Maundy Thursday

Father Charles washes a foot on Maundy Thursday

Easter is the most important feast of the Christian calendar. Most people, however, think of Good Friday and Easter Sunday, but Maundy Thursday is almost as important, for that was the day on which Jesus was betrayed and arrested, but also the day on which He instituted the service that is at the heart of Christian worship.

Known variously as "Communion", "Last Supper" or "Eucharist", the symbols of bread and wine represent the body and blood of Christ (or, in some understandings, actually become the body and blood of Christ). However there was another part of the service that is often forgotten: Jesus washed the feet of His disciples and urged them to follow His example.

Of course, merely washing someone's feet is little good if you are not humble enough to serve each other in other ways, but as a symbolic expression of humility and equality it is a touching and beautiful part of the Eucharistic service.

The second film is of the mass following the footwashing. The Maundy Thursday mass does not end in the usual way, but the altar is stripped bare and left in that condition until the joyful mass of Easter Sunday.

(I am very grateful to Father Charles Ramsey and members of the congregation at St Mary's, Rhyl, for permission to film this service.)