Parish Communion movement

The Parish Communion movement is a movement in the Church of England which aims to make Parish Communion on a Sunday the main act of worship in a parish.

The movement's aims are often summarised as "the Lord's people around the Lord's table on the Lord's day". The movement has been significant in that parish communion is now the usual act of Sunday worship in Church of England parishes.

Prior to this movement, the main act of parish collective worship on Sundays had been Morning Prayer or Evening Prayer or Evensong.

As the Book of Common Prayer states that it is only "binding on everybody to communicate three times a year", it was not the norm prior to the movement for the average layperson to receive holy communion every week. That said, the Prayer Book does envisage communion being celebrated every Sunday and on feast days.

Prior to the movement, the sacrament of Holy Communion was seen as an individual "making his communion" as a private act of devotion. Communion usually occurred on Sunday either at a Eucharist in the early morning (often around 8.00 am) or after the non-communicants had left the church or chapel following a late-morning (normally at 11.00 am) Morning Prayer. The movement is regarded as having changed the current Anglican practice such that a more collective service of Communion in the mid-morning is often central to a parish's Sunday worship. The practice of non-communicants leaving the church while communion is offered has also retreated.