Sermon
18th January 2026
That reading, from the end of the 2nd chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, talks about the day of Pentecost, the birthday of the Church. It describes the remarkable effect of the coming of the Holy Spirit, and the vast numbers who are subsequently converted and baptised. It then describes what happened next (verse 42) “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of the bread and the prayers”.
Here are the four core elements of what Christians do when they meet together, from those very first days of the Church right down to today:
The apostles’ teaching is now set down in the pages of our bibles; the breaking of bread is the mass, eucharist, holy communion, or whatever else you want to call it; and the prayers include both the formal set prayers in the liturgy, and the more informal intercessions. So that leaves us with just one other of the four core elements of Church life: our fellowship.
Now I guess that for those early Christians this would include have meant time spent together, perhaps over a meal and, during times of persecution, often in secret. Running through the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles is this recurring theme of the Churches as communities of folk who know each other and spend time in each other’s company, enjoying all those four aspects of their communal life.
There is no idea of the individual Christian being in a relationship with God that excludes other people. Although through the centuries, there have been times when this has been unavoidable. One of the most powerful sermons I ever heard was at university over 50 years ago when an Anglican Priest who had been in solitary confinement in South Africa for his anti-apartheid activities, spoke about saying mass alone in his prison cell with just bread to offer.
We express our fellowship with each other in various ways. During the interregnum, there will be few social events. However, our congregations here are better than most at chatting with each other after services, staying in Chapel after the 8am mass and evensong, or over coffee and biscuits after the main Sung Mass.
When we offer one another a sign of peace during the mass, it is precisely that: an outward sign, a brief reminder, of the fellowship we share, before we gather around the Lord’s table to share the bread and wine given for us. It’s a tricky thing to get right: different folk have different preferences. On the one hand you have those prefer to keep themselves to themselves whilst on the other, you have those those who would hug and kiss everybody. Good safeguarding practice encourages us to be sensitive to how others wish to approach this and, particularly in winter when flu and other bugs are doing the rounds, to err on the side of restraint.
The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity which begins today reminds us that our fellowship with other Christians extends beyond our own congregation. We aim to be one with all our brother and sister Christians of all denominations. David will have more to say about this when he leads our intercessions this morning.
We thank God for our fellow Christians, known to us and unknown, looking forward to that time when we will all share together in that great heavenly banquet, of which we have a glimpse in our worship here on earth as we “devote ourselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of the bread and the prayers”.
Amen
