When we offer peace to each other, it is an act of faith, believing that God has called and empowered us to do this. Our peace is not the natural state of affairs it exists only because it has been created by the word of God, and by what God has done for us in Jesus Christ. In other words, we offer our peace to each other in response to God’s word. It comes after the reading of the scriptures and the preaching of the sermon. In the historic liturgy, the offering of peace to each other does not come at the beginning of the worship service, but before the offering and the Eucharistic prayer.

The passing of the peace before communion shares some characteristics with the evangelical greeting ritual: it is a greeting, and usually involves shaking hands. The second purpose seems to predominate the “meet and greet” at the beginning of worship could go on forever when friends chat in the aisle. In evangelicalism, the purpose for greeting one’s neighbor is twofold: 1) make newcomers feel welcome and connected so that they return and eventually join the church and 2) give friends a time to say hello to each other. For those who did not grow up with the historic Christian liturgy, the passing of the peace before communion appears to be a fancy form of the “greet your neighbor” portion of the modern evangelical worship service.