Music for Communion: 40+ Songs, Hymns, and Anthems

Church Music

Sep 26

Some churches celebrate communion once a quarter; others, once a month. And there are many congregations that share communion every Sunday.

You may not choose communion-themed music for every communion Sunday, but every so often, it can be nice to choose an anthem, congregational song or hymn, or instrumental piece that connects to this tradition.

In this post, you’ll find a variety of music that would work well for communion Sundays throughout the year (including World Communion Sunday, All Saints' Sunday, the Sundays leading up to Thanksgiving, and Holy Week).

There’s something for everyone—traditional anthems, contemporary songs, music with congregational participation, and even a few handbell arrangements.

*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.

Communion Anthems

Gather Us In
SATB Choir with Piano
Marty Haugen/arr. Mark Hayes

A jubilant 6/8 anthem with rolling piano accompaniment. A prayer for unity and humility.

Draw Us In the Spirit's Tether
SAB or SATB Choir with Organ
Harold Friedell/ arr. Sheldon Curry

A traditional setting of this well-known hymn. I love the text in this one.

The Whisper
SATB Choir with Piano
Craig Courtney

A personal call to come to the table and hear God whisper your name.

Think of Me and Remember
SAB or SATB Choir with Piano
Joel Raney

A call to follow Christ, all the way to Calvary. Especially fitting for Lent or Holy Week services.

Create in Me a Clean Heart, O God
SATB Choir with Piano
Victor C. Johnson

Based on Psalm 51, this penitent anthem would work especially well during Lent.

An Offering
SATB Choir with Piano
Dan Forrest

This stirring, reflective anthem describes sacrificial love and redeeming grace.

Let Us Come
SATB Choir with Piano
Karen Marrolli

A quiet call to come to the table, this folk-like anthem incorporates quotes from Adoro te Devote. Beautiful!

Come, Share the Lord
SATB Choir with Piano
Bryan Jeffrey Leech/arr. Lloyd Larson

Focused on the theme of unity, this anthem invites and welcomes all to come to the table.

Room at the Table
SATB Choir with Piano and Opt. Solo
David Lantz III

Beautiful text and an expressive musical setting.

Lamb of God
SATB Choir, a cappella
arr. F. Melius Christiansen

A true classic. This anthem is especially fitting during Lent.

One Bread, One Body
SAB or SATB Choir with Piano
John B. Foley/arr. Lloyd Larson

An accessible choral setting of a favorite communion hymn featuring a supportive, flowing piano accompaniment.

At the Table
SATB Choir with Piano
Victor C. Johnson

A reverent reflection on the mercy, grace, and redemption found at the table.

Come Just As You Are
SATB Choir with Piano
arr. Benjamin Harlan

Beautiful, inviting text: "Come just as you are. Come and see, come, receive, come and live forever."

For All His Blessings
SATB Choir with Piano
Steve Danyew

A new setting of an old hymn text, this anthem quotes the doxology as a recurring chorus. This would work well any time of the year, but seems especially fitting for Thanksgiving.

Come to the Water
SATB Choir with Piano
John Foley/arr. Lynda Hasseler

I love this arrangement (Note: Try playing it down a half step in the key of A-flat major). Beautiful text based on Isaiah 55:1.

I Will Arise
SATB Choir, a cappella
arr. Robert Shaw/Alice Parker

Another choral classic, this traditional setting of "I Will Arise" works well for All Saints' Sunday or on a communion Sunday.

In the Season of our Plenty
SATB Choir with Piano and Opt. Handbells
arr. Mark Patterson

This anthem combines two familiar hymn tunes—BEACH SPRING and NETTLETON. Another anthem that works especially well around Thanksgiving time.

Communion Anthems with Opt. Congregational Chorus

Behold the Lamb (Communion Hymn)
SATB Choir with Piano and Opt. Solo and Congregation
Keith Getty & Stuart Townend/arr. Douglas Nolan

A powerful anthem that describes the passion and. Perfect for Lent or Holy Week, but also suitable throughout the year.

