madpriest's maundy thursday rant
According to John, before the festival of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his time had come, he washed his disciples feet. Peter, out of deference to the Lord, refuses to be cleansed by him. Jesus tells Peter that if he doesn't allow his feet to be washed by the Messiah then he will have no "share" in the Messiah.
In catholic mythology the authority of the apostles is passed down the ages through the Apostolic Succession from bishop to bishop. So, at least in part, bishops represent the apostles in the drama of the Church. Priests are the representatives of their bishops in the local community. So they too can be regarded as representative of the apostles.
So, why do priests wash the feet of members of their congregations on Maundy Thursday?
Priests are not Christ. It is their role to point the people of the Church away from themselves and towards Christ. But in this ritual they assume the role of Christ, and his authority, upon themselves. What does this convey to both observer and participant?
If you could trust priests to see this ritual only as emphasising their human servanthood to their congregation, and trust the congregation to understand it thus, then maybe the ritual would say something useful. But truly humble priests and wise congregations are few and far between. The two coming together is an even rarer occurrence.
I understand in some dissenting chapels, especially in the U.S.A. everybody dives in and washes the feet of each other in a similar way to the sharing of the peace. I have no problem with that but I do think it should stay in the U.S. Americans seem compelled to stop people doing stuff in private whilst happily engaging in the most improper behaviour in public. In England it is the other way round. We try our damnedest to not think about what people might get up to in private whilst being incredibly sensitive to improper behaviour in public.
Foot washing was introduced to the modern Anglican church by soppy Romanists in the latter half of the 19th. Century. It's a Mediterranean thing for the enjoyment of people who talk loudly in the street. It's about time true English persons kicked it back to Rome.
And, what's more, all that getting down and getting up, hurts your back.
79 comments:
Some Midlands dioceses are doing shoe-polishing as a cold weather English variant this year. I guess a black cassock is one of the few things you can get shoe polish on without any problem. Getting it off those white thingy's is a bit more tricky
I have been an Episcopalian for 12 years. It was only two years ago that I finally allowed myself to be convinced to go to the Maundy Thursday service. I always felt that having someone wash my feet was WAY too intimate a thing to be done in public.
The first time I participated, it was one of the most spiritual experiences of my life. It required me to humble myself--a very difficult thing, I assure you.
It's not all about YOU, MP. For some of us, receiving is much harder than giving---and since pride is really the worst sin of all IMHO, it was a good thing for *me* to do.
Your mileage obviously varies. But you needn't throw the baby out with the footwashing water for the rest of us.
My dear MP, here in the crazy ECUSA and my parish in particular we wash each other's feet.
People come forward as they wish and get their feet washed, then they wash the feet of the one who washed theirs. So we are Christ to one another. The priest washes someone's feet but someone then also washes hers!
I would suggest option 2 in my post then, Doxy. You probably didn't get that far before putting pen to paper.
You're too late, MP, we've long washed each other's feet in my parish. And I agree with Doxy, washing someone's feet is perfectly ok, but receiving the same from someone else is truly difficult.
Wasn't it The Baritone Wore Chiffon that featured the Maundy Thursday shoe-polishing debacle?
Oh I read the whole thing, MP. Basically you are saying that it's okay for Americans to do that vulgar foot-washing thing, but you Brits are too refined---or too spiritually advanced to contemplate putting yourself in the role of Jesus. (An interesting idea, BTW--something I had never contemplated. My priests are so obviously NOT Jesus--delightful, flawed people that they are--that it had never occurred to me that they might see themselves as JC equivalents.)
I suggest, however, that it might be good for you to wash other people's feet, as you find it so offensive. Think of it as a spiritual discipline...
At the very least, you might be causing some proud person like me to humble herself. Maybe that will give you enough of a thrill to get you through it.
I seriously dislike the whole footwashing thing, simply because it makes people so uncomfortable, and that's the last thing I want to do during liturgy. I agree (I think) with you, MP - it focuses attention on the priest way too much. It doesn't seem to me to bring home the point of servanthood, since it is so far removed from peoples' notion of what servanthood is about. I tell them if they want to get a better picture of what Jesus did, go clean peoples' toilets... I vastly prefer to emphasize Jesus 'maundamus,' - I give you a new commandment, love one another (ie, serve one another).
