Water passion and Betrayal - Midday communion for Maunday Thursday

This order of service was prepared for Maunday Thursday with World Water Day in mind in the background. A large bowl of water and a towel will be set amongst the people and will be the source of blessing and exchanging peace at the end of the service, though this is not obligatory for those who don't like the touchy-feely business!
We want to try and use this event to gently publicise the work of the Ecumenical Water Network - we've been doing a Seven Weeks for Water blog from which the idea for this service grew. The meditation will be based on this week's meditation.

We never know how many people will turn up - anything from 5 to 40 is possible in a space that houses over 250. And as ever our main theological constraint is time. This really musn't take more than 30 minutes otherwise we'll never get anyone to chapel again - communion or not, people want lunch!
And finally I have tried to scrupulously note the sources for all of the prayers, apologies if I've missed something. This service will take place in English and French, I'll celebrate together with my colleague Ian Alexander from the Church of Scotland.

Water, Passion and Betrayal
Water, Passion and Commitment
An order of Communion for Maunday Thursday
Scripture sentences
Jesus ... laid aside his garments and girded himself with a towel.
Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet...
John 13.4-5

When Pilate saw that he was gaining nothing... he took water and washed his hands before the crowd saying, "I am innocent of this man's blood, see to it yourselves."
Matt 27.24

But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear,
and at once there came out blood and water.
John 19.34

We meet in the name of the God
Who promised that seedtime and harvest would never cease
We meet in the name of Jesus
Who is source of living water
We meet in the name of the Spirit
Who creatively brooded over the waters of chaos

We pour water, we listen and we confess our sin

Merciful God
we meet each other today at this cross
as inhabitants of one world…

As those who inflict wounds on each other:
Be merciful to us
As those who deny justice to others
Be merciful to us
As those who seize wealth
Be merciful to us
As those who are greedy
Be merciful to us
As those who put others on trial
Be merciful to us
As those who refuse to receive
Be merciful to us
As those afraid of the world’s torment
Be merciful to us.
Giver of life,
We wait with you
To bear your hope to earth’s darkest places.

Where love is denied
Let love break through
Where justice is destroyed
let righteousness rule
Where hope is crucified
Let faith persist
Where peace is no more
Let passion live on
Where truth is denied
Let the struggle continue

Reach into the silent darkness
With your love
Deepen the terror of this moment
Into new hope
Relieve the hideous cries
With your quiet voice of peace;
That hear we may know your salvation,
Your glory
Your future
In Jesus Christ, the crucified Lord.
Amen
(Source: Robin Green Litany for Good Friday in Bread of Tomorrow ed Janet Morley, Christian Aid 1992)

Sing: Jesu, Jesu verses 1 and 2

Scripture reading ~ John 13.1-15
Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot to betray him. And during supper Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, ‘Lord, are you going to wash my feet?’ Jesus answered, ‘You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand.’ Peter said to him, ‘You will never wash my feet.’ Jesus answered, ‘Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.’ Simon Peter said to him, ‘Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!’ Jesus said to him, ‘One who has bathed does not need to wash, except for the feet, but is entirely clean. And you are clean, though not all of you.’ For he knew who was to betray him; for this reason he said, ‘Not all of you are clean.’
After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, ‘Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.

Meditation

Sing: Jesu, Jesu verses 3 and 4

Prayers and Lord’s prayer
To you, O Lord
On bended knees
Our heads we bow in prayer:
That you may hear
Our cry for blood-drenched lands
And their exhausted people,
who have seen too much death
and have been afraid too long
to understand your love,
comprehend your presence,
acknowledge your goodness
and concern for them, a battered people;
yearning for freedom
as they bear your cross…
in Tibet, in Kenya, in Zimbabwe, in Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos
(source: Lesley G. Anderson, Panama/UK 1989 in Bread of Tomorrow ed Janet Morley SPCK/Christian Aid 1998)

Silence and time to pray aloud for people and places



We take bread
Symbol of labour – exploited degraded,
Symbol of life:
We will break the bread
Because Christ, the source of life,
Was broken for the exploited and downtrodden.

We take wine symbol of blood,
spilt in war and conflict,
Symbol of new life.
We will drink the wine
Because Christ the peace of the world,
was killed by violence.

Now bread and wine are before us,
The memory of our meals,
Our working and talking;
The story which shapes us,
The grieving and the pain,
The oppressor
who lies deep in our own soul;
The seeking and the loving.

And we give thanks to God our creator
for all that holds us together in our humanity;
That binds us to all who live
and have lived,
Who have cried and are crying,
who hunger and are thirsty,
Who pine for justice,
and who hold out
for the time that is coming

And in this we are bound to Jesus,
Who in the same night that he was betrayed, took bread and gave you thanks;
He broke it and gave it to his disciples saying:
“Take eat; this is my body which is given for you.”
In the same way after supper he took the cup and gave you thanks;
He gave it to them saying:
“Drink this all of you; this is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for you and for many
For the forgiveness of sins.
Do this as often as you drink of it in remembrance of me.”

This is the death we celebrate.
This is the new life we proclaim.
This is the vision we await.
Christ has died.
Christ is risen.
Christ will come again.
(source Eucharist of Liberation from Living Beyond our Means WSCF, 1985, altered. Much of this prayer has also been translated into French.)

Prayer and epiclesis
The Lord’s prayer (said by each in their own language)
Invitation and Communion
(during communion we will sing the verses of Agape will be sung by a soloist and you are invited to join in the refrain)

Post-communion prayer

Commitment
Come to the waters
All you who are thirsty
Children who need water free from diseases
Women who need respite
From labour and searching,
Plants that need moisture
Rooted near the bedrock,
Find there a living spring.
O God, may we thirst
For your waters of justice,
And learn to deny no one the water of life.
(Source Dear Life Janet, Morley, Hannah Ward, Jennifer Wild Christian Aid 1998 copyright)

Blessing

Following the blessing you are invited to share signs of peace with one another, saying “Christ’s peace by with you”. You are also invited to come forwards dip your hands into the water and make the sign of the cross on the palm or forehead of your neighbour if you wish