Draw the Circle Wide
SATB Choir with Piano
Mark A. Miller

A simple, stirring plea to "draw the circle wide." (This works well as a combined choir piece. Read more here.) Especially fitting for World Communion Sunday.

Gathered As One
SAB Choir with Piano
Paul A. Tate

A celebration of unity and joy. Have the choir or soloists sing the verses and invite the congregation to sing on the chorus or turn it into an intergenerational choir experience, with each choir (children, youth, adult) singing a verse on their own and all voices coming together on the chorus. This anthem would work well for World Communion Sunday or All Saints' Sunday.

Welcome in Roll Down, Justice!
SATB Choir with Piano
Mark A. Miller

A wonderful, invitational anthem that welcomes all to come and experience grace.

Come With Thanksgiving
SATB Choir with Piano and Opt. Brass, Timpani, and Congregation
Brahms/arr. Larson

A majestic symphonic theme composed by Johannes Brahms is set with Thanksgiving text by Pamela Stewart in this accessible anthem. The brass and timpani are a wonderful addition.

Welcome to God's Love
SATB Choir* with Piano
Mark A. Miller
*Available as an SATB anthem or in Roll Down, Justice!

A warm, heartfelt "welcome," this anthem is a beautiful way to lead into communion.

The Open Table in Roll Down, Justice!
Unison Choir with Piano
Mark A. Miller

An open invitation to come to the table and witness God at work.

Contemporary Songs for Communion

Christ Has Broken Down the Wall
Mark A. Miller

A powerful anthem of love, grace, and forgiveness.

Table of Grace: Hymns and Short Songs
Barbara Hamm

A collection of 46 new communion hymns and short songs.

Table of Plenty
Mark Hayes

An anthem about unity and belonging. Have a soloist sing the verses and invite the congregation to sing on the chorus.

We Fall Down
Chris Tomlin

A beautiful song of surrender and praise.

Give Thanks
Henry Smith
Available in The Faith We Sing

A call to "give thanks with a grateful heart."

We Will Glorify the King of Kings
Twila Paris
Available in The Faith We Sing

A song of praise and thanksgiving.

Bind Us Together
Bob Gillman
Available in The Faith We Sing

A prayer for unity. This song works well with the traditional hymn, "Blest Be the Tie That Binds."

The Table
Chris Tomlin

A simple invitation to come and find rest, peace, and healing.

Handbell Music for Communion

Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence (Processional & Meditation)
2, 3, or 5-octave handbells + 2, 3, or 5-octave handchimes (or keyboard)
arr. Karen Thompson

One Bread, One Body
3-5 octave handbells
arr. Douglas E. Wagner

Communion Meditations: A Set of Flexible-Length Pieces
3-5 octave handbells
Margaret R. Tucker

Communion Meditations, Set 2: A Set of Flexible-Length Pieces for Communion and Other Times
3-5 octave handbells with opt. 2-3 octave handchimes
Margaret R. Tucker

The Bread and the Cup: A Flexible Medley for the Communion Service
2-3 octave handbells or handchimes
Jason W. Krug

Communion Hymns for Handbells
2-3 octave handbells or handchimes
Bill Ingram

In Christ Alone
2-3 octave handbells
arr. Lloyd Larson

We Come Before the Table
2-3 octave handbells
Derek K. Hakes

As We Gather At Your Table (in Five Hymns for Twelve Bells)
12 handbells
Bill Ingram

Three for Communion
2- or 3-octave handbells
Dan R. Edwards

Just As I Am
3-octave handbells
Susan E. Geschke

Communion Meditation
3-5 octave handbells
Douglas E. Wagner

I’d love to hear from you:

What are your favorite songs, hymns, and anthems for communion Sundays? What kind of music do you generally use during communion?