Queen Elizabeth I of Blessed Memory used to go the whole hog. What was good enough for her ought to be good enough for her names-sake.
In 1572 "she kneeling down upon the cushions and carpets under the feet of the poor women, first washing one foot of every of them in so many several basons of warm water and sweet flowers, brought to her severally by the said ladies and gentlewomen, then wiped, crossed, and kissed them."
Crossing & kissing, yet.
I think this is one of the things that ended with the Hanoverian succession, but I haven't the patience to look.
Not too refined, Mrs Aggressive - too embarrassed. It's soppy and yucky - like gazing into the priest's eyes when taking communion. Yeurgh!
Count me in with the English, MP. I personally find feet a very gnarly part of the anatomy (and that says something, considering I deal with parts and pieces for my livelihood) and it's a different context. Foot washing was a day to day thing for people who lived in the desert and wore sandals. I agree with Fr. Craig, pick something that is more in context with today. People are very self conscious about fungus, toe jam, and hammertoes from ill fitting shoes. "Show me your hammertoes" is right up there with "show me your appendectomy scar" for some people.
I also agree it's too priest focused. As my vicar says, "It's not about me up there, it's about the Eucharist, it's about the liturgy."
A pedicure, maybe? Got to be "contemporary" & "relevant", don't we?
I personally find feet a very gnarly part of the anatomy
Hey! I'll have you know that I get a pedicure just for this one service. My toes will be quite attractive, I assure you.
Not too refined, Mrs Aggressive - too embarrassed.
That MS. Aggressive, thankyewverymuch.
It's soppy and yucky - like gazing into the priest's eyes when taking communion.
I'm beginning to think you should write a book: Embarrassing Liturgical Practices and How to Avoid Them.
Personally, I like gazing into the priest's eyes during communion. But I'm dating him, so I admit my motives may not be pure.
(And before anyone gets all excited, he's in a different parish--I just visit on occasion.)
Oh yuck, Lapin. That's even worse. Scabby, smelly feet.
Doxy's got a boyfriend! Doxy's got a boyfriend!
Oh please let him be a Roman Catholic!
Embarrassing Liturgical Practices and How to Avoid Them.
I like it and no, you're not getting a cut.
Oh please let him be a Roman Catholic!
Sorry to disappoint you...
I confess, however, that I greatly enjoy the shock on people's faces after I tell them my friend is a priest, but before I explain that he's an Episcopal priest and it's really okay...
I like it and no, you're not getting a cut.
I just want to edit it.
Washing peoples' feet doesn't bother me, but I'm too ticklish to have it reciprocated.
In over 20 years of parish ministry (longer than many bishops!) I have only had to be involved in foot-washing once, and it's not something I intend to repeat. I also find the symbolism of the action is lost to many, even with words of explanation beforehand. We have no equivalent action in our culture. We don't wash people's feet, or hands, when they come to us for a meal - we show them where the toilet is. Perhaps we could do that instead?
The Lord be with you.
And also with you.
The toilet is through the door on the left.
Thanks be to God.
(General stampede for the bogs)
This is a service in which I have yet to participate -- I want to, but scheduling has not allowed it, so I can't comment from personal experience, but it would seem that a double humbling (washer and "washee) is occurring.
However, MadPriest, what concerns me is your preoccupation in regards to what's going on in the heads of others:
"If you could trust priests to see this ritual only as emphasising their human servanthood to their congregation, and trust the congregation to understand it thus, then maybe the ritual would say something useful."
That could be said of any of the rituals.
When I first began attending an Episcopal church, my mom, very aware that my cathedral parish is well known for being "liberal" asked if I was concerned that many there might not actually believe the creeds."
"What would that have to do with me?" was my response.
In any ritual, I'm responsible for what goes on in MY head, and in my view, if the ritual takes me away from what it is to be about, it has become unhealthy for, or at the very least, useless to me. But I'll be damned if I'm going to make that call for others. Sounds like setting up porn-detecting software to protect people from themselves.
