I’ve been half waiting for it for about half a year and I think it has finally hit our newspapers and TV screens – it’s ‘Moon Fever’. Forty years ago on the 20^th July, Neil Armstrong, from Apollo 11, became the first man to set foot on our moon. For a boy of ten years of age, it was one of the most exciting things to have ever happened. For years, in my memory, I often wondered why I was so tired at the time – it was because it was 3.50 in the morning. The actual moon walk had been postponed for one reason and another, and my parents had decided to put me to bed in order for me to get some sleep, but then to bring me down when it was actually happening. It was an astronaut from Apollo 8 who said a very poignant thing recently; that they had travelled all that way to examine what the moon was like, but ended up being amazed at what the earth was like. The first time man had ever viewed the earth in that way. That famous photograph ‘Earthrise’ is from that mission – the beauty of the blue plant that inspired them to recite Genesis Chapter 1.

Although there were other moon walks, all the excitement soon died down and the space program was abandoned not many years later.

Forty years! What an anniversary. In fact ‘anniversaries’ was a major theme of our Bishop’s address to his Diocesan Synod last Tuesday;

the 400^th anniversary of the granting of the Royal Charter to Down, and Dromore, Cathedrals; the 150^th anniversary of the Ulster Revival; the 40^th anniversary of the start of the ‘Troubles’. Ray pointed out that he forgot to mention the 175th anniversary of the Oxford Movement (last year); an Anglo-Catholic ‘revival’, if you like!

But anniversaries are hugely important events. Your Wedding Anniversary! Husbands, you know how to never forget your Wedding Anniversary? Forget it once!

Every day of every year brings reasons for anniversaries. Last week, we had the extraordinary deaths of actress Farah Fawcett and singer Michael Jackson. And anniversaries of deaths are probably most poignant on a personal basis, deeply personal, but they are also poignant on an historical level.

History is fascinating, and the play on dates can be intriguing. I wonder can a History teacher explain this one:

Abraham Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846.

John F Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946.

Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860.

John F Kennedy was elected to President in 1960.

Both were particularly concerned with civil rights, and both wives lost their children while living in the White House.

Both Presidents were shot on a Friday.

Both Presidents were shot in the head.

Lincoln’s secretary was named Kennedy.

Kennedy’s secretary was named Lincoln.

Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Lincoln, was born in 1808.

Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded Kennedy, was born in 1908

John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated Lincoln, was born in 1839, and Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated Kennedy, was born in 1939.

Both assassins were known by their three names and both names are composed of 15 letters.

Lincoln was shot at a theatre and his assassin ran and hid in a warehouse. Kennedy was shot from a warehouse and his assassin ran and hid in a theatre.

Booth and Oswald were both assassinated before their trials.

And I thought History was an appalling sublect in school!

It’s because of history that we meet here every Sunday. Every Eucharist is living history, where we bring what happened two thousand years ago right up to the present day.

In fact, we do even more than that, we not only bring history right up to our present day but we also look forward to the future; the past, present and future of the ministry Christ our Lord:

We remember his passion and death, we celebrate his resurrection and ascension, and we look for the coming of his kingdom.

To be able to do all this makes the Eucharist a very special event indeed. It is the central act of worship of the Christian Church, as you know very well. The Morning Prayer that we have on a Sunday is really a bit of a nonsense,

because ‘Morning Prayer’ is simply a daily office, something to be said on the days of the week. But when we come to the Sunday, the first day of the week, and we start remembering and celebrating and looking forward, then the service is surely to be the central act of worship in the Christian Church which is the Holy Communion, the Eucharist. Isn’t that right?

We’ve made the point before; perhaps on a number of occasions, but we still have Communion on just the one Sunday of the month, at the main morning Service. Perhaps if we vary it, and make more ‘user-friendly’ it may attract more attention. Do you remember the day after Ireland won the Grand Slam, it was Mothering Sunday? But it was also a Communion Sunday, a fourth Sunday of the month. So we simply put together a Family Service, the kind we’ve all become used to, with a Prayer of Consecration and Communion at the end; and I think it worked well.

But even more than all of that, we have to come to a deeper understanding of what the Communion Service is all about and also that it is for everyone. It is not for some sort of ‘elect’, it is for Baptised Christians who have fallen short of his glory. Do you fall into that category?

If you do, then you need to be a part of this service and to receive the bread and the wine at the Communion – to do it in remembrance of Him!