PHILLIPSTON — World Communion was celebrated on Oct. 4, Communion Sunday all over the world. Some celebrated in lofty cathedrals, some in mud huts, some on the common in Phillipston.
It’s a powerful feeling, a uniting feeling, to know you are participating in something that Christians all over the world are doing. As Pastor Stephanie Flynn led the service in Phillipston, she told the history of World Communion that began in 1936 and its significance. Another term for Holy Communion is Eucharist, which means grateful. Eating the bread and drinking the wine is an act of taking Jesus into your life, bread representing His body and wine representing His blood, an act we do with gratitude that he died for us that we can have eternal life when we accept Him as our Savior.
This symbolic act was so vital to astronaut Buzz Aldrin that when he and Neil Armstrong landed on the moon, they paused before exiting the Lunar Module so Buzz could take communion. Buzz radioed NASA and asked listeners to give thanks in each person’s own way. Then there was a radio blackout from the moon, 250,000 miles away, as Buzz read a verse from the Gospel of John and took communion. “I opened the little plastic packages which contained the bread and the wine. I poured the wine into the chalice our church had given me. In the one-sixth gravity of the moon, the wine slowly curled and gracefully came up the side of the cup. Then I read the scripture: ‘I am the vine, you are the branches. Whosoever abides in me will bring forth much fruit. Apart from me you can do nothing.’ I ate the tiny toast and swallowed the wine. I gave thanks for the intelligence and spirit that had brought two young pilots to the Sea of Tranquility. It was interesting for me to think that the very first liquid ever poured on the moon and the very first food eaten there were the communion elements.”
Did you know that story? Think about it when you look at the moon that shines on everyone in the world. Communion took place out there, and as the moon shines its heavenly light on us, let us remember that Communion is a coming together, a time to put hostilities and prejudices aside, a time to be more tolerant and loving to one another, and we need this coming together more now than ever.
The Congregational Church of Phillipston has held uplifting outdoor services since Easter. Pastor Flynn preached from the front of the church and speakers carried the message to people in their cars or sitting in lawn chairs on the common. Indoor services will begin on Oct. 18 at 10 a.m., and every detail for distancing, masking, wiping is being addressed to be sure it will safe. Zoom will be available for those who wish to attend the service from home.