Your comment regarding "gazing into the priest's eyes during Communion" helps me to understand why you might find that yucky, since that is not what was being described. For me, at least, it is a brief eye contact of greeting/acknowledgment of the other in the receiving of the bread. One does not stare deeply into the eyes of the priest, rub the host around one's lips, partake, and then lick one's fingers. That is a completely different context and typically, a priest, at least in my experience, is not involved. (Oops! I take that back. There was that fling with a "lapsed" RC priest. Son of bitch!)
As I sing in the choir, I have the perfect excuse not to participate by having my feet washed. As I haven't been able to kneel for years, I have the perfect excuse not to wash the feet of others. I really have no objection to the ritual itself.
BTW, MP, do they wash feet in the Diocese of Wenchoster?
Oh dear, what has become of me - I agree with MP entirely on this - he even "stole" the line I was going to use before I scrolled down all the comments - "It's soppy and yucky - like gazing into the priest's eyes when taking communion."
I was just over at Jake's reading the Gospel passage and was struck immediately with how it varies from the awkward silliness that attends most foot-washing ceremonies found in some churches on Maundy Thursday -- and come here to see MP saying what I was thinking. I think the foot-washing ceremony is an awful thing to impose, creates the ridiculous impression that the priest is acting as Christ, and very much disrupts the proceedings, which should be focused around the Last Supper and the symbolic stripping of the altar at the end. As MP says, most parishes and parishioners cannot pull it off with anything like its true intent, and while the passage calls for washing each other's feet, which is rather the point, the possibility (which I grant) that it can be done is not, IMO, worth the harm that can be done by sending all the wrong messages.
(I also detest the eye-gazing -- but that's another matter -- we all had a terrible struggle with it for many months while having a deacon-priest-in-training with us who insisted upon it -- no, not just brief eye contact but this deep, long gaze into the eyes -- to which I succumbed with reluctance, out of love and respect for him and his enthusiasm, but to which many did not -- how wonderful it is to be able to go to the altar now and reach for God, not human eyes -- and God bless J. and his ministry in his new parish, now that he has been priested).
Sorry, Doxy, you know I love you. I'm just reeling with astonishment that I agree with MP 100% on this one. I think, however, it has something to do with how we experienced our first Maundy Thursdays. I also did not attend one until late adulthood (I contend, though my husband disputes the possibility, that my home Methodist church had no Holy Week services whatsoever between Palm Sunday [done sans Passion] and Easter -- the crucifixion was barely mentioned, and we had no Communion and little references to even the Last Supper -- darned confusing to have all the Hosannas of joy at Palm Sunday, kind of like Christmas, and then have a cold, chilly Easter mysterious references to stones and caves and ghostly appearances -- as if one had just met a wonderful uncle or special person the week before and suddenly he died and everyone kind of tiptoed around the fact).
So my first Maundy Thursday with the Lutherans was an eyeopener that left me literally in tears. There was no foot washing in what was a very traditional Finnish Lutheran church. The love and care of preparing and participating in the Last Supper, celebrated in a formal Eucharist, followed by a long period of silence and prayer for the stripping of the altar, which, due to the architecture and design of the church, meant removing a number of items all across the front of the church (the altar rail went practically the entire span -- maybe 200 feet?), with only some natural light from the night outdoors through the glass on the side walls, but everything in shadows, in a sanctuary that had white carpeting and very high white walls and ceiling. At the end, black netting was draped over the long communion table, with one for the rail as well, and this was left there through the quiet Friday service and until late Saturday, when Easter preparations were made. I remember well and with great emotion the Fridays I went into the sanctuary during the day for prayers with the black netting over that normally sunny expanse of white, where I had taken my first Communion (at age 37).
My experience in Episcopal churches I have attended since have been similar (except the awful - for me - time when an interim decided to throw in the foot-washing and a couple years when we tried it here, following past tradition, only to discover that no one ever really wanted or liked it).
I just despair over the music and the periods of quiet and drama of Maundy Thursday broken up by stopping for the foot-washing and starting up again. And I violently oppose putting the priest in the position of acting as Christ, just as I do not think he or she should be giving the elements personally but rather is a conduit, a silent servant, whose personality should be if not hidden at least subsumed by all that follows beginning with the Eucharistic prayers. That, at least, is one thing upon which I and the current rector agree. We realzie it is not "cutting edge" Episcopalianism, but we kind of like it that way.
End of rant. Sorry. Too much caffeine this week and ranting between spurts of trying to work too fast, as well.
