Open Communion - Where & How Did It Start

[mo3]

100 years ago all Christian churches had closed communion services (meaning the Church would not serve communion to people of other denominations). Catholics are often criticized for not offering communion to all Christians. We know there is a warning in 1 Cor 11:27 for receiving communion unworthily.

Where did the idea of Open Communion start? Did it start in the USA and is now spreading to the rest of the world?

How did this get started?

For “Bible Only Christians”, how can they justify Open Communion since all Christian churches had closed communion 100 years ago? The Bible has not changed.

 

[Cluny]

It seems to have started with the former Presbyterian ministers Alexander and Thomas Campbell, who joined with Barton Stone in the movement that laster divided into the Christian Church/Disciples of Christ and the Churches of Christ.

 

[adowcday]

There is a theological basis for open communion in most Protestant churches as well. When the Lord’s Supper is no longer a sacrament, and the bread and wine have no more value than the faith one brings to the meal, it is easy to believe that no harm comes from allowing everyone to partake. Those who don’t believe or who see the bread and wine as merely symbolic bring no faith to the meal and take nothing away – no substantial good and no harm. Those who believe that they encounter Christ in the bread and wine actually do so through faith, not because the bread and wine have any intrinsic value. Why not let everyone partake then?