Three Models for Organizing a Combined Choir

Choir is a meaningful way to build community, promote unity, and bring people together.

Whether you direct a community choir, a church choir, or work with a professional choir, combining with other groups can be a memorable, enriching musical experience for all involved. It's also a practical way to expand what's possible on a concert program: more voices, more opportunities for divisi, and a bigger sound than one group could create on their own.

24 Piano Duet Books for Recitals or Worship

Piano duets are one of the most enjoyable ways to make music with another person—whether you're adding something special to a worship service, planning a studio recital or informance, or just looking for an excuse to sit down at the piano and play with a friend or student.

In my experience, most piano students love the chance to perform together, and even small churches have at least one person in the congregation with some playing experience. Often, people just need to be asked and invited to participate.

A Score-Study Checklist for Music Teachers & Directors

The phrase score-study takes me right back to music history at 8 a.m. on Wednesdays (you, too?). Grout anthology in one hand, class notes in another, marking cadences and phrase structure and German augmented sixth chords.

Don’t worry—I’m not suggesting you analyze your ensemble music quite to that degree. However, the practice of studying a score—before teaching, rehearsing, or performing the piece has its merits.

How to Lead a More Effective Rehearsal

Making progress, learning, improving. A sense of accomplishment and achievement.

Whether you’re leading a choir, chamber group, studio class, or classroom ensemble, you know what a good rehearsal feels like—focused, efficient, and productive.

There’s energy and momentum and everyone’s engaged and working together.

Oh, What Fun! How to Host a Christmas Choir Kick-Off Party

Who doesn't love a Christmas party in September (even if it’s still shorts weather)?!

A Christmas choir party is a fun and festive way to welcome new members, build community, and generate excitement for the season ahead. Whether you're leading a church choir, community chorus, or small ensemble, this kind of event sets a warm, enthusiastic tone for the year and offers your choir members a sneak peek of what's to come.

The Introverted Musician: 8 Survival Strategies for Teachers & Directors

Are you an introvert or an extrovert?

Society often makes us feel like we’re either one or the other. But these personality traits are actually opposite ends of the same spectrum.

And the reality is that most of us fall somewhere in the middle (source).

Susan Cain, researcher and author of the New York Times bestseller, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking noted, "Extroverts need higher levels of stimulation to feel their best” while "introverts prefer quiet, minimally stimulating environments." (source)

Five Ways to Celebrate the End of the School Year

From August or September until May or June, choir and ensemble members of all ages gather in communities across the country week after week. They sing, they smile, they learn, but most of all, they give their time to be part of something bigger than themselves.

It’s a commitment, and often one that includes the whole family. This alone is something worth acknowledging and celebrating.

But then there’s the wonderful work that you do together throughout the year—the music you learn, the songs you sing, the services and programs and concerts you present, the community you build.

Here are five ways to celebrate the end of another wonderful year and show your appreciation for your choir and ensemble members this spring.

5 Reasons Why Your Rehearsals Feel Monotonous (and What to Do About It)

You know what it feels like:

Uninspired.
Laborious.
Boring.

It’s easy to slip into a rut in rehearsals from time to time, but I think we can all agree: these are not things anyone wants to feel or experience.

You don’t want to feel like you’re just going through the motions each week; you want to feel excited and energized to sing or play and learn and make music together.

5 Simple Ideas for Creative Hymn-Playing

If you’re a church pianist or organist, you likely have lots of opportunities to use hymn arrangements and creative hymn-playing techniques (like, multiple times in every service!).

But knowing what to do, finding well-crafted hymn harmonizations, and accessing published resources can be challenging. In some cases, these resources aren’t available at all.

The good news is, you don’t need to rely solely on published resources to add creative hymn arrangements and harmonizations into your service-playing. You can learn to do some of this yourself.

4 Strategies to Help Your Adult Choir Improve Their Sight-Reading Skills

It's one the greatest musical skills you can help your choir develop: singing and reading music for themselves with musical understanding.