No doubt, MP, you will find that whatever I've said has nothing to do whatsoever with what you said. Par for the course.
Peace be with you all.
and now your bishs are doing it too????? is it raining frogs over there?
A shoe shine from the bishop.
KJ--have I told you lately that I love you?
MP--KJ is right. If you are trying to avoid looking as if you think you are Christ, you might start by dropping the idea that you know what is going on in people's heads--or at least assume that people are spiritually sophisticated enough to distinguish you from Jesus. (snort)
I bet if you took a poll, most people would be shocked by the notion that you are putting yourself in Christ's place by washing their feet. I always saw clergy washing other's feet as a sign that they weren't too holy to do something so mundane---and I suspect that most people see it the way I do. OCICBW...
Klady--As I noted, there were many years I resolutely refused to go to that service. Once I did, it changed something inside of me. I still find it hard, however---which is why I MAKE myself go.
If the service interferes with your experience of Holy Week, by all means don't go.
But pride is my greatest sin, and having my feet washed is one of the most visceral ways I confront it. (Admittedly, it's only once a year--I should find another way for the other 364 days!)
I think priests like MP need to know that *some* of us find the foot-washing service a spiritual discipline, in and of itself. If he does not offer it, then he may be depriving people like me of an opportunity to humble themselves as Jesus did.
I'm sure there are other ways priests can help people in that regard--but this one works for me and for others I know. If it doesn't work for you---no skin off my nose.
Cheers,
Doxy
No, that's brilliant, Klady and what's more you've given me well thought out liturgical arguments against a practice I basically dread because of my English fear of embarrassment and touching people I'm not married to.
My beloved the RC says that in her church, there's a signup for the footwashing the Sunday before. she said that with three priests and two deacons prepared to do the business, they don't have enough footwashees signed up this year. Obviously lots of the parishioners find it hard too.
IT
You know, I hate this blogger thing. Why does it think it is "cute" to put my name in lower case?
IT
depriving people like me of an opportunity to humble themselves as Jesus did.
Hah!
What was that Buddy Holly song?
You know what? I'm really glad he didn't go for bum wiping!
I agree...I'd have to draw the line at that.
Feet will be washed in Glasgow.
And kissed.
I do hope that "Anon", who told me last night "pity you can't set blogs up with preferences so you can ignore the likes of you and just read the comments that actually have some worthwhile substance" finds all this edifying.
Do you really think that JC never wiped, MP?
I always thought that foot-washing was not all that well suited to Northern climes. This morning it was 35 F (~2 C).
Nowadays, to the occasional air traveller, a foot-washing is just a bit more thorough than a TSA screening. Maybe the parish ought to go ambush a few people at the local airport. Yer flight delayed - have a soak and a pedicure.
We don't do foot-washing. Just eucharist and altar stripping, which this year is going to be slightly silly, since we are in temporary digs in a banquet hall, and we take down the altar after every service.
NancyP
Oh my- what a post and comments and here I am, showing up late and with filthy feet.
FWIW, I have for the first time answered the invitation to go have my feet washed tonight. I have written about this, but am too lazy to link, it is not that hard to find me should someone wish to.
I think it is the part where I get to washing Cheney's feet that the post goes a bit OTT, but that's just me.
Back to basics, the priest stands in the place of Christ IMHO. And fortunately I am in a parish where that actually seems possible due to Father's great humility and wisdom. Oh, he can be terribly annoying, but for the most part, he is one of the best I have ever worshipped with.
Then again, I have yet to meet you MP.
OCICBW.
Feet will be washed in Glasgow.
And kissed.
You're a provost, Kelvin. That is almost, Jesus!
Lapin, you deserved the slapping. And my money is on anon being one of us.
BTW thinking of Doxy's comment about her priest boyfriend, I hope she does not let him wash her feet, at least not in church today, as that might induce feelings not very religious and not suitably serious for church.
Of course, we're all agog to hear more about how they met, etc, but perhaps she'll tell us after Easter.
IT
Ah, there's the rub, FranIAm. Any humility that I have achieved is not natural but down to a lot of hard work. Mostly in avoiding situations that would make me even more arrogant than I am already. And this is where Doxy has gone wrong. She appears to think I'm talking about the damage that the ritual might cause to the congregation. But it is the damage that is caused to ordinary, average, human priests, like myself, that concerns me. If the laity want to wash feet then by all means let them wash each other's feet.
