The Table Belongs to Christ, Not the Church

Open communion is the practice of welcoming anyone who comes to the Lord's table in faith, without first requiring membership in the church that sets it, confirmation within it, or examination by its ministers beforehand. The practice rests on a specific claim about ownership: an open table treats the Eucharist as Christ's own meal, offered by him rather than administered as the property of any single denomination, so that no particular church is understood to hold the authority to fence off access to it. This puts open communion in direct contrast with both closed communion, which restricts the table to members of the celebrating church itself, and close communion, a narrower related practice that admits those from other bodies only when their church stands in a formally recognized relationship of fellowship with the one hosting the table. Denominations that practice open communion typically still expect a baptized, professing Christian faith from anyone who comes forward, but they decline to make that expectation into a barrier enforced by the church, treating the invitation itself as sufficiently guarded by the honesty of the person accepting it. The disagreement over open communion is accordingly not a disagreement about who is worthy to receive, but about which body, if any, has the standing to decide that question on Christ's behalf.