Maundy Thursday 2008

If you want a good explanation of the Maundy Thursday service check out Fr Kelvin’s Blog here.

So last night we gathered in slightly different fashion, although the intention was the same. We began by sitting round some tables draped in fair linen cloths and listened to the story of the footwashing. Then Bishop Alan and I washed feet - everyone’s feet this year! -  and then each other’s.  It occurred to me that I know these people’s hands so well. Each Sunday they are outstretched to receive the bread and I have got to know each wrinkle, each blemish, each tremor.  But do I know their feet so well? People can be so squirmy about feet but last night they all whipped off their socks and stretched out their tootsies to have them bathed.  So now, in my third Holy Week here, I am getting to know their feet too.

We then served some soup and home-made bread and chatted round the table, interspersed by the readings for the service which hushed the chatter and seemed so meaningful in the context of this meal. Then the table was cleared and the bread became the Body of Christ and we celebrated that Last Supper.

After that the congregation came forward to the Sanctuary steps and helped clear the altar of all adornment and the candles were lit at the Garden of Repose. The sacrament was carried there and the clergy and servers prostrated themselves in front on the Garden as we gathered in the darkness to sit with Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane.

We don’t manage to keep watch till midnight, as St Mary’s Cathedral do, but I know that some people managed to have some quiet time in the presence of the Sacrament. This is one of my most favourite (if that is the right word) times in church. Sitting in the dark with the beautiful garden twinkling with candles and white flowers it is a most magical moment where time seems to be suspended.

Then once everyone has gone it is back to the almost tiresome activity of tidying up the dishes and putting away the tables and dismantling the Garden. All those hours of work in preparation for a seemingly short time and with creaking joints and sore backs we put the church back to ‘normal’ for todays 3 hours devotions.

My heartfelt thanks go to all who contributed to making the church ready and then staying behind to put it all back again. I know you all were tired too and I really appreciate it.

So, now we fast and prepare for horror of the Cross. If you want to join the procession through the streets then get yourself to St Philip’s Joppa at 10am this morning, stopping at St Mark’s for a meditation at about 10.15am, then on to St John’s Roman Catholic Church. Then at 12noon we will walk the Stations of the Cross followed by 2 hours of The Proclamation of the Cross led by Bishop Alan Smithson.