Just like learning to read language, music-reading comes after listening and interacting with music aurally and developing a musical vocabulary of tonal and rhythm patterns (these are like words in language).

Think of how you learned to read: You probably spent a lot of time following along in a book as you listened to someone else read to you. Eventually, you started finishing the sentences and pointing to the words as you went along.

You learned simple words like, go and dog and identified them in other books.

Learning to read music is no different. We learn to recognize tonal and rhythm patterns like familiar words in books.

15 Church Choir Anthems for Advent

'Tis the season to be jolly (in July, as you plan music for Advent!)

Am I right?!

As a church musician, you know it's never too early to be thinking about Christmas, so today, I thought I'd share a few favorite choral anthems for the Advent season.

I've mentioned a few of these in previous posts (Favorite Anthems for the Small Church Choir and Fifty More Favorite Anthems for the Small Church Choir), but I thought it might be helpful to compile everything in one post for easy reference.

26 Leadership Skills and Traits for Church Music Directors

What does it mean to be a leader? And what does it take to be a great one?

Leadership has been defined as “the art of motivating a group of people to act towards achieving a common goal.” (source) Thus, a leader is one who inspires and directs that collective action.

This requires a certain set of skills and character traits, though experts say you can learn and develop these skills with time and experience.

You don’t have to be born with all of these skills and traits to be a great leader.

What Type of Choir Director Are You?

Take a moment to think about the choir directors you’ve had during your lifetime. What was your first choir director like? If you sang in a choir during high school, what was that director like? Think about the directors you’ve had as an adult, whether in a university, church, or community setting. What were those directors like?

Each one had a different style, right? A different approach to leading, conducting, organizing, and communicating with the choir. What makes one director a stronger leader than another? Which communication style is most effective?

Three Ways to Plan a Summer Choir

As you wrap up your school-year commitments and make plans for those lazy, hazy days of summer, now is the perfect time to start organizing a summer choir.

Here are three unique ways to organize and structure a summer choir at your church, plus some helpful strategies for making the most of your time together each week.

12 Anthems for Palm Sunday and Easter

Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday are big celebrations in the life of the church and since they come back-to-back in the church calendar, it's one of the busiest weeks of the year for church musicians! Here are a few anthems to consider for your choir this year.

13 Choral Anthems for Lent

Lent. A time of reflection, sacrifice, prayer, contemplating, and grace.

It's a time of stripping away, going without (for example, the practice of "burying the alleluia" during Lent), and quieting the heart and mind.

There are six Sundays during Lent, plus any services that take place during Holy Week (the week between Palm Sunday and Easter).

If you’re looking for a few new Lenten anthems to add to your library this year, here are a few of my favorites for SAB and SATB choirs.

Celebrating Women in Music Month: Church Music by Women Composers & Authors

In March, we celebrate Women's History Month around the world. And for those of us in music, we often celebrate women in music, as well.

There are festivals honoring the contributions of women in music, concerts celebrating repertoire by women composers, and publications about women writers and creators who have been relegated to the sidelines throughout history.

In church music, there is a rich history of women composers and authors sharing poetry, hymns, anthems, and service music. To celebrate Women in Music Month, here is a collection of church music written by women.

55 Hymns by Black Composers

In February, we celebrate Black History Month—an annual observance in the U.S., Canada, Ireland, and the U.K. (and perhaps other places, as well) honoring the history, achievements, contributions, sacrifices, and struggles of African Americans.

A Quick Warm-Up Routine for Piano Accompanists

Remember in college when you'd get into the practice room in the morning, unpack your books, and launch into a warm-up sequence? Maybe it was scales, chord patterns, or arpeggios. Maybe it was a finger-strengthening exercise. Maybe it was a technical etude.

Whatever your routine, warm-ups were an important part of each practice session.

