communion
Enable an AI agent to recognise an act of communion, record the shared participation or union it expresses, assess its acknowledged state, and identify actions consistent with participants' intentions and applicable traditions.
Research draft, second pass
A second pass drafted this model: the structure a model of this thing needs, and what is known about it in the world. The line under this one says how the second half was obtained - researched against sources, or recalled without web access, in which case nothing here was read anywhere and every claim is a lead to verify. Unreviewed either way.
Researched by: Codex + Grok
Purpose and description
Enable an AI agent to recognise an act of communion, record the shared participation or union it expresses, assess its acknowledged state, and identify actions consistent with participants' intentions and applicable traditions.
In Christian liturgy, communion is the act of receiving the consecrated bread and, where a church's discipline allows, the consecrated wine of the Eucharist as participation in the body and blood of Christ, under the doctrine of presence that church teaches.
It can be Clarify the intended sense of communion before applying ritual or relational criteria.; Record who participates, in what role, and with whom or what communion is sought.; Compare a proposed act with documented conditions of its explicitly selected tradition or practice.; Identify unresolved consent, participation or recognition questions before assisting with an act.; Record differing participant experiences and community assessments without forcing agreement.; Suggest clarification, invitation, accommodation or referral to a recognised practitioner when supported by the participants' wishes and applicable practice..
Distinguishing features
Identify what participants understand themselves to participate in or share beyond exchanging information; conversation alone does not establish communion.
Require an explicit account of union, fellowship or shared participation; co-presence or synchronised activity alone is insufficient.
For a meal identified as communion, record the meaning and recognition that distinguish it from ordinary eating together.
Separate participation in the outward practice from a participant's reported experience of communion; neither automatically establishes the other.
Record whether 'communion' names an act, an experience or an enduring affiliation; this ACT model primarily covers the first two.
Scope
+ The particular act or episode identified as communion and the basis for that identification
+ Participants and the persons, community, sacred referent or reality with which communion is sought
+ Practices, signs and material elements through which participation is expressed
+ Participant intentions, consent and applicable conditions of participation
+ Participant accounts and relevant community judgements about whether communion occurred
- A religious institution's governance, membership records and organisational structure
- The complete doctrine or theology of a religious tradition
- An entire worship service or liturgy surrounding a communion act
- Food production, catering and ordinary shared meals
- Communication understood solely as the transmission of information
- An enduring relationship or ecclesial affiliation beyond the particular act
Characteristics
- Claimed sense of communion
- Sacramental or ritual participation; interpersonal communion; spiritual communion; other stated sense; unresolved Determines which interpretations and participation conditions are relevant without assuming a religious meaning.
- Communion participants and referent
- Links to participants and to the person, community, sacred referent or shared reality named in their account Distinguishes communion among participants from communion directed towards a referent not represented as an ordinary attendee.
- Mode of participation
- Describe the enacted practice and each person's role, including receiving, sharing, contemplating, observing or abstaining where applicable Attendance, observation and participation may have different meanings.
- Participation willingness
- Expressed willingness; expressed refusal; withdrawn willingness; unclear; not recorded, attributed to each participant Prevents collective claims of communion from overriding an individual's stated position.
- Attributed occurrence assessment
- Intended; reported as experienced; recognised under a named framework; disputed; reported as not experienced; undetermined Keeps subjective experience and framework-specific recognition attributable rather than treating either as universal fact.
- Applicable interpretive framework
- Named tradition, community practice or participant-defined understanding, with its source and applicability Supports judgements about the particular act without importing another community's criteria.
Also called
Where this came from
wikidata · CC0 1.0
Also registered as vr.tr.communion
Drafted structure
Bundle to layer to finding to question, as the second pass will find it: 5 bundles · 9 layers · 16 findings · 24 questions.
Meaning and shared referent Establishes what communion means in this instance and what participants understand themselves to share.
The word alone cannot distinguish sacramental participation, relational intimacy and other experiences of union.
Sense and act boundary
Identifies the intended meaning and the particular episode being modelled.
Communion identification
Record who calls this communion, their meaning, and whether the designation concerns an act or an experience.
- What does 'communion' mean to the people identifying this instance? definition
- What distinguishes this episode from an enduring relationship, affiliation or surrounding gathering? boundary
Object of participation
Records the person, community or reality with which communion is understood to occur.
Shared reality account
Capture participants' accounts of what is shared or participated in without asserting the truth of metaphysical claims.
- With whom or what is communion sought, and what does participation in it mean here? definition
- Whose account establishes this referent, and do other participants understand it differently? provenance
Participation and admission Separates presence, willing participation and recognition as a participant.
An act described collectively as communion may include observers, abstainers and people subject to different participation conditions.
Participant position
Records each person's role and expressed willingness to participate.