You? Ordinary? Never!
Yes IT. It would be best to avoid a tickling and giggling situation.
I don't look the priest in the face either, when getting communion. On purpose. I'm taking him/her out of the picture b/c I like to focus on the hands. I like thinking of the hands as "God's hands."
No Doxy, you've not told me that you love me, but we must keep it a secret. My husband has a hard enough time understanding this blogging thing as it is.
Of course, the whole point of this lesson of Christ is how it plays out in the real world. We all have ministries to which, and people to whom, we are called to serve -- some are easy, some are not. Some of them even require bum wiping.
MadPriest, you're a footwasher everyday as you service us (heh heh heh), I mean serve us, through OCICBW everyday.
That isn't a problem, KJ, as it doesn't involve water and old ladies' wrinkly stockings.
Good grief. I didn't even know about this foot-washing thing. I'm always learning something new around here. So...
Um...
No. Don't think so. Won't be taking part. Thank you.
Speaking of tickling and giggling....
I know that some folks have a terrible time grasping that good liturgy really is good theatre. Part of the problem with Christ-figures is that it's near impossible for anyone to do it right. Although it was really too clever, I loved the opening line in Giles Fraser's article about the BBC Passion, "Forget Maria. How do you solve a problem like Jesus?"
Anyway, back to the giggling.... I can't help but recall the Senior Play my senior year in high school. I worked on painting the sets (too, too much magenta) and watching many long rehearsals of the play, Hedda Gabler -- the lead, as well as others, being good friends of mine. I will never forget opening night, at the very end, after the gun shot was heard, the audience broke out laughing. I swear it was no fault of the actors (though some said the director, a drama teacher, should have never selected the play for a high school audience). My heart broke for my friends who had worked so hard. But sometimes, the seriously discomfiting causes distance and laughter or, at best, awkwardness. Indeed, it was as IT described, why we stopped the footwashing at our parish -- the year no one signed up (after having gone from 5 to 3 people the years before). Loyal to my (husband) priest, I swear it was not due to any lack of humility or grace on his part -- a lot of people just don't find it interesting or engaging, especially if they're the spectators, watching from afar what ends up being staged intimacy, as far as they are concerned. It is the Last Supper, to which they are all called to the Table, that draws them in, knowing what is to happen the next day. It's kind of distracting trying to peek or not peek over someone's shoulders to look at other people's feet (did they wash ahead of time, trim their nails, etc.?) and to judge whether the priest is acting humble enough (right before he or she hops right up to be both star and director of the rest of the show -- so it's got to be darned good performance, which he/she may take it too seriously, as MP suggests, or simply run the risk of forgetting the next bit or trying not to frown when the washees take their time getting their shoes and socks back on - dear Mimi, it is so hard at times for priests not to frown, at least inwardly, at times).
Now tickling... now that might break things up in a good way, but I wouldn't recommend it.
"....you deserved the slapping." For what? For asking, as you ask at least half a dozen times a week, "Why don't you people read the damned post before you comment?"
At our church, where we have two foot washing stations, the priest washes one set of feet, the deacon washes another set, then those with clean feet wash the next pair of dirty feet and so on. As far as I know, no one in the congregation tries to check out the condition of feet being washed. Usually the folks getting their feet washed know ahead of time that they are, so they wear sandals w/o sox. It moves along apace and no one is in a hurry. Of course, we live in California where it is usually warm enough to go without sox(not that I ever would). Not everyone actually gets a wash. They use the time to meditate, I suppose.
PJ,
You will comply. Resistance is futile.
But did the waiter at The Upper Room Cafe look Jesus directly in the eye when he said, "Sorry, we don't take credit cards?"
And what kind of tip did he get, especially after Judas got that 30 pieces of silver?
I was just (or at least mostly) kidding about checking out others' feet. I doubt that anyone dares to do that, but it seems to me that the human thing is to at least wonder, and to resist the temptation to look by putting feet -- what they really are and what they look like -- out of mind, then it seems to me that it defeats the point . OCICBW. I don't doubt that there are some who find it meaningful for whatever reason. I do, think, however, that it should not be required and be left very much up to the individual priest and the parish (just as whether a priest is going to sing the mass -- very nice, but not essential).
