A first casualty of lockdown measures was sacramental worship. Thus, no baptisms and no table fellowship with The Lord and his people in Holy Communion. This has been a loss not fully compensated for by what we could do on-line.

Then in June small gatherings of households spaced at 1.5 meter became possible. Socially distant ways of being together in the same space and sharing communion with bread and wine were developed. Firstly 16, and then 23, people met in the two June communion services. I told those present among the many empty seats that they were there not so much for themselves but to constitute and represent the body that is Trinity Church.

This sounds like a shadow of what we usually enjoy. However I found a silver lining and an opportunity I want to share and commend to you. These cut-down opportunities afforded an opportunity to enter focused eucharistic worship at some cost. Yes, this really could be ‘a sacrifice of praise and worship’ requiring an extra mile on Sunday afternoon without the enjoyment of a shared coffee time or children/youth ministry etc.

It also provided an opportunity for something I have been wanting to do for a while. That is, offer some short and focused reflections on Holy Communion itself. Amidst our diversity I often felt we were sharing bread and wine but without much common understanding at depth.

This started me off in a series that may be on going for a while yet, considering some key dimensions of Holy Communion in short interactive homilies. These homilies were recorded and are being posted on line for you to listen to.

I want to commend them to you. They are less than half of my normal sermon length with each covering one or two key aspects. Some of these aspects are understood differently among Christians so you will learn what my faith is here.

They are labeled as Communion Service Message A, B, C etc

Go to https://trinitychurcheindhoven.org/sermon-topic/communion/ and begin with Communion Service Message A.