Buzz Aldrin, born Edwin Eugene Aldrin Jr. on January 20, 1930, is an American former astronaut, engineer, and fighter pilot. He made three spacewalks as pilot of the 1966 Gemini 12 mission, and was the Lunar Module Eagle pilot on the 1969 Apollo 11 mission. He was the second person to walk on the Moon after mission commander Neil Armstrong. Following the deaths of Armstrong in 2012 and pilot Michael Collins in 2021, he is the last surviving Apollo 11 crew member.

Armstrong manually landed the Eagle instead of using the computer’s autopilot. The  Eagle landed at 20:17:40 UTC on Sunday, July 20, with about 25 seconds of fuel left.^[77]

As a Presbyterian elder, Aldrin was the first and only person to hold a religious ceremony on the Moon. He radioed Earth: “I’d like to take this opportunity to ask every person listening in, whoever and wherever they may be, to pause for a moment and contemplate the events of the past few hours, and to give thanks in his or her own way.”^[78] Using a kit given to him by his pastor,^[79] he took communion and read Jesus’s words from the New Testament‘s John 15:5, as Aldrin records it: “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.”^[80] But he kept this ceremony secret because of a lawsuit over the reading of Genesis on Apollo 8.^[81] In 1970, he commented: “It was interesting to think that the very first liquid ever poured on the Moon, and the first food eaten there, were communion elements.”^[82]

On reflection in his 2009 book, Aldrin said, “Perhaps, if I had it to do over again, I would not choose to celebrate communion. 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.”^[83] Aldrin shortly hit upon a more universally human reference on the voyage back to Earth by publicly broadcasting his reading of the Old Testament‘s Psalm 8:3–4, as Aldrin records: “When I considered the heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars which Thou hast ordained, what is man that Thou art mindful of him.”^[84] Photos of these liturgical documents reveal the conflict’s development as Aldrin expresses faith.^[85]

ALSO ON THIS DAY

1591 – Anne Hutchinson was baptized at Alford, England. She became a controversial religious figure in New England.

1727 – Marriage of pastor/theologian Jonathan Edwards and Sarah Pierpont. They created a godly, cheerful, and peaceable home, much remarked upon by contemporaries, and ten of their eleven children lived to adulthood.

1865 – James Harvey Garrison was captain of the 8th Missouri Cavalry Volunteers and, after attending Abingdon College, became a publisher, pastor, missionary, and editor with the Disciples of Christ for five decades.

2016 – A Russian law went into effect denying Protestants the right to share their faith in person or on the internet and banning church services in homes. In the first month of its enforcement, seven evangelical Christians will be charged with violations.

 77. Jones, Eric M., ed. (1995). “The First Lunar Landing”. Apollo 11 Lunar Surface Journal. NASA. Archived from the original on December 27, 2016. Retrieved June 13, 2013.
78. Chaikin 2007, p. 205.
79. Farmer & Hamblin 1970, p. 251.
80. Aldrin & Abraham 2009, pp. 26–27, online: https://books.google.com/books?id=Ey9qaUExkAwC&q=vine#v=snippet&f=false..
81. Chaikin 2007, p. 204.
82. Aldrin, Buzz (July 10, 2014) [1970]. “Buzz Aldrin on Communion in Space”. Guideposts. Guideposts Classics. Archived from the original on April 17, 2019. Retrieved January 21, 2019.
83. Aldrin & Abraham 2009, p. 27.
84. Aldrin & Abraham 2009, pp. 51–52, online: https://books.google.com/books?id=HRlO8_7mzH0C&vq=Psalms&pg=PA52#v..
85. “Buzz Aldrin – Handwritten Notes and Scriptures Flown to the Surface of the Moon”. Heritage Auctions. Retrieved July 25, 2019.

Accessed ChristianHistoryInstitute.org 16 July 2022.