Usher Guide (Round Configuration)
or insert the cards in the bulletins before the service.
- Communion is received in a semicircle around the altar. Communicants leave their rows through the DIAGONAL aisles and return along the side or center aisles.
- The communion servers, acolytes, and choir members commune LAST. The choir returns to its place via the aisle along the west windows.
- Two ushers take their places at the head of the aisles (one between sections 1 and 2 and one between sections 3 and 4). These ushers should collect communion registration cards and then direct communicants into the semicircle at the proper time and in the proper number, waiting until the people already in line are moving to the communion table and others are leaving the table to return to their seats. Reminder: Only one usher on each side should direct communicants. That usher should stand behind the chairs of communicants next to go forward; the usher should face the altar, not the back of the church. The assisting minister or pastor will give oral instructions on how the communicants should go forward; the instructions are also in the bulletin. We have found that if an usher stands near the table with cups at the head of the aisle, that usher seems to become a roadblock rather than helpful.
- After receiving communion, communicants should return to their seats by continuing in the same direction they came (flowing in a continual circle back to their seats).
- Toward the end of communion, some seating blocks will be finished before others. The remaining communicants may then use all the space available in the semicircle. The ushers join the last group on their side of the church to receive communion.
- Alert the pastor if there are communicants with special needs.
- Communion cards should be put in the pastor's study after the service.
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