‘On Iona, in the early days of the Iona Community, it was decided to commission a well-known glass-maker to make six communion cups for use in the Abbey.
The craftsman was asked to engrave a suitable biblical text on each of the cups; ‘This is the blood of the new covenant’. ‘Do this in remembrance of me,’ and so on.
Now this craftsman, as it happened, was not a churchman, although he was sympathetic to ‘Christianity’.
And when he received the commission he made one request; Could he choose one of the texts to engrave on the cups? His request was granted.
When the cups were delivered, the folks of Iona were intrigued to discover that the text he had chosen was from the arrest of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane, when Judas betrays Jesus with a kiss.
And the text that he had engraved on the cup was Jesus’ question to Judas: ‘Friend, wherefore art thou come?’
( taken from ‘Eggs and Ashes’ – liturgical resources for Lent and Easter – Wild Goose Publishing )
St Aelhaiarn's Church, Guilsfield 