Clergy representing Catholics, Protestants, and Jews gathered in Grace Episcopal Cathedral in San Francisco yesterday to offer prayers on the fifth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Throughout the week, people from churches and synagogues throughout the Bay Area brought hundreds of pairs of boots and shoes to honor American and Iraqi casualties of the war.
Saint Thomas’ Church on Fifth Avenue in New York City is Web casting audio files of its Holy Week services.
Reflecting on the Obama-Wright controversy, the Right Rev. Greg Rickel, Episcopal Bishop of Olympia, noted that the “tragic past” remains personal for many. “We’re going to bring all the baggage of our lives into the conversation,” Rickel said. “A preacher brings life experiences to the pulpit. If we don’t deepen the dialogue, and be honest with each other, we’ll never get anywhere.”
Bishops in England are getting down on their knees this Maundy Thursday to shine the shoes of office workers and shoppers in towns and cities across the country. The free act is inspired by the night of the Last Supper when Jesus washed his disciples’ feet before his trial and crucifixion on Good Friday.
The word maundy is an English corruption of the Latin mandatum, from the ‘new commandment’ that Jesus gives his disciples after washing their feet.
“Take, eat, this is my body,” Jesus said. Then he took the cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you; for this is my blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”
It is easy for us to say that we love our neighbor, and in fact, many of us repeat those verses every Sunday. It is easy to strike our chests and claim we have given a certain amount of our money to the local shelter, a hospice in Guatemala or even for the Millenium Development Goals, but would we be willing to leave the ease of modern life and share all we have with the miserable? No, we would not.