I was leading worship at Hamilton URC this morning. Nothing unusual in that except that I was early. I usually follow the ‘the closer it is the later I’ll be’ rule but today I was early. Good job because it turned out it was communion today… and I didn’t know! At least I had time to nip home and collect a communion liturgy.
I was early because my friend Thomas was coming over to Hamilton to join us for our worship. Because of my missing communion liturgy he was left to fend for himself which probably gave him a more realistic insight into the congregation.
It’s funny how the unexpected or unprepared things often have more significance. I grabbed the only communion liturgy I could find this morning. But if was ideal. It fitted with the sermon. It fitted with the feel of the service.
The best bit was sharing the peace, greeting each other and wishing God’s blessing of each other. The congregation don’t normally do it. But today they did… with relish. People wandered around the church hugging and shaking hands for quite some time. It was brilliant. People were warm and genuine in their sharing. A real community.
And I liked being a part of that.
Obviously you’re not afflicted with Swine Flu Fear, then – we haven’t had physical contact at the Peace since June, and have been receiving Communion in bread only because of the perceived perils of the common chalice – orders from Higher Up (though not Highest!)
I decided not to care. It just seemed like the right thing to do yesterday. One of the elderly members of the congregation had died the day before and there were some people who really needed a hug from each other.
We used individual cups and squares of Mother’s Pride in a proper reformed fashion so communion was as sterile as it could be in the passing germs sense!