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Special Service: Sung Eucharist and the Stripping of the Altar

@ Durham Cathedral

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Maundy Thursday is the evening of the Last Supper. On his final evening with his disciples, Jesus instituted the Eucharist, commanding his disciples to wash one another’s feet.  After that final meal, Jesus and his disciples went out to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray.

During the service a priest washes the feet of some of the Cathedral Choristers, commemorating Christ’s washing of the disciples’ feet at the Last Supper. The Judas Cup ceremony is performed, a reconstruction of a medieval ceremony once used in the Cathedral, symbolic of Judas’ betrayal of Jesus. After this, the altars are stripped, like Christ being stripped of his garments ahead of his crucifixion.

The services ends in the Galilee Chapel, lit with candles, symbolic of the Garden of Gethsemane. The congregation is invited to pray in silence as the service comes to a close.

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