Question:

Is it written that the communion should be taken every Sunday or once in a
year?

Answer:

The answer to this question is simple. It is not written how often the
church should share the communion.

For this reason, we should not be dogmatic about this issue. What we can
definitely say is that the Christian church from the very earliest days
celebrated the communion every Sunday. The tradition is apparently
so old, that it is not at all unreasonable to assume that this was an
apostolic tradition which may go back to the very beginning of the church.
We know this from the writings of the early church fathers. If you want
to check this claim out for yourself, you could read one of the many books
out there which summarize the writings and teachings of the church
“fathers” of the second and third centuries. Two concise summaries which
I recommend because they categorize some of the early writings by category
are Early Christians Speak by Everett Ferguson and Keeping the Faith by
John Engler (www.greatcommission.com). Even the enemies of the church
mentioned their weekly love feasts. The love feast was a meal shared
weekly by all the Christians which was associated with the communion,
although it was not the communion itself. So, there is no doubt that the
early church celebrated communion every Sunday and perhaps more often.

The biblical evidence for the timing and frequency of the Lord’s
Supper/communion leaves some room for debate on the subject. My
conclusion is that from the Bible alone (ignoring other sources) one can
conclude with some confidence but not certainty that the early church
celebrated communion at least once a week, with at least one of those
celebrations falling on Sunday. What we know from biblical comments is
that the Lord’s Supper came very early to be associated with the weekly
love feast. This is apparent from 1 Corinthians 11:17-34. This passage
does not specifically mention communion on Sunday, but from other sources
it is reasonable to assume that Paul did not mention this because it was
so obvious to his readers in Corinth. Another relevant passage is Acts
20:7 it says, “On the first day of the week, we assembled together to
break bread.” The phrase “to break bread” may or may not be a reference
to the communion. The “first day of the week” puts the celebration on
Sunday (or perhaps on Saturday night). So the biblical evidence supports
weekly Sunday celebration of the Lord’s supper, but it is not strong
enough to justify being dogmatic on the subject.

One difficult question is whether the practices instituted by the apostles
are binding on us in the twenty-first century, even if they are not
specifically commanded in the New Testament. Some say yes. The Catholic
and Orthodox churches teach apostolic authority. One solution is to say
that the fact that the tradition of weekly communion goes back to
apostolic authority is strong support for practicing the same today. To
make it a binding doctrine is probably too strong a conclusion. At least,
that is my opinion. If I was a part of a church which only observed the
Lord’s Supper once a year, that would be a very big problem for me,
personally. This may not be a salvation issue, but for me, that would be
a big enough problem that I probably would not be a member of such a
church.

John Oakes