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MAUNDY THURSDAY . There is a continuity from Maundy Thursday to the service of Good Friday and finally to the Easter Vigil. Symbolic elements that conclude a service set the stage for the next day's liturgy. The liturgies of the three days are actually all one extended service, from Thursday to Saturday night.. In Thursday's liturgy light and life make a limited symbolic appearance in the environment. Large formal arrangements of white flowers are placed in the chancel. Against the background of a gray altar frontal three white antependia represent table runners. On the floor, white enamel bowls and pitchers stand beside stacks of white towels. Candles again flank the altar/table and white lanterns flicker behind the altar. The hall is set for a banquet, a celebration of great importance.. The over-arching theme of the day is Jesus' new commandment to "Love one another even as I have loved you," a love vividly demonstrated by our Lord serving his disciples by washing their feet.. At the beginning of the evening service, members of the congregation are invited to come forward to have their feet washed to re-enact and remember Jesus' demonstration of humility. Following this prelude, the banquet begins on a note of restrained festivity. The service leaders enter wearing simple white wool vestments. The night's music is rich and solemn. The focus of the evening is the eucharistic prayer. On the anniversary of its institution, this piece of the liturgy embodies the soul of the celebration. We celebrate in this prayer Christ's sacrifice memorialized in his gift of the Lord's Supper, and we continue the 2000 year tradition in which Christians have obeyed his command to "Do this in remembrance of me.". Maundy Thursday is a day of great solemnity, of holy joy. Poised on the brink of death, we participate in the communion of life. This is the reason for breaking the Lenten fast. We grasp one glorious fleeting moment to celebrate the foundation of the central act of our liturgy.. The celebration, however, is short-lived. Scripture records that Jesus was arrested and taken prisoner that same night. Observing Holy Week in "real time," we mark the arrest and trial by stripping the altar and chancel area immediately after the meal. The flowers are carried out, followed by paraments and eucharistic vessels. Candles are extinguished and lights lowered as a cantor, accompanied by randomly tuned gongs and cymbals, chants Psalm 22, the psalm our Lord prayed from the cross.. Symbolically, the stripping of the altar reminds worshipers that Christ was stripped of his power and glory and is now in the hands of his captors. No further words are spoken. There is no benediction or postlude and the church is left in semi-darkness. |
