Table Seating Plans

Stand Up, Sit Down

According to Warfield in ‘The Posture of Recipients at the Lord’s Supper: A Footnote to the History of Reformed Usages’ in Selected Shorter Writings, ed. Meeter, John E., vol 2, (Nutley, NJ, Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, 1973) pp351-369):

Our Lord administered the Supper to recumbent recipients. In antiquity the elements were usually received standing, the typical posture for prayer and praise. Remarkably, the Leeuwaarden church in Frisia receive elements walking, to suggest readiness for service! It is usual for the Reformed to receive the Supper seated, and this is most appropriate since it is fundamentally a feast or meal. Kneeling is customary amongst Romanists, many German Protestants, the Church of England and Bohemians (!). It is not wrong in itself and might be a sign of humility but is in danger of suggesting idolatrous adoration of the created elements.

Keep Moving

The Anglican practice of going up to the railed off altar / table is a Laudian innovation. Anglican used to receive the Supper in the pews as many non-conformists now do.

Ideally the whole congregation would sit at the table, but this is often not convenient when there are large numbers of communicants or an awkward space.

The Lord’s Table, Not The Lord’s Cupboard

Gillespie said that “the nature of a feast requireth that the guests be set at table, and that all the guests be set about it, for the use of a table is not for some, but for all the guests, else no table is necessary but a cupboard.” (Sub-committee of Westminster Assembly on Directory of Public Worship, Miscellany Questions, XVIII; Works II, p956)

The debate on communicating at the table at the Assembly took three weeks.