anglican focus

The news site of the Anglican Church Southern Queensland: nourishing and connecting our faith community

Maundy Thursday

Reflections Torres Strait Islander elder wearing a suit standing against a red brick wall Reflections

"The first Easter I remember"

“As a community, after the Easter Day service we celebrated the resurrection of the Lord Jesus with a big kai kai (feast). People from all over the Torres Strait Islands and Papua New Guinea (which was then still administered by Australia) came via sailing canoes rather than by motor boats, bringing seafood, taro, sweet potato, casava, sago and other traditional foods. We then had traditional dancing with men wearing headdresses made of emu feathers and women wearing grass skirts,” says Uncle Milton Walit from NATSIAC and The Parish of Laidley

Video Priest wearing a black t-shirt with book shelves behind him Video

Bishop Cam Venables' Maundy Thursday 2024 poem

“The elements of THAT Thursday include a bowl and towel, and wine and bread, and the knowledge He said, ‘Whenever you do this…remember me’, before His plea to simply love…The appalling injustice of ‘Good Friday’ is not something from long ago, it is happening even now,” says Bishop Cam Venables in his Maundy Thursday poem

Video

The Rev'd Canon Sarah Plowman's Maundy Thursday 2022 message

“The Maundy Thursday and Good Friday services are not separate events, but are one liturgy, broken in the middle by a long night where solitary contemplation and prayer are the vehicles for each of us to wrestle with the violence and injustice of Jesus’ trial and punishment. There are some things that are only understood from within our own skin, knowing our own injustices and our own response to the violence we see in the world,” says The Rev’d Canon Sarah Plowman

Video

Bishop Cam Venables' Maundy Thursday 2021 message

“He took a bowl and a towel and he washed the feet of his disciples…Sometimes I think we may have missed the point when Jesus said, ‘Serve each other in the same way that I am serving you now.’ Sometimes I think in today’s world we’d say, ‘Don’t think that you’re too important not to do the things that everyone else takes for granted. So take your turn cleaning the toilet, doing the ironing, doing the washing, cutting the grass, doing those nitty gritty things that in lots of ways we take for granted in family life and in community life,” says Bishop Cam Venables

Get some soul in your inbox

Thank you for subscribing

By submitting your details above to receive anglican focus communications, you consent to the collection, use and disclosure of your personal information in accordance with the Collection Notice and the Diocese’s Privacy Policy.