Memorial Church to Hold Communion Service Today

Memorial Church will hold Communion today, Maundy Thursday, renewing a tradition begun in 1814. Four silver chalices, purchased through a special Corporation vote in that year will be used in administering the Sacrament.

The service, called "a free church Communion," will follow a simplified Protestant order, George A. Buttrick, Preacher to the University, said yesterday. He, in addition to two Divinity School professors, two graduate students, and C. Howard Wallace, of the United Ministry, will lead the hour-long observance at 8:30 p.m.

The date of the last Communion celebrated in Memorial Church is uncertain. Buttrick said that Edward Cadwell Moore, University Preacher from 1915 to 1929, observed the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper regularly three times each year. Buttrick's predecessor, the late Dean Willard L. Sperry, held Communion only intermittently at the start of his tenure.

Litany will be based on the Beatitudes, and, Buttrick observed, the form of service probably has antecedents in the traditional Scottish order. Anyone professing faith will be welcome at the Lord's Supper Celebration, Buttrick stated.

Read before the distribution of the elements, the invitation to the Sacrament will include "Come not to the Table because you must, but because you may...Come not to express an opinion, but to seek a Presence..." Buttrick emphasized that the modified form of worship will be in keeping with the simple Protestant heritage of Memorial Church.

The four chalices which will be used in the service are kept in Fogg Museum. Records there indicate that the Corporation voted on November 20, 1814, "that the President (John Thornton Kirkland), Dr. Lathrop (John Lathrop, Secretary to the Board of Overseers), and Professor Hedge (Levi Hedge, College Professor of Logic and Metaphysics, and Alfred Professor of Natural Religion, Moral Philosophy, and Civil Polity) be authorized to procure a service of plate suitable for the Communion at the expense of the Corporation." New silver plate and glass cups were recently purchased for use in addition to the historic vessels.

The four other ministrants in addition to Buttrick and Wallace will be: Robert H. Pfeiffer, Hancock Professor of Hebrew and other Oriental Language, Amos N. Wilder, professor of New Testament Interpretation, Robert K.N. McLean, grDv., and Dwight R. Walsh, grDv. Memorial Church's regular choir, conducted by G. Wallace Woodworth, James Edward Ditson Professor of Music, will sing an anthem