Gregory Dix was a priest, a monk and a historian, remembered by the Church of England. His particular passion was the development of the service of Holy Communion, the Eucharist, where the church gathers together to take consecrated bread and wine as instructed by Jesus, in remembrance of him and because they represent his body and blood. Although he died in 1951 and modern scholars might take issue with some of his views, he is justly famous for his reflection on Jesus’s command to his disciples, spoken the evening before Good Friday. I first came across his words in 1979; they continue to move me."[Jesus told his disciples to celebrate Holy Communion]. Was ever another command so obeyed? For century after century, spreading slowly to every continent and country and among every race on earth, this action has been done, in every conceivable human circumstance, for every conceivable human need from infancy and before it to extreme old age and after it, from the pinnacle of earthly greatness to the refuge of fugitives in the caves and dens of the earth. Men have found no better thing than this to do for kings at their crowning and for criminals going to the scaffold; for armies in triumph or for a bride and bridegroom in a little country church; …. for the wisdom of the Parliament of a mighty nation or for a sick old woman afraid to die; …. while the lions roared in the nearby amphitheatre; on the beach at Dunkirk; while the hiss of scythes in the thick June grass came faintly through the windows of the church; tremulously, by an old monk on the fiftieth anniversary of his vows; furtively, by an exiled bishop who had hewn timber all day in a prison camp near Murmansk… —one could fill many pages with the reasons why men have done this, and not tell a hundredth part of them. And best of all, week by week and month by month, on a hundred thousand successive Sundays, faithfully, unfailingly, across all the parishes of Christendom, the pastors have done this just to make the plebs sancta Dei—the holy common people of God."
This coming Sunday, 25th May, is Rogation Sunday. Historically this was a very popular festival. It probably has its origins in a Roman fertility festival, when the fields were blessed for a good harvest. This continued in the Christian version, where there would be a procession from the church, stopping to bless the fields in the parish as well as to ensure that all boundaries were in their right place. Alas, the popularity of the festival was less due to the pious prayers of the parishioners and more to the amount of alcohol that was consumed; walking the bounds is thirsty work. Factor in the excitement when it was suspected that the neighbouring parish had pinched some land, which needed to be settled with fists, and perhaps it is not surprising that the church and civil authorities supressed the festival where they could. There has been something of a revival and some parishes now observe a more sober version of the custom.Whilst I have never done a rogation walk from church, I like the idea of taking worshippers out of the church building into the outside world. At its best, the rogation walk is a symbol of how the parish church is there for the whole community, whatever their faith. The walking of the bounds shows that we pray and care for all who live or work within them. It is real expression of the claim of the Church of England, that we have a presence, through the parish, in every community in the country. I pray this may continue to be the case.