Eucharist of the Lord’s Supper & Watch

On Maundy Thursday, we celebrate the Eucharist in a service which incorporates some additional elements that recall the events of the night of the Last Supper.

Much of our service follows the familiar pattern of a service of Holy Communion After we have shared Communion, the sacrament (the bread that has been blessed and become for us Christ’s body) which has not been consumed in this service is taken, with great solemnity, to the ‘altar of repose’ in the Wilberforce Chapel. This echoes the journey that Christ and His disciples took after the Last Supper to the Garden of Gethsemane.

After some prayer, there is a short pause. We then hear the words of Psalm 22 – some of which Jesus would speak on the cross on Good Friday.

Whilst the Psalm is read, the church is stripped of many of its linens and adornments, echoing the fleeing of the disciples at Christ’s arrest.

When the Psalm has been read and the stripping of the church is completed, our service is at an end. As the service ends, there is the opportunity to stay in vigil near the altar of repose, which recalls the disciples’ watching over Jesus as he prayed for the strength to face the ordeal that lay ahead.

People are free to leave in silence whenever they wish; the Watch lasts for an hour, and will end with a short piece of scripture.