What complicates it all is that at the time Jesus did it, footwashing was nothing unusual in that servants were required to do it all the time, since their masters did not go about in socks and shoes (sandals, I suspect, were the norm, and pavement was not). So, while humility is, indeed, a Christian virtue, what Jesus did, at the time, was really a lesson in the kind of humility involved in social status and, perhaps more importantly, the service involved in the role reversal. Commanding us to serve one other as servants, rather than seeking to become others' masters, seems to be the main point, not getting close to feet or any other part of the body. Since we are not used to seeing anyone wash others' feet -- or anyone getting their feet washed outside of their own private bath or shower -- it becomes a potentially ridiculous spectacle to see this happening in church during a solemn service. For those who are accustomed to it and can get past the difficulties of translating to modern times, that's fine. But for some of the rest of us, it just seems downright peculiar.
So, PJ can do whatever she darned wants! (which I suspect is exactly what she would do anyway).
Perhaps, Counterlight, like a theological student (Concordia/Missouri Lutheran, NancyP & KirkE) who served me in a Clayton MO coffee shop, he looked Him firmly but gently in the eye and asked "May I cream you now, Sir?"
PJ will be assimilated. She will be one with the Maundy Borg.
Of course, we're all agog to hear more about how they met, etc, but perhaps she'll tell us after Easter.
Just let your imagination run wild, IT. It will probably be much more interesting than the actual story. ;-)
And yes, he'll be washing my feet tonight. He laughed when I told him what you said, so now he'll probably tickle me just for the hell of it. He's kind of evil that way...reminds me of another priest we all know and love.
MP--when I asked him about your argument, he said that, in his opinion, the point of Holy Week was for ALL Christians to experience what he termed "soteriological fusion" (i.e., putting themselves in Christ's place, to experience the mystery and the suffering), as preparation for the joy of Easter.
But then, he has WAY too many theological degrees for one person, and he's always very clear that it's HIS opinion and doesn't have to be anyone else's---so there you go.
I go to Maundy Thursday service to see the altar stripped...it's so powerful and moving. Jesus bereft - alone in the garden, left to bear his burden without his friends...
As I don't like people I don't sleep with to touch my feet (and I don't even ask him), I don't go in for the footwashing thing, but I see no harm in it...Priest starts it, congregants finish it.
MP - I thoroughly enjoy your site. These comments have given me a chuckle. We wash each other's feet. As we are big into Mutual Ministry in this Diocese, the Presybter and Deacon get things started but no one is doing it to take on the Jesus role. For us its the humbling process of serving each other and the humility of allowing a brother or sister to serve you. It's not a mandatory thing so most of the feet are already very nicely washed and its more ritual of pouring water over the feet and them drying them. So do you completely avoid eye contact during communinion?
At first I took DMK's comment - the first on this thread, re shoe-polishing as an English alternative to foot washing - as satire. I still hope that it is, but as they day progresses ....? Tell me it ain't true, DMK.
Lapin
It is true
Mrs MadPriest, who is a BBC News addict, confirms it.
renzmqt
I think the mutual washing idea is good and theologically sound. Of course, I wouldn't want to be involved. But like the eye contact thing it's just personal - nothing theological.
foot washing in church gives me the creeps. seriously. and I'll go on Saturday night to service but Maundy Thursday and Good Friday services (which once were powerful liturgy and drama for me) seem maudlin and a bit unconnected to what little I still believe.
You know, my grandfather's ancestors were Quakers for generations (they had gotten over it by the late 1800s). It must be something genetic in me - more and more the idea of people just sitting quietly in a room without all of the fuss and rigamarole sounds just heavenly to me.
And people touching my feet sounds just ghastly. Especially in church. Maybe there just isn't that much Episcopaliansism left in me after all.
lapinbizarre
no it is true, sorry to disappoint you, I'm not that good a satirist. The story is at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7305652.stm
I thought it was quite a clever idea, though I guess it depends if they look into your eyes or not... Trouble is that most English folk who don't know/remember the original story won't have the slightest idea what's going on.
