Posted on: 12th April 2022

I think there is a strange loveliness to Maundy Thursday which makes it my favourite day in Holy Week. As well as a time to remember the awfulness of Jesus facing death, being betrayed and arrested; we remember a meal shared with companions, confirming the importance of love and service to each other, at this time and at all times. The loveliness isn’t a denial of the reality of the situation and nor does it solve problems, but it affirms love and service are a true calling in difficult times.

Last year, when churches were making tentative plans for Easter celebrations in person and online, cautious around what was allowed and what was safe, Malcolm Guite wrote a poem titled Maundy Thursday, All the World is Still. The end of the last verse reads:

But in cramped quarters on the fifteenth floor,

In lonely towers made of glass and steel,

And in the fierce favelas of the poor,

Touching with wounded hands the wounds he tends,

Christ Jesus is at supper with his friends.

And so on Maundy Thursday this year, when we are thinking about the suffering in Ukraine and other places of conflict, of the soaring cost of living and its impact on the most vulnerable, and the part we can play in seeking the Common Good, we can celebrate the loveliness of remembrance in the midst of the gritty reality of people’s lives.

Best wishes for Easter

Dr Helen Reid - Director Leeds Church Institute