All are invited to Holy Communion on Maundy Thursday.

About the service

From the beginning of the Maundy Thursday liturgy, we are met with an intensity unlike that of any time in the year. We have come to the turning point of the year, the great Three Days that gather into themselves the central matters of hunger and nourishment, freedom and slavery, life and death, God and humanity. Here we experience the servanthood and sacrifice of our Lord Jesus and, through him, encounter the fundamental Christian interpretation of all life, of all generative processes.

The Maundy in Maundy Thursday is from the Latin word mandatum which means “command,” referring to Jesus’ words at the Last Supper: “A new commandment I give you, that you love one another” (John 13:34). The service has three major elements: The individual pronouncement of forgiveness that concludes the Lenten period of repentance begun on Ash Wednesday; the celebration of the eucharist (Holy Communion) on this day of its institution; and the stripping of the altar during the reading of Psalm 22, a reminder of the stripping of our Lord in anticipation of his crucifixion. When all is done, the congregation departs in silence, to return on Good Friday and continue the solemn observance of Holy Week.