Fifty years ago, July 21, Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin was the second man to walk on the moon, following Neil Armstrong by 19 minutes. Aldrin was also the first person to take Holy Communion and read a verse from the bible on the moon. History was made that day.
"I wondered if it might be possible to take communion on the moon," Aldrin later recalled, according to Fox News.
The ordained Presbyterian elder said it was to symbolize "the thought that God was revealing Himself there, too, as man reached out into the universe." Aldrin added there were many astronauts at NASA who had strong faith and trust that what they were doing was part of "God's eternal plan."
NASA was initially apprehensive of Aldrin celebrating communion upon landing of the Eagle lunar lander on the moon's surface July 20, 1969. This was due to a previous lawsuit arising from the Apollo 8 mission, in which an atheist attempted to sue the agency after astronauts sent out a broadcast of themselves reading from the Book of Genesis, the Religion News Service noted.
However, Aldrin was persistent and NASA relented. When the American astronaut landed on the moon, he took out bread, wine and silver chalice that had been provided by his church. Shortly before taking communion he spoke into the radio.
"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 said.
Aldrin then took out a 3-by-5-inch notecard on which he had written John 15:5. He paused to read it silently:
"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."
Aldrin then went on to perform the religious ritual alone. He recalled the moment in an article that appeared in Guideposts magazine in 1970.
"I poured the wine into the chalice our church had given me. 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."
Upon their return to earth, once the mission was complete, Aldrin also read out Psalm 8: 3-4, which he had penned on the same notecard, Fox News noted.
"When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou has ordained; What is man that thou art mindful of him? And the Son of Man, that thou visitest Him?"
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