• Holy Communion

  Contributed by Revd. Martin Dale on Oct 30, 2025 (message contributor)

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  Scripture:  Matthew 26, 1 Corinthians 10:16-17, 1 Corinthians 11:24-26

  Tags:  Holy Communion, Equal, Iron Duke

  Denomination: Anglican

Hugh Price Hughes (9 February 1847 – 17 November 1902), was a Welsh Methodist clergyman and he wrote this:

I was struck even then at the way in which the most exalted were reduced to their simple humanity.

Then, again, at the Holy Communion, all men are absolutely equal.

One table for rich and poor.

I remember a beautiful incident in the life of the Duke of Wellington (known as the Iron Duke) when he was Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, a position held by the late Earl Granville, whose death we all so much lament.

The Iron Duke was in church, and was going to receive the Lord's Supper, when a peasant, who had not noticed the Duke, knelt by his side.

Discovering who he was, and being much terrified, he was getting up, when the Duke put his hand on his shoulder, and said, "Don't move, we are all equal here."

Wisely said, profoundly true.

There is one other moment when we are all equal — at the moment of death. If any mighty monarch is fortunate enough to be a Christian, the utmost the Christian minister will say at his burial is this, "We commit the body of our dear brother to the dust." Our brother, nothing more.

(http://biblehub.com/sermons/auth/hughes/universal_equality.htm)