution was really only for the debate.)

There was a lot of discussion on both sides of this issue. Some people said that changing even one word would change the meaning, after all, God dictated these directly (so they said). My feelings were also expressed, I believe. In reality, the meaning of the prayers will not be maintained unless the words are changed on occasion to update for changes in the meanings of the words.

The way I would put it is, are we going to hold our church services in Latin? This is in reference to the fact that the Catholic church initially held services in the local language, which was Latin. However, languages changed to the point the languages were no longer even called Latin, but rather Spanish, French, Italian, etc. so that the people going to the services could not understand what was being said. The same arguments were given as I heard from the Catholics. "The words have a certain ring to them," "I would not be comfortable with new words," etc.

This was eventually passed after spirited debate. It remains to see what the presidency does with it.