Lay presidency

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Lay presidency is a form of celebrating the Lord's Supper (sometimes called the Eucharist) whereby the person presiding over the sacrament is not an authorised or ordained minister of religion. Similarly, when the celebrant is a deacon rather than a presbyter, the term diaconal presidency is used.

Most independent Christian churches have a form of lay presidency as part of their communal worship. Mainstream denominations have been less inclined to allow lay people to preside over the sacrament, preferring to use ordained ministers or priests for this role.

One area of conflict for Evangelical Christians in mainline churches is that, while the sacrament is a "symbolic preaching of the gospel", only authorized and ordained ministers may preside, whereas non-ordained people are not allowed to do this, despite the fact that they are allowed in some cases to preach the gospel. What this situation does is elevate the importance of the sacrament over the preaching of the gospel - in other words, the symbolic preaching of the gospel is more important than the literal preaching of the gospel. Evangelical elements in some mainline churches, for example the Diocese of Sydney within the Anglican Church of Australia, are seriously considering introducing lay presidency because of this problem.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada authorise lay and diaconal presidency in certain extraordinary circumstances, within a finite time period and location.