Songs of the Season: A Celebration of Winter Holidays

Fall is here, which means the return of Georgia football (Go Dawgs!), puffer vests, and apple everything (sorry, PSL).

It also means lots of repertoire planning and rehearsing for Christmas programs, musicals, and holiday concerts.

I recognize that some of you are in positions where you may be programming a holiday concert or program, whether that's a school or community setting or an interfaith musical celebration with area churches. If you're looking for choral music that touches on various Winter holidays and celebrations, I hope the list of anthems below is helpful to you.

5 Things You Should Know About Directing a Church Choir

Many of you faithful readers have probably been directing a choir for what feels like ages.

But I recognize that some of you are new to this: maybe this is your first church job or your first time directing the choir at your church after serving in another capacity. Maybe you have choral conducting experience, but not in a church setting.

New Choral Settings of Old Hymn Texts

Hymns tell the stories of our faith.

Stories of faithfulness, prayers for peace, and songs of abiding love. Stories about Jesus’ birth, life, death, and resurrection. Prophecies, promises, and words of hope and assurance.

As the great St. Augustine once wrote, "To sing is to pray twice."

When we sing these stories of our faith, we internalize them. We remember them.

How to Help Your Adult Choir Learn to Read Music

For those of you who work in a choral setting, you know that a big challenge is working with adults who don’t read music. How can you teach music-reading in a group setting when your rehearsal time is limited each week? How can you empower your adult singers to develop these skills on their own?

Doug Hanvey—a pianist, adult educator, and composer—has a few teaching tips (and a free printable resource) to share so you can help your adult singers learn to read more confidently and develop their sight-singing skills. Enjoy!

25 Church Choir Anthems for Ordinary Time

Ordinary Time, for most Protestant churches, begins the week after Pentecost and runs until the beginning of Advent. Some churches also consider the period between Epiphany Sunday and Lent Ordinary Time, making it the longest season of the liturgical year (source).

Are you doing the math? That's 33-34 Sundays in Ordinary Time in any given year. That's a lot of anthems!

I thought today would be the perfect time to share some of my favorite anthems for Ordinary Time. Most of them work really well with small choirs (or large choirs—whatever you've got!).

Without further ado, my top 25 anthems for Ordinary Time:

What Makes Something Singable? A Guide for Congregational Singing

When we talk about singing, especially singing in a community or congregational setting, we often ask, "Is it singable?"

This simple question may sound arbitrary but there's actually a lot of care and thought that goes into determining the answer.

Q&A: How to Celebrate a Church Musician's Anniversary

Sometimes I get questions in my inbox that I think others may be wondering, too. Here’s a question I got recently about celebrating a church musician’s anniversary.

How to Manage Your Music Budget: A Guide for Church Musicians

It’s a new year and that can mean only one thing: a new budget for your music program!

Most churches run on a January-December fiscal year, which means it's time to pull out your budget worksheets and start fresh.

When you do this, you suddenly remember that budget worksheets are boring, black and white Excel files, with heavy black grid lines, plain font, and pages that run on forever, which sort of puts a damper on the whole happy, fresh-start thing.

Does this sound familiar? If so, I made something for you.

How to Write an Annual Report for Your Church Music Program

For most churches, January is the start of a new fiscal year, which means it’s almost time for that long-anticipated after-church event that may or may not include finger sandwiches and decaf coffee…

Annual Meeting (and your written annual report).

Today, I’m sharing a few outline ideas for writing an annual report, a simple checklist of things to mention or include, and a few real-life examples for inspiration.

Q&A: Music Theory for Adult Choirs

Sometimes I get questions in my inbox that I think others may be wondering, too. Here’s a question I got recently about music theory resources for adult choirs.

How to Maximize Productivity in Your Choir Rehearsals

A successful, productive choir rehearsal takes proper preparation, careful planning, good time management skills, and attention to detail. In this post, I’m answering your questions plus sharing a few strategic tips for maximizing productivity in your rehearsals week after week.