Participation and abstention
Distinguish taking part in communion from witnessing it, facilitating it or declining it.
- Who understands themselves to be participating, and who is observing, facilitating or abstaining? boundary
- How can a person decline or withdraw participation, and what wishes have they expressed? action
Practice-specific admission
Identifies any conditions governing participation in the selected practice.
Admission basis
Record applicable participation conditions and who interprets them, without presuming that all communion has formal admission rules.
- Does this practice specify conditions for receiving or sharing communion, and what source establishes them? provenance
- Who can resolve uncertainty about a person's participation, and what clarification is needed before proceeding? action
Enactment and mediating signs Describes how communion is enacted and the significance assigned to its words, gestures, silence or material elements.
Similar outward acts can express different meanings, while communion may be claimed without a shared meal or formal rite.
Communion practice
Locates the actions understood to constitute or express this communion.
Constitutive actions
Record which actions matter to the identification of communion and which merely accompany it.
- Which actions, words or periods of silence are understood to enact or express communion here? definition
- Where does this communion act begin and end within any larger meal, ceremony or encounter? boundary
Elements and adaptations
Records the role of material or symbolic mediators and any limits on changing them.
Mediator significance
Identify any food, drink, objects, gestures or mediated presence and their stated significance in this practice.
- Which elements or forms of presence carry communion-specific meaning, and who supplies that interpretation? provenance
- What substitutions or accommodations are accepted under this practice, and who can establish their acceptability? action
Experience and recognition Keeps accounts of experienced communion distinct from assessments of the act under an applicable practice.
An agent must not infer inward union from outward participation or equate one authority's recognition with every participant's experience.
Experienced communion
Captures voluntary participant accounts of connection, shared participation or its absence.
Participant experience account
Record whether a participant reports communion and preserve their own description rather than assigning an objective communion score.
- Does the participant report experiencing communion, and how do they describe that experience or its absence? measurement
- Is this account the participant's own report, an observer's interpretation or an inference from outward behaviour? provenance
Recognition and contestation
Records assessments under a named framework and preserves unresolved differences.
Attributed recognition
Capture who recognises or disputes the act as communion, the criteria invoked and the consequences for further action.
- Who recognises or disputes this as communion, and which documented criteria support their assessment? provenance
- Given any disagreement between experience and formal recognition, what follow-up is appropriate under the participants' wishes and selected practice? action
Evidence and external alignment What the world already says about this thing, gathered so the model can be checked against it.
A model that cannot be lined up against existing standards, identifiers and practice cannot be adopted by anyone who already uses them.
Reported evidence
Findings from the breadth pass, kept separate from the structural claims.
Kinds and varieties
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Ordinary Holy Communion at Mass, Divine Liturgy, or a Protestant Lord's Supper
- First Communion as a solemn first reception, especially in the Latin Catholic and some Protestant churches
- Viaticum, communion given to the dying
- Communion of the sick, from the reserved sacrament in home or hospital
- Spiritual communion, an act of desire without eating the elements
- Infant communion, the Eastern practice of communicating newly baptized infants
- Communion under both kinds versus under one kind
- Open-table versus closed or close communion, distinguished by who is admitted
- Which of these kinds and varieties hold for the sense of communion this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Identifiers and schemes
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Wikidata - Q124568 - Item for the Eucharist / Holy Communion / Lord's Supper; the act of communicating is usually attached to this item rather than given a separate Q-id
- Library of Congress Subject Headings - Lord's Supper - Authorized heading for the sacrament and its reception; First communion and Communion of saints are separate headings
- 1983 Code of Canon Law - cann. 897-958 - Latin Catholic title on the Most Holy Eucharist, including reception
- Which of these identifiers and schemes hold for the sense of communion this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Standards and regulation
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- 1983 Code of Canon Law, cann. 844, 897-958, 912-923, 919-921 (Holy See): who may receive, one-hour fast, Easter duty, viaticum, and communicatio in sacris
- Catechism of the Catholic Church, nn. 1322-1419 (Libreria Editrice Vaticana)
- General Instruction of the Roman Missal and Redemptionis Sacramentum (2004) (Dicastery/Congregation for Divine Worship): rite of distribution and listed abuses
- Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith letters on Eucharistic bread (2003, 2017): wheat and gluten requirements for valid matter in the Latin Church
- Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry, Faith and Order Paper 111, Lima 1982 (World Council of Churches): non-binding ecumenical convergence text
- Thirty-Nine Articles, Article XXVIII (Church of England) and Augsburg Confession Article X with Formula of Concord, Solid Declaration VII (Lutheran churches): confessional doctrine of the Lord's Supper
- Historically, the English Test Act 1673 required receiving Church of England communion as a condition of public office (repealed)
- Which of these standards and regulation hold for the sense of communion this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Real-world use
