“Where Two or Three are
Gathered in
My Name.”

Following Midnight Mass at All Saints on Christmas Eve I found myself accompanying Cate, and Jenny my partner in taking Communion to a poorly parishioner.

On that most auspicious of nights we drove through a frosty, dark and silent Harlow before being welcomed into a warm and comfortable home.

The scene had a biblical simplicity that was so appropriate for that particular night, a priest and four communicants gathered together. It made the words in Matthew 18.20 come vividly alive for me where Christ says, “For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am among them”.

Cate conducted a short service, ancient, beautiful and profound words were spoken, Communion was given and all too soon we departed into the night. I saw and felt the effect of the Holy Spirit at work in that room, that night and felt privileged to have been allowed to be part of that moment.

I left profoundly moved and humbled by the experience and it is something I will reflect on and recall every Christmas Eve for the rest of my life.

Keith Harland.