PropertyValue
?:author
?:datePublished
  • 2010-03-07 (xsd:date)
?:headline
  • Did Buzz Aldrin Take Communion on the Moon? (en)
?:inLanguage
?:itemReviewed
?:mentions
?:reviewBody
  • One of the smaller details lost amidst the tremendous historic and scientific achievements of the Apollo 11 mission that landed the first two human beings on the moon in July 1969 was that it also marked the first occasion on which a Christian took the sacrament of Communion on an astronomical body other than Earth. This event took place in the interval between the lunar module's landing on the moon on 20 July 1969 and Neil Armstrong's taking his first steps on the lunar surface several hours later; during that period, astronaut Buzz Aldrin privately observed Communion using elements he had brought with him to the moon: Example: He and Armstrong had only been on the lunar surface for a few minutes when Aldrin made the following public statement: This is the LM pilot. I'd 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. He then ended radio communication and there, on the silent surface of the moon, 250,000 miles from home, he read a verse from the Gospel of John, and he took communion. Here is his own account of what happened: Aldrin openly described his Communion experience on the moon in print several times, including an August 1969 interview with LIFE magazine, an October 1970 Guideposts article, and his 1973 book Return to Earth. The following account of his motivations and preparation is taken from Aldrin's 2009 book, Magnificent Desolation: Some sources asserted that Aldrin's taking of Communion was kept secret from the public by NASA due to an ongoing lawsuit filed by atheist Madalyn Murray O'Hair: However, it's not completely true that the public was kept in the dark about the event until many years later. Although Aldrin maintained that NASA asked him not to broadcast his observance of Communion, news accounts released while the Apollo 11 mission was in progress reported that Aldrin was bringing Communion bread with him to the moon and would be joining Earth-bound parishioners in observing Communion from the lunar surface, as noted in this 20 July 1969 Associated Press dispatch: Buzz Aldrin's observance of Communion was dramatized in an episode of the 1998 HBO mini-series From the Earth to the Moon: (en)
?:reviewRating
rdf:type
?:url