Do you reach for your purse when the offertory hymn is announced? In the communion service, the offertory hymn is the one when the bread and the wine are placed on the altar. In itself, "the offertory" has nothing to do with collecting money. But if a collection is taken, then this is a good occasion to add our gifts of money to our gifts of bread and wine. Nevertheless, it is always good to remember that what we are offering is not first and foremost the money we collect - it is the food and drink that we will later share together.
Have you watched carefully at the end of the offertory hymn during our Sunday Eucharist? The celebrant takes the gifts - the money (if there has been a collection), the bread and the wine, and gives thanks for them. Then the celebrant puts the ciborium - the container with the bread - on the altar, and takes the cruet - the glass jug containing the wine - over to the credence table.
In a great castle in the middle ages, a little table was set up at the side of the main dining hall. Here, a servant sat to taste all the food that was to be served. Not (necessarily!) to see if it was poisoned or not, but just to test its quality - to see if was good to eat. This idea, of whether the food could be trusted or not, gave the name "credence" to this little table, and the name has stuck. So the little table at the front of the church beside the altar is known as the credence table.
The table holds supplies of bread, and wine, and water. If you know the narrative of the Last Supper, the bread and the wine are clear enough. So what about the water?
In the first place, the water helps us to recall that, according to John 19:34, when the soldier pierced Jesus' side on the cross, "there came out blood and water." So we mix a little water with the wine, just as a family would have done in Jesus' day at the Passover - or indeed at any meal.
The water has a second purpose. It was (and still is) the custom to wash one's hands before a meal. The celebrant, in particular, needs clean hands for purely practical reasons. Maybe it is also an occasion to recall the purity of Jesus' sacrifice, and to remind ourselves of the priest in Psalm 26:6, "washing hands in innocence". So at this point, the final preparations are made, so that our thanksgiving meal can go forward with dignity and without distraction, and so that we can give our praise and thanks with our whole heart.
HD