The Passover Supper & Easter  – From the Upper Room to Gethsemane

In the hope that the events over Easter will have more meaning for everyone and cause them to think more deeply about what really happened over 2000 years ago, for several years now we have gathered at our Church Hall on the evening of Maundy Thursday to seek the context of the meal Jesus shared with his disciples.

 

A prayer after the lighting of the Candles

However, whilst sharing a common heritage, the Christian and Jewish faiths are different in that Christians believe the Messiah has come in Jesus as Saviour and Lord, whilst the Jews still await their Messiah.

 

It would, we feel, be inappropriate to try to combine the Seder liturgy of the Jewish Passover with the Christian Eucharist in an attempt to produce a service that equates to the Last Supper.  Indeed we cannot know just what took place at the Last Supper and can only build on traditions of later times.

Enjoying a ‘Passover Supper’ with Friends

We can, however, and appropriately, especially on Maundy Thursday, draw into a gathering to share a meal together using parts of the Seder tradition to seek the context of the meal Jesus shared and of the words and actions of that night that were to become the Eucharist we celebrate in these days.
We try to encapsulate what we believe the mood of that occasion would have been, starting the evening in joyous spirit, and enjoying each other’s company with good food and wine.

 

Easter Cross

 

Of course, as the evening moves on, as Christians, the atmosphere changes dramatically becoming very moving as, following supper, we withdraw in silence and darkness walking from the hall to the Church where we strip the alter and erect a primitive life size cross complete with nails and a crown of thorns where it will remain until Holy Saturday.

 

 

 

In this way we hope to bring home the message to all who visit the church during this time, and especially through the Good Friday Vigil, the reality of what actually took place before the joyous event of Easter Sunday.

 

 

 

N.B. Please note purely for practical constraints of both space and catering, numbers attending our Supper on Maundy Thursday are necessarily restricted.  Anyone wishing to take part in this joyous yet moving event should therefore contact our Church Wardens or our Focal Minister, Steve Watkins, (Tel: 01239 820711) and give them your details.

 

Unless otherwise stated all photographs are the copyright of Peter Heard, Licentiate of the Royal Photographic Society