Advent Calendar XVIII

Oh Dear, Oh Dear, Oh Dear, I've done it again, I managed to miss posting on time.   My excuse ~ life!

EL Greco 1603

Yesterday was the forth Sunday in Advent, so it was the day when we really did have Four Candles.   We had a communion as part of our main Sunday morning service (we don't every week!) and our special Carol Service in the evening.   During communion I was put in mind of a post my friend (I was so tempted to type "Pal") Joey put up the other day about communion at his Church.    Well we are good Anglicans and so do it a little differently, we are given little broken pieces of white bread which we eat and then we drink the wine from a chalice, some will save the bread and dip it into the wine, but most of us parade past the ministers taking the bread and then the wine.

Christ on the Cross,  Eugene Delacroix,1853

Catholic Churches will adopt a similar process but use wafers rather than leavened bread as the host (I assume that this has something to do with transubstantiation). Baptist Churches will pass out the bread and then the wine in small glasses so the congregation can all drink the wine at the same time. However, it struck me that although we may have slight differences we are all very much united by this practice of sharing bread and wine.   It is the one bit of our services that unite us all.     This is what I think of when I say I believe in the Communion of Saints.  

All over the World at 12 O'clock on Saturday night Christians will be meeting together and sharing bread and wine, as we remember not only the birth of Christ but also His death and resurrection. Not only that He came to Earth fully Human, but also that He is fully God and that He has made our sins forgiven and won us eternal life.

Yes Christmas is great, but without Easter it is meaningless..