Wednesday Eucharist

This second Eucharist was an unusual experience for many of us. The Rt Rev David A. Alvarez presided and the Rev Miguelina Espinal preached. Much of the service was conducted in Spanish, and our service books had both the Spanish and the English versions of the prayers. The first reading (1 Corinthians 2) was given in Portuguese, and Rev Espinal preached in Spanish. As a somewhat fluent Spanish speaker, I enjoyed listening and caught most of what was said.

Our table discussion asked us to think about how our worship and daily lives help us to show our faith to the world. My table reflected on the discomfort we felt with the different languages, making full participation in the worship more difficult. What we discovered is that our witness to the world is that we can come together as different people, with different cultures and different languages, and in many instances with different interpretations of the scripture, and worship at the same altar and eat at the same table. It is a powerful witness, and I pray that we are able to retain that special gift through the tensions of the upcoming days as we discuss and debate our response to the Windsor Report.