Maundy Thursday Service
Maundy Thursday Service
Worship setting: Prepare the Communion table with earthenware or wooden
plates, bowls, and cups, as though it were set for Jesus and the disciples.
Include bowls of fruit, plates of non-leavened bread, and anything else that
may have been present at the Passover meal in Jesus’ time. In front of the
altar place a small bench and a low table containing a pitcher of water, a
basin, and several small white towels.
Prelude
Consider using a PowerPoint presentation or slides of Communion
emblems, the Last Supper, and foot washing during the prelude.
Call to Worship
Reader: Our forefathers were hungering in the wilderness.
People: We too, are travelers in the wilderness, hungering and
thirsting.
Reader: And God gave them bread, manna from heaven to eat.
People: Give us this bread, too, that we may be filled.
Reader: Jesus said, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will
never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.
People: Lord, we come to you in this place; we believe your promises.
Reader: Christ is the living bread that came down from heaven to do his
father’s will, to give his life for the world.
—Adapted from John 5:31, 34-35, 39, 51
*Hymn: “Eat This Bread” - NS 8
OR “Lord, Thou Hast Brought Us to This Place” - HS 6
*Invocation
*Response
Disciples’ Generous Response:
Open your hearts and feel the yearnings of your brothers and sisters who are lonely, despised, fearful, neglected, unloved. Reach out in
understanding, clasp their hands, and invite all to share in the blessings of
community in the name of the One who suffered on behalf of all.
—Doctrine and Covenants 161:3a
Jesus knew how to gather and give to his disciples. Tonight we are reminded
that his giving was far-reaching. His sacrifice was for all – the lonely,
despised, fearful, neglected and unloved. May we, too, be unreserved in our
giving, so that our sharing may be a witness of God’s love for all.
Blessing and Receiving of Mission Tithes
Communion Message
Hymn or Solo “’Twas on That Dark, That Solemn Night” - HS 337
OR “Let Us Break Bread Together” - HS 342
Prayers of Blessing on Emblems
May be sung using R-4,
Communion Hymns
Serving of Communion
Foot Washing of the Generations
Prior to the service, select five people to represent children, youth,
young adults, middle-aged adults, and senior adults. Ask them to come prepared to
have their feet washed, wearing easy-to-remove shoes and no socks. Have the reader read the following scripture slowly, as an elder washes
the feet of each of the five people.
Reader: John 13:3-17
Hymn: “Make Me A Servant” - NS 35
OR “Make Me a Channel of Your Peace” - NS 34
Jesus’ Prayer in the Garden: John 17:1-8, 17-21, 25-26
Hymn: “’Tis Midnight, and on Olive’s Brow” - HS 264
OR “Go to
Dark Gethsemane” - HS 266
Sending Forth
As we leave the table of the Lord, may we take with us
the example laid here before us. Let the bread and wine of Christ truly live in
us and through us. Let us take up the towel and basin into the world to which we
are called to be servants of the Most High God. May we fulfill that calling
through the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen
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