Maundy Thursday service visit

Perhaps I’m just grouchy or it’s a side-effect of not going to church very much any more, but I don’t have much patience for mainline Protestant worship. The Maundy Thursday service I attended tonight wasn’t bad as such, but could have been made much better by few changes. So I make these recommendations with love and hopefulness.

  1. Pass-along intinction just seems to be the most unhygienic communion practice possible, especially if you follow a bunch of sniffly kids (like I did) and all you have to protect you is grape juice (as I did). I’m becoming more sympathetic to churches that use small individual cups.
  2. I’m not a great fan of pita bread for communion, yet it’s hardly an article of faith. But it ought not to be obviously thawed from long freezer storage.
  3. Services should be amplified, and if amplified then amplified consistently. A hand-held mic is not always your friend. A lavaliere mic might be used instead.
  4. This service had five officiants but no ushers, despite the need for the congregation to move from their seats and assume a formation round the table. Ushers would have helped, and as a guest would have felt more confident. Which brings me to . . .
  5. While “welcome” was a focus of the service (and this is laudable) the printed order of service was peppered with gaps and half cues that could only have been filled from memory.
  6. If you darken the church for Maundy Thursday, rely less on the printed order of worship!

By Scott Wells

Scott Wells, 46, is a Universalist Christian minister doing Universalist theology and church administration hacks in Washington, D.C.

3 comments

  1. If it is where I think I was, then it is where you would probably have found me. However, I am doing my internship now so I am found in a different church. (But I was actually quite sick that evening and was at home.)

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