{"id":263,"date":"2026-03-01T23:08:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T23:08:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pilgrims.org.uk\/wp\/?p=263"},"modified":"2026-03-01T23:08:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T23:08:15","slug":"unity-in-bread-and-wine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pilgrims.org.uk\/wp\/2026\/03\/01\/unity-in-bread-and-wine\/","title":{"rendered":"Unity in bread and wine"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Common Ground Song 87 \u2018Memorial Acclamation\u2019<br><\/strong>Words: liturgical \/ Music: James MacMillan \u00a9 Boosey &amp; Hawkes<br>Featured image: A silver chalice and paten \u00a9 Diocese of Leeds<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What this song and the last (\u2018Lord of Mercy\u2019) have in common are that they are settings by the same contemporary composer of parts of the Mass. The words are those spoken (or sung) by the congregation shortly before sharing the consecrated bread: \u2018When we eat this bread and drink this cup, we proclaim your death, Lord Jesus, until you come in glory\u2019. The setting is a simple congregational chant in 3\/4 time, except that a four-part setting is also offered for choirs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are many reasons why the Communion \/ Mass is the central focus of worship for most Christians. Among them is the belief that Jesus\u2019s death, violent though it was, was necessary in order that he could be resurrected into eternal life, and the belief that follows from it, that he will (as promised) return again, not in the humility of a working man, but in some glorious form that everyone alive will immediately recognise. We therefore share in the bread and wine. They are (according to your tradition) either a memorial meal echoing the Last Supper before the crucifixion or a sacrifice of bread and wine that becomes Christ\u2019s actual body and blood. Either way, it is important to us that they symbolise the unity of all Christians as we await the Second Coming. See my recent post \u2018Casting out Fear\u2019 for a sermon on one aspect of this unity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Common Ground Song 87 \u2018Memorial Acclamation\u2019Words: liturgical \/ Music: James MacMillan \u00a9 Boosey &amp; HawkesFeatured image: A silver chalice and paten \u00a9 Diocese of Leeds What this song and the last (\u2018Lord of Mercy\u2019) have in common are that they are settings by the same contemporary composer of parts of the Mass. The words are [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":264,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[132,73,131,119],"class_list":["post-263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-common-ground","tag-chant","tag-communion","tag-mass","tag-unity"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pilgrims.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pilgrims.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pilgrims.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pilgrims.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pilgrims.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pilgrims.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":265,"href":"https:\/\/pilgrims.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263\/revisions\/265"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pilgrims.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pilgrims.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pilgrims.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pilgrims.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}