This is your headline
This is your sub-headline
Try to limit your content to a maximum of 2 - 3 sentences so that you don’t lose your readers interest. A great way to break up large amounts of text is to create additional blocks.
Slideshow image

‘Maundy’ comes from the word mandate, as it is at the Last Supper that Jesus tells his followers, “A new command I give you: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13: 34-35).   

Maundy Thursday is the entrance into Good Friday, Saturday Night Easter Vigil/Easter Day (The Triduum). 

At the Agape Meal, we remember Jesus’ Last Supper with his friends, when he gives them (us) the new commandment to love one another.  Maundy Thursday is also when, in an act of love and service, Jesus washed the feet of his followers. After eating with his friends, Jesus goes to pray in the garden of Gethsemene where he is arrested.

To move through these events, some parishes host an Agape Meal. The meal itself is simple, foods that reflect the Middle Eastern tradition of 1st century Jerusalem. In the Eucharist, we share wafers and a sip of wine, but the meals Jesus shared with his friends were real meals. And that is what we will imagine sharing with our friends tonight.

After the meal, we will imagine moving into the church where the evening concludes with the stripping of the altar and the extinguishing of the sanctuary candle.   

St. Mary Nanoose Bay 2020 Agape Meal and Maundy Thursday  

Here is a simple ritual to help you celebrate an Agape Meal at home tonight. 

Because the emphasis is on gathering as a community, I’d like to suggest that those who can and want to, start this little ritual at the same time: 5:30pm. 

Prepare a simple meal. With whatever you have at home.

How many chairs do you have around your table?  In your imagination, fill them with other St. Mary’s parishioners. Perhaps the ones who sit near you in church?  Perhaps the ones you know will be eating alone tonight?  Or perhaps you want to include your special friends in the parish.  Gather them at your table.  

Set the table with enough plates for your guests, and put out an extra wine or water glass for Elijah, the unexpected but always welcome guest. Light a candle. 

Sit down. 

Prayer: Gracious God, we come together in spirit tonight to give thanks, to open our hearts to you and to the people in our lives, and to remember your unconditional love. Bless us, scattered though we are, with peace this night. Amen. 

Enjoy your meal!    

We do indeed live in community, the loving community of St. Mary Nanoose Bay - committed to following in the footsteps of a loving teacher, friend and saviour. Feel the joy and gratitude. 

What would you like to share with your guests?  The blessings of your faith life; the people, the experiences, the grace? What, in turn, would you like to ask them? 

Take your time. Taste and savour every morsel of your simple meal. Enjoy the company of the other disciples around your table. 

After finishing the meal  

Prayer:  Thank you for the certain knowledge that we are one in Your love. Bring us to the day when we can again join hands, as well as hearts, in prayer and thanksgiving. Bless those tonight who feel alone and unloved. Amen 

Clear the table.
Leave the candle lit.
Stay at the table. 

Now imagine walking into the church in silence.
Find a place in the pews and sit. 
We are all singing the Taize chant:   

“Jesus remember me, when you come into your kingdom, Jesus, remember me, when you come into your kingdom.” 

In the fading light, Marrianna and her Altar Guild members are silently removing objects from the sanctuary –the candles, the altar cloth, the collection plate. As the last gesture, the cross on the altar is shrouded in a grey cloth and David Russell extinguishes the sanctuary candle and we grow silent.   

Blow out the candle on your table and shroud it with a cloth. 

Symbolically this is the one time every year, when the light has gone out of the world. We are coming to an end without knowing yet that there will be a new beginning, one beyond our imagination.

The church will remain in semi-darkness. Exit in silence.

Symbolically, Christ, stripped of his power and glory, is now in the hands of his captors. 

So for now, we leave with heavy hearts and return home. 

Leave your candle unlit and shrouded until either the Easter Vigil or Easter morning, when you can light it and add flowers to your table!! More on that Sunday morning. 

Rest well.