The Feast of the Transfiguration falls on August 6th - a Saturday this year - there will be a Service of Holy Communion at St Alban’s at 9.30a.m.

It is one of the high points in the Church’s Year, but tends to pass by rather quietly, as it is in August, and usually during the week - a shame!

Jesus goes to the top of Mount Tabor, with Peter, James and John, and in the cloud and confusion at the top of the mountain, they see Jesus as he really is, transfigured before them, with Moses and Elijah, whiter than any laundrette could wash - as the Gospel writer’s approximately put it.

When we come before God, we shall be seen as we really are - and what are we, really?

At the G8 Services at the beginning of July in both Churches, we remarked on the symbolism of incense - holy smoke, signifying holy things and holy people!

When we cense the congregation in Church, we are reminding ourselves that the divine spark is in each of us - as the Body of Christ, we are called to be Christ for each other and for the world.

And when we cense the altar, and the elements of bread and wine upon it, we are reminding ourselves that the earth itself is holy - when God created everything at the beginning of the Book of Genesis, he looked at it ‘and saw that it was very good’.

So, the Transfiguration is not just about Jesus on the mountain, it is about us; about the possibility of our being transformed into the reality which we already are (a paradox, I know!) - children of God, made in his/her image, the face of Jesus Christ in the world.

A Feast worth celebrating!