Even as an atheist, with a strong belief in the separation of church and state (and a wish that people all over the world would shake off the yoke of superstition), I think this is a pretty cool story.
Buzz Aldrin decided to hold his own private communion ceremony in the LEM before walking on the moon.
Aldrin silently read a passage from the book of John that he had written out on a 3×5 card: “I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me, and I in him, will bear much fruit; for you can do nothing without me.” Then he took out the miniature chalice and bread and wine from his personal allowance pouch. “I poured the wine into the chalice our church had given me,” he told Guideposts magazine in 1970. “In the one-sixth gravity of the moon the wine curled slowly and gracefully up the side of the cup. It was interesting to think that the very first liquid ever poured on the moon, and the first food eaten there, were communion elements.” Neil Armstrong, the other astronaut onboard, did not participate. (source)
He later expressed some degree of regret.
Aldrin later questioned his own decision to celebrate the Christian practice. “Perhaps if I had it to do over again, I would not choose to celebrate communion,” he wrote in his memoir. “Although it was a deeply meaningful experience for me, it was a Christian sacrament, and we had come to the moon in the name of all mankind—be they Christians, Jews, Muslims, animists, agnostics, or atheists. But at the time I could think of no better way to acknowledge the enormity of the Apollo 11 experience than by giving thanks to God.” (source)
Even as an atheist, I probably would have told him to go ahead and do it. Frankly, I probably would have participated, had I been lucky enough to be in the LEM that day.
H/T: Mickey
