Announcement – Sacrament Service Process – by Patriarch Samuel S Gould

My Beloved Sisters and Brothers of this Second Invitation labor, as we consecrate ourselves to the call to establish the Spiritual Temple of the Lord within the United Order of Zion, may we be found acceptable to lay the foundations of a physical temple of the Lord – in order to perform the ordinances of the Lord’s house as the foundations of the Refuges we are directed to establish with our unified labors in the Father’s Vineyard. 

All the days of Zion in the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. Enoch and all his people walked with God, and he dwelt in the midst of Zion, as he also promised to dwell among his people in the fullness of time for a thousand years. But, behold, in the last days, as in the days of Enoch, that a building of a spiritual temple should take place before the physical temple is erected among the people of Zion, in which the words of this book will help the people, to carve their hearts hardened by the traditions and precepts of men; to polish their holiness, and to mold them to the true knowledge of my gospel in order to fit like a living stone in the spiritual structure of the temple of God, and after having passed on one generation after another generation, there being no more poor people among them and being of one heart, then there is to be erected a physical temple, where I, the Lord, will descend among my people in the last days, just as it was in the days of Enoch (Sealed Book of Moses 4:66).

In that it is our earnest desire to qualify for this sacred honor before the Father, we submit the following process for conducting the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper. It is within the sacred bonds of our partaking of this solemnizing remembrance of the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ, which was delivered up into the presence of the Father as a holy sacrifice for our salvation as a perfecting virtue, that we may be purified even as he is pure. This sacred desire comes from the harmony of the heavens in the ordinances as revealed by our living prophet as instructed by the sacrament teachings of Jonas.

… for it will be revealed to them in the last days, in the Spirit of power; and he shall bring them out of darkness into the light; from hidden darkness, and from captivity to eternal freedom. And a seer, God will lift from the fruit of my loins, who shall be a seer chosen to restore the ordinances of the house of Israel in this far land (Sealed Book of Moses 12:2).

The following process is therefore put forward in all solemnity by the Bishopric and the Presidency of this Church of Christ as demonstrated on December 27, 2024, during the Sacrament Service conducted as part of the On-Line General Conference proceedings.

Preparation:

1. Use only unleavened bread made from only wheat flour and water formed into a thin round shape like a pancake.
2. Use only fermented wine, preferably homemade. If necessary, purchase dry red wine.
3. It is appropriate for the priesthood to fast and pray before participating in the sacrament.

Table Setting:

• 1. The table serves as the altar for the sacrificial body of our Lord.
  2. Place a cloth on the table.
  3. Place the unbroken bread in a basket at one end of the table and cover it with a second cloth. Following the example shown in the photo, the basket of bread should be placed to the presider’s right and to the congregation’s left.
  4. Pour the wine into a single cup or glass and place it near the center of the table under the cloth.
  5. Place a written copy of the prayers on or near the table so it is in reach of the priesthood member who is presiding.
  6. After the table is set, it should resemble a body lying on a table that is covered by a cloth:

Service:

1. When two priesthood members are available the highest authority should preside. He is standing in the stead of Jesus Christ and is served first. The second priesthood member will assist by serving the emblems to the presider and to the congregation. An Aaronic priest may be used only when there is no Melchisedec high priest or elder present.
2. Before the sacrament service begins the presider should be standing in place behind the table as viewed from the congregation. The mood is solemn and reverent.
3. When the sacrament service begins, without comment the priesthood member who is assisting should reverently walk to his place before the table and kneel.
4. The presider then uncovers the basket of bread and kneels.
5. For the weekly sacrament, the presider then removes the bread from the basket and while holding the bread with both hands raises his arms to heaven. After allowing time for the congregation to kneel, the presider remains kneeling and reads the prayer for the bread. If any mistakes in reading are made the prayer must be read again.
6. After the prayer, the presider remains kneeling and breaks the bread into pieces for the congregation.
7. After the bread has been broken, the presider and server both stand.
8. The presider hands the basket of broken bread to the server who then serves the presider.
9. The presider remains standing, and the server then serves the members of the congregation and returns to the table with the basket of bread.
10. Then the server hands the basket to the presider who serves the server and then places the basket on the table and covers it with the cloth.
11. The server then kneels in front of the table.
12. The presider carefully uncovers the glass of wine and kneels.
13. The presider takes the glass and while holding the glass with both hands raises his arms to heaven. After allowing time for the congregation to kneel, the presider remains kneeling and reads the prayer for the wine. If any mistakes in reading are made the prayer must be read again.
14. The presider and server both stand.
15. The presider hands the glass to the server who then serves the presider.
16. The presider remains standing, and the server then serves the members of the congregation and returns to the table with the glass of wine.
17. Then the server hands the glass to the presider who then serves the server and then places the glass on the table and covers it with the cloth.
18. The server reverently walks away from the table while the presider remains standing in his place behind the table.
19. The sacrament service then ends.

Additional Notes:

1. For the weekly sacrament, the bread is blessed before it is broken. For the new moon sacrament, the bread is broken before it is blessed.
2. If only one priesthood member is available, he will assume the role of servant and serve the congregation before serving himself last.
3. All of the bread and wine that is blessed must be consumed during or immediately after the service. It must not be thrown out.

Let the divine, profound and pleasant joy of unity flow through the congregation in similitude of the expression given for the unification of all Israel when Aaron was anointed by the hands of Moses.

Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! It is like the precious ointment upon the head that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron’s beard, that went down to the skirts of his garments, as the dew of Hermon and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion; for there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life forevermore (Psalm133:1-3).

It is with this great uniting, cleansing, and strengthening power of God flowing through our veins that we will be able to labor with all our hearts, minds, might, and strength in the establishing of the Zion of our God. Let us take hold of the blessings placed over our heads in this Second Invitation to the Lord’s Supper–as we witness God making the impossible very possible through a united people.

“Yea, unless the people united in your feelings begin to build the principles governing Zion in your own hearts, they can never erect a physically structured Zion on earth.

This will be impossible unless engraved the laws governing this heavenly home in yourself, and after building yourselves with the spirit, that is, with the pure sentiments that rule Zion, then each of the men and women of God, should extend this same principle, into his own home and so forth through the society of the Church of Christ in general, until all the citizens of Zion are living harmoniously and according to the high standards of the Kingdom of God on earth, just as it is done in the heavens, so that He may come. 

As soon as this becomes a reality, then the spiritual temple, whose living stones, carved and fitting by the words of this book, will be grouped and unified in only one purpose; and only this way will be possible, with unity among all, to build a physical temple in the land, where the Lord will be among his own, as in the days of Enoch and as it came to pass between us, the Nephite people. 

But these will not be the days when the city of Enoch will come adorned from heaven, like the Heavenly Jerusalem, promised to come down upon the earth, in which the Lord, after gathering His people in Zion and in His stakes in the last days and having prepared the heart of His people to be ready in all things, then after these things coexist in their elect, He shall come and dwell with His people for a thousand years” (Acts of the Three Nephites 7:7-9).