[f. COMMUNION + -IST.] a. One who partakes of the Communion, a communicant (rare). b. Close, open, strict, free communionist; one who adheres to close or open communion: see COMMUNION 7; c. Fellow-communionist: a member of the same communion.
1644. Durye, Epist. Disc., 41. Most of the scrupulosities of the non-communionists may be resolved thereby.
1826. J. Gilchrist, Lect., 24. The glorious victory over the strict communionists.
1851. S. Judd, Margaret, III. (1871), 363. Many of the children are communionists.
1865. Lond. Rev., 30 Dec., 711/1. The Old School Presbyterians of the North insist that their fellow communionists of the South should repudiate their errors.
1884. Spurgeon, in Chr. Commw., 1 May, 692/3. As compared with the bulk of English Baptists I am a strict communionist myself, as my Church fellowship is strictly of the baptised.
