Here is part of another post from the WrightSaid list (which I consider the best Christain discussion board on the interweb). John Shakespeare has this to add to a discussion of individualism in the practice of Lord's Supper/Eucharist in various traditions:

I have succeeded in persuading the church to which I belong to incorporate the Lord's Supper into a larger common meal which we share week by week. The problem with this is not theological, but purely to do with -- guess what -- tradition, which is that we have got used to going home after the morning meeting, having lunch, then coming back for the evening meeting, which includes the Lord's Supper, and then home again for our own suppers. Social and family life has tended to be fitted in around that pattern, so it is difficult to change it. But we are trying. We shall attempt to have one Sunday meeting only, after Sunday lunch, lasting throughout the afternoon and evening and incorporating a communal meal (a proper one, not just a bit of bread and wine, part of which will be the "Lord's Supper"). At this we will talk together, give thanks together, sing together, learn together, pray together, share news, problems and pleasures together, and go for short strolls together. So this meeting/meal will operate as the central feature of the church's communal life. We will then be free to fall into all of the errors of the Corinthians, which would not normally be available under the usual arrangements. It is as far from a liturgical, eucharistic, sacral view of the Table as one can get. But it loses none of its significance as "the meal Jesus gave us".

As for impoverishment, well, there are all sorts of richness associated with sacramental settings: carvings, pictures, robes and coloured glass, nice strips of carpet and sounds of instruments. I am happy to dispense with all of those riches. If this is impoverishment, then blessed are the poor.

Regards

John Shakespeare
Walsall, England

I would love to see improvements along these lines take place in our own churches. This would make the reformation cry of semper reformanda (reformed and always reforming) come alive to me. And, at the heart of that, it would ritually manifest and shape the type of community that we are - in Christ and for the world - supposed to be.