Interesting...I didn't know this?

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AfterBurners

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I received this email from a friend and thought I would share this since it has to do with two great men.



COMMUNION ON THE MOON
I presume that most of us were unaware of this story.
I didn't know this, but it's awesome!
43 years ago...guess what happened... many have not heard of this
before . . .

> Communion on the Moon: July 20, 1969
> (This is an article by Eric Metaxas)
>
> Forty-three years ago two human beings changed history by walking on
> the surface of the moon. But what happened before Buzz Aldrin and
> Neil Armstrong exited the Lunar Module is perhaps even more amazing, if
> only because so few people know about it. "I'm talking
> about the fact that Buzz Aldrin took communion on the surface of the
> moon. Some months after his return, he wrote about it in Guideposts
> magazine.
> And a few years ago I had the privilege of meeting him myself.
> I asked him about it and he confirmed the story to me, and I wrote
> about in my book Everything You Always Wanted to Know
> About God (But Were Afraid to Ask).
>
> The background to the story is that Aldrin was an elder at his
> Presbyterian Church in Texas during this period in his life, and
> knowing that he would soon be doing something unprecedented in
> human history, he felt he should mark the occasion somehow, and he
> asked his minister to help him. And so the minister consecrated a
> communion wafer and a small vial of communion wine. And Buzz Aldrin
> took them with him out of the Earth's orbit and on to the surface
> of the moon.
>
> He and Armstrong had only been on the lunar surface for a few minutes
> when Aldrin made the following public statement:
> "This is the LM pilot. I'd like to take this opportunity to ask every
> person listening in, whoever and wherever they may be, to
> pause for a moment and contemplate the events of the past few hours and
> to give thanks in his or her own way." He then ended radio
> communication and there, on the silent surface of the moon, 250,000
> miles from home, he read a verse from the Gospel of John, and he
> took communion. Here is his own account of what happened:
>
> "In the radio blackout, I opened the little plastic packages which
> contained the bread and the wine. I poured the wine into the chalice
> our church had given me. In the one-sixth gravity of the moon, the wine
> slowly curled and gracefully came up the side of the cup. Then I read
> the scripture, 'I am the vine, you are the branches. Whosoever abides
> in me will bring forth much fruit..
> Apart from me you can do nothing.'
>
> "I had intended to read my communion passage back to earth, but at the
> last minute [they] had requested that I not do this.
> NASA was already embroiled in a legal battle with Madelyn Murray
> O'Hare, the celebrated opponent of religion, over the Apollo 8 crew
> reading from Genesis while orbiting the moon at Christmas. I agreed
> reluctantly.
> "I ate the tiny Host and swallowed the wine. I gave thanks for the
> intelligence and spirit that had brought two young pilots to the Sea of
> Tranquility . It was interesting for me to think: the
> very first liquid ever poured on the moon, and the very first food
> eaten there, were the communion elements."
>
> And of course, it's interesting to think that some of the first words
> spoken on the moon were the words of Jesus Christ, who made the Earth
> and the moon - and Who, in the immortal words of Dante, is Himself the
> "Love that moves the Sun and other stars."
>
> How many of you knew this? Too bad this type news doesn't travel as
> fast as the bad does...share it if you've felt God's love.
>
>
> >
 
I was going to post this but the religious content might have offended somebody.:confused2:
 
I was going to post this but the religious content might have offended somebody.:confused2:

TOUGH!!! It's a historical fact. If they do'nt like it, stuff a G-100 up thier ..........
 
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Did know about this....and it is re-enacted in that fantastic HBO documentary series "From the Earth to the Moon".

Yes, and they way they portrayed Neil Armstrong during the ritual he seemed somewhat unenthused.
There was a series pn public televsion about evolution, and darwinism called the "Voyage of Charles Darwin".
Neil was the host of the show.

I always wondered about his relligious beliefs as contrasted with those of Buzz...perhaps making for some friction.
 
Here's my thought on this:

I'm a secular person and I wish all the religion in politics these days would just go away and be kept more private. However, the bit about Niel Armstrong and the communion is completely NOT offensive to me.

He did it in a private moment, more or less, and let's face it: the guy put his a$$ on the line like nobody before him (though, he had a partner up there and another in orbit!), and if he wanted to pray in his own way, with materials in his personal mass allowance, he's got every right to do so.

I think it was a wise move by NASA to make the act a private one, though.
 
TOUGH!!! It's a historical fact. If they do'nt like it, stuff a G-100 up thier ..........

Interesting defense of posting religious content.

I'm non-religious, and I am not offended or bothered at all by reading about someone's private religious practices. And the space program is a frequent topic of conversation here, so it's perfectly appropriate to post.

Threatening to insert a motor into someone's ".........." because they have their feelings hurt or disagree with you, now that's offensive. But hey, everybody has their own thing.
 
Richard C. Hogland says it was a masonic ritual. Probably had something to do with the face on Mars or something.
 
Thanks for sharing the story. I appreciated it.

I would add more but it is non-rocketry, historical about our nation, and could or would be viewed by others as political. PM me if you even begin to care about what I would like to say.
 
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