Programme 11: Bread, Water and Wine

Priestland s Progress

Gerald doesn’t use sacraments, he used to think they were mumbo jumbo. Many people manage without them. Christians kneel at so many different tables, why can’t they get together? Salvationists don’t use sacraments, yet the Orthodox will give bread and wine to a baby. Maybe our vision needs widening, a sacramental view of the world and of each other.

Questions:

1. How important are signs and symbols to you? Think of some non‑churchy examples.
2. What do you think is happening in the Mass/Eucharist/Holy Communion?
3. What is the difference between wearing a Cross and following the Cross?

“They want to break bread together, and then they begin to realise that what they are doing is in fact very much what Jesus told his friends to do, and began to realise that the big separation between what is called sacramental and what’s called non-sacramental is a gap which has been created by history rather than by human feelings. They get in touch with simply trying to do what Jesus has told people to do when He takes the bread and takes the wine and says, “Do this in remembrance of me”.” 

Rosemary Haughton