Passover Celebration

Please join us on Maundy Thursday to celebrate the Passover in a time of worship, reflection and a shared meal. There will be no set charge for the evening, but the event will not be a success unless everyone joins in. We invite everyone to make an offering of one or more of the following

• a dish for the meal
• some time to help with the organising
• helping to setup between 4:30 and 6:30pm on the day
• a financial gift to cover the cost of the centrally-provided food [NOTE: as a guide, the cost/head will be approx £4]. If you make this form of offering, please consider those offering their time as well.

Recipes are provided in the flyer (). For those willing to raost a lamb joint, please note that this will be provided in advance.

Please sign the sheet at the back of church no later than Sunday 16th March to let us know you will be attending and what contribution you will make. Alternatively, please call the Parish Office (01993 779613) during the week.

The Passover and Christian life The purpose of this meal celebration and the directed conversation at table before the meal is to draw relationships between the Passover and important New Testament truths. It is vital to our understanding of these relationships that we recognize that Jesus was a faithful Jew who observed Judaic laws -- from the circumcision to the feast of the Unleavened Bread, his Last Supper. No attempt has been made in this meal formula to reconstruct an authentic Passover ritual of either Christ's time or of present day Judaism. But, by using some of the basic Jewish prayers and an adaptation of the traditional questions of the Passover meal, Christians can become somewhat familiar with the tradition of the Jews. New Testament texts are used not only to build appreciation and understanding of the Christian beliefs but also of their relationship to Judaic roots. The Passover meal carried on the learning tradition established by God through Moses when he commanded his people to commemorate his loving kindness towards them in the Exodus. "And when your children ask you, 'What does this ritual mean?', you will tell them, 'It is the sacrifice of the Passover in honour of Yahweh who passed over the houses of the sons of Israel in Egypt, and struck Egypt but spared our houses" (Exodus 12:27). The Jews were directed by Moses to gather in family and neighbourly clusters to eat and recall together, "And on that day you will explain to your son, 'This is because of what Yahweh did for me when I came out of Egypt" (Exodus 13:8). The lesson of God's freeing the Israelites from slavery was to be taught in the fullness of both intellectual knowledge and the warmth of the heart surrounded by loved ones, family and friends. From "The Passover Meal: a ritual for Christian home" by Arleen Hynes © 1972 Paulist Press

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