DONEGAL’S COMMUNION TABLE AND TOKENS

      The oak table and chair now standing in the narthex of the church belong traditionally to the early log meeting house.  They are put together with wooden pegs, thus indicating a very early date. They are lacking any finish or paint and doubtless were used by the pastor and for the administration of the communion.  Most likely the table and chair were used in the present stone building until the walnut pulpit was constructed in 1772.  Our pewter communion service, which is kept in the bank vault except for rare occasions, would have been used in a “common cup” type observance.

       The two pewter flagons and four chalices were supposedly brought to Donegal by Arthur Patterson in 1724.  They were made in London by William Eddon who worked between 1690 and 1737.  The four plates, or patens, which are rare for their fluted edges, were made later by Richard King, London, between 1745 and 1798. The pewter identification was made by Eric DeJong of the PA State Museum who also appraised all of our antique furniture and artifacts in the early 1980’s for insurance purposes.

      In later years, but before the 1851 remodeling, the communion was served from long tables with communicants coming forward and sitting on benches. (Could our long white benches date to this time?)  The long white homespun linen cloths for these tables were preserved until recent years.  And the long tables, which had been taken up into the attic of the church were discovered there in the early 1900’s and almost chopped up for firewood until someone realized what they were.  However, since then, they also have disappeared.

      It is certain that as with most Presbyterian churches, tokens were used as “tickets” to receive communion.  The tokens were made of pewter and stamped with the “arms of the church’ or other designation.  Usually they were given to all members of good and regular standing at the preparatory service, which was held prior to the Sunday communion. Anyone not having a token was not admitted to the Lord’s Table.  At one time, held on Saturday, but throughout much of the 1900’s, there was a Friday evening preparatory service.  Tokens then were no longer in use, and there seem to be none in existence.  Communion was observed twice a year, on the first Sabbaths of April and of October

      From an American Heritage book, “Colonial Antiques,”  we are informed that our old oak communion table is a stretcher-base table, a style which was used in the 1650-1700 period.  The tavern type table of the 1700-1725 period has just one rung or stretcher across the center which was joined to a rung at each end between the table legs.