Lapin, those folks in Clayton (and Ladue, too!) are just sooo different from the rest of St. Louis! ha ha
Well, we had a pretty decent foot-washing in the quire of Canterbury Cathedral tonight. The Archbishop, assisted by the Dean and others, put on a giant terry-cloth apron and washed the feet of twelve members of the congregation. It seemed to me well integrated into the service as a whole. What I appreciated was that it interrupted the usual pattern of the Eucharist (continuous talking and singing) with a very focussed ritual action carried out in silence, allowing me to travel contemplatively and imaginatively to the upper room of the house in the hot, dusty village in Palestine where Jesus and his friends gathered for the Passover meal and where he washed their tired, dirty feet. (Having lived in India I do have a real sense of the meaning of washing somebody's feet in a hot dry dusty land!) For me it was a chance to go more deeply into the Gospel text. Of course, I am an American with three planets in Taurus, thus not very squeamish about touching the flesh or being touched. It isn't for everybody and I don't mind if some find it revolting or want to rant or go all Quaker about it.
After the Eucharist we had complete darkness and silence for a time; the reserved sacrament was then carried down to Our Lady's altar in the crypt, where those who wished could keep watch for a time. The quiet was profound. The Archbishop as it happened came and sat in the chair immediately in front of me, so then I felt I had really better keep vigil for more than a token few minutes! So I settled down and prayed very hard for him, for the church and its troubles and joys, for my far-flung family and my messy life, and for all of you blogfriends. I give thanks for each and every one of you, what you have brought into my life, the way you risk yourselves, tell the truth, fight for the right, support one another and send joy, wisdom and humor out into the world. Blessings to all in these holy days.
It's certainly a way of humbling oneself, DMK. It certainly would be in the American South.
I hadn't realized you are so close to the eye of the storm, Mary Clara. Thanks for sharing.
La-di-due, KirkE.
I haven't read everyone's wisdom and the hour is late but given how loaded the liturgy already is with the commemoration of the first eucharist, beforehand we have a silent simple supper followed by optional footwashing. That all takes place in the parish hall, totally separate from the church and the people who show up for the supper are the ones who want their feet washed. Tonight it was all four of us. I am not vested and we go counter-clockwise in washing our neighbour's feet. That option seems to satisfy those who want their feet washed and those who don't and definitely makes the following liturgy that much less crazy.
I haven't the time to read through the last 50 contributions, but MP, how is the footwashing different from the priest celebrating Communion?
In the Anglican Eucharistic prayer there is nothing to indicate that the priest is to be confused with Christ. It is all in the third person - "he had supper with his friends," "the body of Christ" etc.
MP
Yes but actions speak louder than words......
- the priest is the 'president' of the meal, so takes central place, like Jesus.
- the priest is the one who breaks the bread and offers the wine, like Jesus
- some priests, I don't know whether consciously or not, go into 'cruciform' pose during the eucharistic prayer when it gets to the crucifixion.
- and there's the whole thing about the priest being the only one in the congregation who can do a 'proper' communion.
The priest can become a Christ figure, and the line between what the priest is and what they represent can become blurred, just as it does with the bread and wine itself. If the bread can be bread, and the body of Christ, at the same time, then we're in a setting where people can take on similar mystical overtones.
Maybe, dmk, but it's not in the script, so your scenario is either a perversion by the priest or laziness on the part of the congregation. An orthodox priest, through both words and action, will make the elements the centre of the Eucharistic liturgy.
Well..just to add some interest - at last night's service, we were offerred foot washing AND hand washing.
My daughter wanted her foot washed, but she insisted I go with her, so I opted for the hand washing (as I have NOT had a pedicure in quite some time).
My son, who was serving as an acolyte, informed me that afterward, the drying towels smelled NASTY, and he had to carry them back into the sacristy. He informed me that were so stinky, and that it nearly made him puke, and he smelled of old people's feet.
Nice, right?