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Sunday or daily reception during Catholic Mass, Orthodox Divine Liturgy, or Protestant communion services
- First Communion as a parish and family rite of passage, often with distinctive dress, around the age of reason in Latin Catholicism
- Hospital, hospice, and home communion from the reserved sacrament by clergy or commissioned ministers
- Viaticum as the communion of the dying, often grouped with confession and anointing
- Ecumenical flashpoints at mixed marriages, assemblies, and funerals over who may receive
- COVID-era substitution of intinction, individual cups, or suspension of the common cup
- Civic-historical use in Britain, where receiving Anglican communion once qualified office-holders
- Which of these real-world use hold for the sense of communion this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Typical measurements
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Eucharistic fast before communion (current Latin Catholic law, can. 919) - 1 (water and medicine excepted) - hour
- Minimum required reception (Latin Catholic Easter duty, can. 920) - at least 1, in the Easter season - receptions per year
- Age at First Communion in the Latin Church - about 7 (age of reason), after preparation - years
- Age at first reception in Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic practice - same service as infant baptism and chrismation, often days to months after birth - days
- Observed frequency in congregational practice - daily (some religious and daily Mass-goers) through weekly, monthly, or quarterly (many Protestant churches) - receptions per year
- Which of these typical measurements hold for the sense of communion this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Failure modes and hazards
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Reception while in unconfessed grave sin, the New Testament and Catholic disciplinary hazard of unworthy communion
- Invalid matter: non-wheat bread, insufficient gluten in so-called gluten-free hosts, or grape juice where wine is required
- Transmission of infection by a shared chalice, a live concern during epidemics
- Celiac disease and alcohol dependence as barriers to receiving the ordinary elements
- Spillage, dropping, or theft of consecrated species, treated as sacrilege where real presence is taught
- Pastoral rupture from closed communion, or from barring the divorced-and-remarried or the unbaptized
- Intercommunion without a shared confession of faith, treated as ecclesial scandal by closed-communion churches
- Desecration of the reserved sacrament from poorly secured tabernacles
- Which of these failure modes and hazards hold for the sense of communion this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Regional variation
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic churches use leavened bread mixed in the chalice and given by spoon, and communicate infants
- Latin Catholic practice uses unleavened wafers, often under one kind, with First Communion delayed to about age seven
- Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, many Baptists, and the Orthodox churches practice closed or close communion; many Anglican, Methodist, and mainline Protestant churches keep an open table for the baptized, and some for all who seek
- Quakers and the Salvation Army have no outward elements
- First Communion is a major social event in Ireland, Italy, the Philippines, and much of Latin America
- Some Anabaptist and Holiness congregations communicate only quarterly or less
- Which of these regional variation hold for the sense of communion this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Eucharist - The Eucharist is the whole sacrament of thanksgiving and consecration; communion is the moment of receiving its elements
- Mass / Divine Liturgy / Lord's Supper service - These names cover the entire liturgical event; communion is one action inside it
- Full communion - A juridical and theological relationship between churches, not the act of eating and drinking
- Communion of saints - The fellowship of the living and the dead in Christ, not the Eucharistic meal
- Agape feast / love feast - A fellowship meal historically adjacent to the Eucharist but not the consecrated species
- Eucharistic adoration / Benediction - Worship of the reserved sacrament without receiving it
- Anointing of the sick - Another sacrament of the ill and dying; viaticum is communion, not anointing
- Which of these neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart hold for the sense of communion this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Sources
- Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd ed., nn. 1322-1419 - Catholic definition of the Eucharist and of receiving communion, including real presence, fruit of the sacrament, and Easter duty
- Code of Canon Law (1983), Book IV, cann. 844 and 897-958 - Latin-rite law on who may receive, the eucharistic fast, Easter communion, viaticum, reservation, and valid matter
- Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry (Faith and Order Paper No. 111, Lima 1982) - Ecumenical account of the Eucharist as communion of the faithful and the churches, and of remaining disagreements over presence, ministry, and admission
- The Holy Bible, 1 Corinthians 11:17-34 - New Testament institution of the Lord's Supper and the warning against unworthy or factional reception
- General Instruction of the Roman Missal (typical edition 2002) - Roman rite of distribution, communion under both kinds, and the handling of remaining species
What the second pass must settle
- Does vr.tr.communion intend specifically Christian sacramental communion, a broader act of spiritual or interpersonal communion, or another meaning?
- Does an existing Vercy world model already own this concept or any of its intended senses?
- Which traditions or communities must the model support, and which primary sources establish their terminology and participation criteria?
- Should non-ritual experiences and sacramental acts remain within one model, and what registry-authorised boundary would justify separating them?
- How should the ACT model link to enduring ecclesial communion or relational union without treating those continuing states as individual acts?