Agape

Today, it was the last day of school which I was very happy about.
We had an Easter bonnet parade at school which I brought  a slightly decorated hat to (more on that soon).  After school, I went to the hospital to visit my friend who I talked about before. The vicar from her  church arrived at the same time and gave her communion which she invited me to take part in. I've never taken part in Communion outside of a church before so this was a new experience and it was lovely she'd come on Maundy Thursday, just before the service, to give my friend communion.

After that, I headed to my old home town.  A girl from my church who plays drums in my band had invited me to take part in Agape. I wasn't really sure what this was (except that I knew that Agape means Love in Aramaic).  I arrived at her house along with 2 other ladies of my age and two older ladies plus H's parents who she lives with.

I wasn't really sure what to expect. This is what our booklets said in the introduction:

The Agape celebrates communion (instituted at Jesus's last Supper) as part of a meal, following the practice of the early church. In our Agape, we are attempting to echo the domestiv household atmosphere of Communion in the early Church. Agape (pronounced Ag-a-pay) simply means 'love'.  In the early Church this came to be used as the name for shared meals, which expressed the close fellowship of the community.  Communion was usually part of these meals so they also celebrated the sacrificial love of Jesus.
As well as 'love' thanksgiving is also a central theme in Communion.  The service sometimes call the Eucharist which is the Greek for 'thanksgiving#.  The theme of thanksgiving runs through Agape, culminating in the Thanksgiving prayer in Church.
Our Agape looks back to the Last Supper which was probably a Passover Meal.  Jesus celebrated this with his discples just before his arrest, trial and crucifixion.  Jesus gave that meal a new emphasis.  He changed the symbolic meaning of some fo the elements in that meal, so giving us the Communion service.  First, our Agape echoes some of the themes of the Passover: themes that come from the story of the Exodus.  It goes on to draw out the connection between the Communion service and its Passover background.

After welcome and Thankgiving readings, we had the first course of our meal- fruit juices, chatted and then heard the reading of the Exodus story and how it was retold at every Passover.

I lit a candle as a sign of the journey made by all God's people from darkness to light apparently.

We read a psalm and then ate our second course- Pasta bake or lasagne with salad and coleslaw.I discovered that C, one of the two younger ladies used to live near my childhood home and we'd been at the same Youth service and she knew some of my old church friends.

We moved onto a reading about the last supper and lit a second candle.

Then we had the third course, dessert (Banoffee pie) and then had a final reading about Jesus washing his disciples' feet. We lit a third candle.

We then all set off for one of the other churches in the parish for a combined service of the rest of Agape with songs, short sermon and Holy Communion for Maundy Thursday.

We filed out of church and I went back for a cup of tea at H's house.

It was a lovely way to spend Maundy Thursday with others, remembering Jesus's last supper and sharing a fellowship.

I headed home.

Tomorrow,I will be playing for the 'Eastingle' service in the afternoon at church and hopefully the march of witness on the High Street.

xxx