A Communion Like No Other!

Communion – something we share. How strange, on this Palm Sunday, to be sharing it in my study along with Pauline, in front of the computer, with Michael in his own home and knowing others were joining in wherever they happened to be. I thought of two other strange, but moving, Communion experiences.

There was a brief announcement on the radio this week of the death of Dr Bill Frankland, at the age of 108. He took a prominent part in the 2015 commemorations of the 70th anniversary of the end of World War Two, having been a prisoner of the Japanese during the war. Long after his 100th birthday he continued to do active medical research. In 1959, when Pauline and I were in Sierra Leone, his twin brother, Jack – an Anglican clergyman – was one of our colleagues. On Christmas Eve he invited us along with some other colleagues to join him and his wife, Carol, in their home for a midnight communion. A treasured memory.

Thirty years later, during Holy Week in 1989, I was in Jerusalem as a member of an ecumenical delegation. The leader of our team was an Irish bishop. On St Patrick’s Day, which fell during Holy Week that year, he invited the other nine members of the delegation to join him for a communion service. He obtained the use of the bar in the hotel where we were staying, and so we sat round and shared in another unusual, but memorable, communion service.

And now I have another unusual, but special occasion to add to my Communion memories. Thank you Michael.

DTR