BUSS ALDRIN CELEBRATED COMMUNION AFTER MOON LANDING

The Apollo 11 crew, from left: Commander Neil A. Armstrong, Command Module Pilot Michael Collins, and Lunar Module Pilot Edwin E. "Buzz" Aldrin Jr. On July 20th 1969 at 4:18 PM, EDT the Lunar Module "Eagle" landed in a region of the moon called the Mare Tranquillitatis, also known as the Sea of Tranquility.

Rev. David Shearman is a retired United Church Minister living in Owen Sound. He writes frequently in the Grey-Bruce This Week newspaper. In his most recent column, "Faith accompanied Apollo 11 to the moon" he made some interesting revelations that sent me off on a fact-finding mission that completely collaborated his fascinating story which I felt was too good not to give wings on Wrights Lane.

It hardly seems possible but it was 50 years ago that Apollo 11 landed on the moon, prompting Neil Armstrong's famous words, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."

It is not common knowledge that there was also a faith connection to that particular space mission.

It has been since disclosed that Buzz Aldrin, the other moon-landing astronaut, had received permission to celebrate the Christian sacrament of holy communion on the moon by NASA, "as long as he kept quiet about it."  Apparently NASA had been sued previously because the Apollo 8 astronauts had read from the Book of Genesis during their mission on Christmas Eve, 1968. While the law suit was dismissed, NASA was a bit apprehensive.

There were theological and logistical hurdles to Aldrin's request. An ordained Presbyterian elder, he sought and received permission to celebrate communion from the Presbyterian Church (USA). His pastor obtained a small silver chalice and Aldrin packed it, along with a few communion wafers and a small amount of wine in his personal flight kit.

Shortly after Eagle lunar touched down on the moon July 29, 1969, Aldrin pulled out the chalice, wine and bread, then spoke into the radio. "This is the LM pilot," he said, referring to the lunar module. "I would 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."

Aldrin then took a few moments to read silently from John 15:5, which he had scrawled on a three-by-five card: "I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me, and I in him, will bear much fruit; for you can do nothing without me."

He proceeded to perform the Christian ritual alone (Armstrong did not partake), making him the first person to celebrate a religious rite on heavenly body other than Earth.

"I poured the win into the chalice our church had given me," Aldrin recalled in a 1970 article in the Guidepost magazine. "In the one-sixth gravity of the moon the wine curled slowly and gracefully up the side of the cup. It was interesting to think that the very first liquid ever poured on the moon, and the first food eaten there, were communion elements."

Aldrin's congregation, Webster Presbyterian Church in Houston, Texas, still celebrates Lunar Communion Sunday every year on the Sunday closest to the July 20 anniversary of the moon landing. And what about that small silver chalice Aldrin used?...It is safe in a Houston bank vault ad a replica is exhibited at Webster Presbyterian Church on special occasions.

The Bible did eventually get to the moon thanks to The Apollo Prayer Fellowship formed several years earlier by NASA's then chaplain (a scientist and Presbyterian minister) John Maxwell Stout and his wife Helen, in the wake of the Apollo 1 fire that killed three astronauts. The initiative was in response to one of the felled astronauts, Ed White 11, who wanted to put a Bible on the moon. It took a few tries, but on the Apollo 14 mission, 100 micro-filmed Bibles were carried to and returned from the moon by astronaut Edgar Mitchell.

As Rev. Shearman stated in his newspaper column: "Faith has always been a companion to human exploration...Even our first steps into the heavens."