Holy Thursday

At 5.00pm yesterday evening we began, along with Christians across the world, to celebrate the three most important services of the year. Holy (or Maundy) Thursday is part 1, it remembers the washing of the disciples feet by Jesus, the Last supper and the praying of Jesus before his arrest in the garden of Gethsemane. After the eucharist the churches are stripped bare and the bread and wine (now the body and blood of Christ) are removed from the church to a place set apart.

My experience of Holy Thursday in the UK has been of an emphasis on the removal of Jesus’ presence from the church. Jesus who is about to die is taken away and the worshippers are left inside the now very bare church contemplating this desolation. The practise of remaining symbolically with Jesus as he prays waiting for his arrest generally takes place with people sitting in the same seat as they sat in to celebrate the last supper.

In the church we attended however the emphasis of the tradition seemed to be different, as Jesus left the church the whole congregation followed in procession.  For the rest of the evening until midnight worshippers prayed not in the church but before the temporary outdoor altar where the Bread and Wine were placed. This place of reservation was very colourful, covered with flowers and candles.

During the evening there is a tradition here of trying to visit and pray with, at least seven different parishes before midnight. Hence we piled, along with 27 others, into a small van and began a pilgrimage around Cebu visiting different parishes spending a little time to pray in each one.

Across the different parishes we visited there was, as might be expected, a certain variation in practise. In some the altar of repose was still within the church building and barely a few metres from the main altar. However in others a significant effort had been made to construct a new place of prayer in a separate place. What was striking above all else was the number of people participating, all the places we visited were busy with people. These celebrations are a truly communal event