LMAO
Hmmmm, it's a thin line but I think that the Eucharistic prayer helps make it clear that we are acting out Christ's instructions rather than conducting a pantomime of the actual last supper. Also, bringing up Mutual Ministry again, our Presiders and Deacons have been brought up and ordained from the lay folk in the congregation. As Deacon, I set the table and stand next to the Presider during the prayer with the server and chalice bearers gathered round. At the end of the prayer, "The gifts of God for the people of God..." The deacon raises the chalice and the presider the bread. So if there's any "I am Jesus, hear me roar..." it's shared by us all. :)
Dennis, I understand your experience perfectly, but in reverse. For me, entrance into TEC was like heading into the Hoh Rain Forest after wandering in the desert, so it is as if my senses cannot be filled enough. My call too seems to be back into the faith home of my ancestors. Go figure! I guess it is no surprise that there are so many denominations.
I know you are all dying to know....BP tells me that they managed to find enough footwashees by making the adult converts endure it (I guess that the converts do first communion and confirmation on Easter?)
IT
Well, it is absolutely standard SOP here in the monastery - very quiet, very still, very much comprehended when the superior takes off the fancy clothes, his abbatial cross, wraps around his waist the eight-feet-long towel, and kneels down to wash, wipe and kiss the feet of those who are bound to him under the vow of obedience. There is a real, factual "hierarchy" in the monastery, and so it truly does "work".
Side note: almost thirty years ago, I (who disapproved of ordained women at the time) took the deacon's role of pouring the water while the female celebrant (I gritting my patriarchal teeth) did the washing. And then a sudden epiphany: I looked down at her washing the feet of parishioners and had this vision that she was not only the Christ washing the feet of the apostles, but she was also the woman washing Christ's feet with her tears --- a symbol and analogy that I, as a male, could never equal. It was my conversion moment!
Dennis 20th at 2300, you've expressed a double perspective that helps me: powerful liturgy and drama one the one hand and on the other, maudlin or fuss and rigamarole. Similar events can end up being one or the other, depending on my own personal perspective at the time. I hope the Great Vigil works for you, if you're going that way Saturday night.
Years ago I found alternating Sundays between eucharist and Quaker meeting a happy complement. They nourished each other.
Robin
MP, I know that I am late in coming to this particular dance, but I spent a good part of Maundy Thursday driving over three snow covered mountain passes (250 miles) to do a Maundy Thursday service for a small parish that does not have a resident priest. Although I am a lowly Canon 9 priest (read for orders), I made quite clear to the congregation that the foot washing ceremony was a way of emphasizing the servanthood of us all, clergy and lay. I also made it clear that the hierarchy of our Church often forgets their own servant ministry. I think it is extremely important that the clergy continually remind our congregations that we are all involved in the ministry of our Lord Jesus. Apparently, MP, you have met some of what we call "Cardinal Priests" too. It's the job of folks like us to counteract their crappy influence.
Hmmmm.......... Here it is Saturday and no one has mentioned the other feet thing -- kissing the feet of Jesus on the Crucifix as part of Veneration of the Cross during Good Friday servoces. No, we don't do that here, but we did in a former parish. My son brought up the subject, since his girlfriend (who is Roman Catholic) mentioned it. He never saw the practice (he was Lutheran whee I and my daughter started the Episcopal thing) and was pretty revolted at the thought. I never "participated" myself -- just bowed in front of the crucifix on the table in the nave, as some others did, as we went up to pray at the altar rail instead of having Communion (here we to take it but from the Reserved Sacrament, needless to say with no Eucharistic prayers). But that was back then before I even considered learning to cross myself. This thread is probably on its last legs, but I wondered if anyone out there has done the crucifix-kissing thing in an Episcopal or Anglican church.
Klady---we did the veneration of the cross last night, but our cross is "empty." We take stones as we go into church, and at that point in the service, we go up, lay our stones (which represent our sins, our lives, or whatever moves you) at the foot of it.
I always kiss the cross. But I don't think many do. I don't really watch, because...well, that wouldn't be nice, would it? ;-)
Klady,
I came back to the thread just for the purpose to see if others had commented about veneration of the cross. I had my first experience with that at our Good Friday service, and for this post-evangelical boy, the first time I found myself in an Episcopal service not participating in a given rite. I venerate the gift, but I did not feel compelled to kiss the cross, and I followed my advice of not doing anything I do not feel led to do.
My beloved said that her RC parish passes a large (6ft) cross with corpus overhead, all through the pews. Kinda like a good friday mosh pit. She didn't say anything about kisses. You religious folk are Very Strange.
IT
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