Communion as an act of protest – Not in My Name

This is the final of three guest posts from Jonny Baker on creative ways to share communion.

A mix of a highlight and scary challenge was organising the communion service for sunday morning at Greenbelt 2003 (Greenbelt is a UK based Christian arts festival). Greenbelt was very involved in profiling the brilliant trade justice campaign so it seemed a good idea to try and do a communion in the spirit of protest. Christ’s death was perhaps the ultimate act of protest against the powers so it seemed entirely fitting. Anyway I have uploaded the order of service here as a pdf file – I haven’t included song words. My favourite two bits of liturgy were the call and response chant ‘not in my name’ (this was inspired by Saul Williams’ rant on the Adbusters cd) which we did over a break beat, and the communion prayer which is the only communion prayer I can think of that doesn’t have the seemingly magical words of institution! It’s short, succinct and to the point.

Not in my name
Will we fight terror with terror
Not in my name
Will we exploit the resources of those who are poorer
Not in my name
Will the bodies of the innocent be broken for the evils of a few
Not in my name
Will we deny life to those for whom life is a struggle
Not in my name
Will the name of god be used as an excuse for our own self interest
Not in my name
Will we be blinkered by our flawed sense of justice
Not in my name
Will the bread of life be robbed from the mouths of the worlds hungriest
Not in my name
Will we find salvation in the defeat of our enemies
Not in my name
Will our government wipe out innocent families
Not in my name
Will we reap reward from terrorism and invasion
Not in my name
Will the west get rich through the debts of the poor

We thank christ for his body broken and blood shed.
We acknowledge his sacrifice for the salvation and redemption of the world. We acknowledge innocent blood shed and bodies broken to be enemies of gods kingdom and a sin against creation.
We acknowlege love, truth, grace, justice, righteousness, mercy and humility to be signatures of gods rule.
May god bless us as we seek to send a clear message to those in authority…
Not in my name!