Yes to communion with a Bishop, a special experience...

This poem has been thoroughly reworked again, and perhaps it will settle down. It is about communion with a Bishop, a special experience, and for me a not so usual one. I found myself invited to this communion that celebrated the installation of a professor's chair at Church Divinity School for the Pacific in Berkeley, California. Now a few years ago, the memory of the experience and the communion remain in my memory.

Communion with a Bishop
by Peter Menkin

Yes, to communion,
to the Bishop
who offered this
to a roomful of faithful.

Yes, to communion:
Wine and bread. The warmth of the moment,
revealing an intimate
belonging. Engaging me and others
in the quickness of life, with the eternal
experience that is beyond imagination.

“My ways are not
your ways,” says God.

Hospitality to acceptance,
the Lord and the Bishop
are welcoming in the spirit of warmth and friendship.
Yes, to communion.

Those present, line up wanting the holiness.
We stand with reverence.
All of us bow before taking the elements.

“The body and blood
of our Lord Jesus Christ,”
as blessing,

of veil of time and place.
Yes, to the peace of Christ.
I reveal myself in prayer and go on in silence.