A new book describes the Churches Communion service as essentially a meal and suggests that even a dinner party might fulfil the same purpose as a secular ritual.
In 1993 I wrote a script for CFM radio, a local radio
station based in Carlisle the programme was
broadcast at Easter that year and the Radio Station decided to enter the tape
for a competition called Easter on FM.
The programme won the first prize and as a result of
winning the competition I was invited to the WACC, World Association of
Christian Communicators’ conference which is held every four years and that
year was being held in Metepec in Mexico
This was an extraordinary, ecumenical meeting with
professional communicators from across the world meeting to discuss the
challenges and opportunities for communicating the Christian faith in an
increasingly secular world.
The conference centre was in a converted Mill with manicured green lawns.
When I tried to leave the grounds I was stopped by armed guards and told that I needed to take care and I could see why as I stepped out of the westernised conference centre surroundings, into the Third World.
Every morning delegates gathered on the Heli-Pad to monitor the rumblings, the smoke and steam emerging from the mouth of the active volcano Popacatapetal, which eventually erupted a few years later.
As the conference unfolded a rumour began to circulate
that the Bishop of the Chiappas, the indigent peoples of Southern
Mexico was planning to attend. The rumour gained momentum as it
was revealed that the Roman Catholic Churches support for the people of the
Chiappas had brought them into conflict with the landowners. The landowners had
taken out a contract on the life of the Bishop whose preaching had threatened
their livelihoods and social position and consequently he was under protection
and could not publish his diary in advance.
Nevertheless the rumours strengthened until one evening
in the Dining Room as representatives of seventy nations were sitting down to
supper, spontaneous applause broke out around a figure, surrounded by
bodyguards, whom we recognised as the Bishop.
He spoke briefly to the conference delegates and in his
address shared with us his vision of the kingdom of God
It was a very sobering moment in the conference
proceedings and a reminder that the strength of the church is to be found in
its weakness.
The Communion Service is more than a dinner party it is the re-enacting of this heavenly banquet in time and space.
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