A Liturgy For Footwashing

While some denominations and congregations include footwashing in their regular Communion or Lord's Supper celebrations, other practitioners include the rite only in their Maundy Thursday services. The following liturgy could be adapted for Passion Week or other occasions. In most footwashings, the sign-act itself embodies its own meaning, so the liturgical rhetoric may be minimal, assuming that leaders have provided some prior teaching about footwashing's history, development, and theological and ethical emphases. The liturgy given here also assumes footwashing's association with a larger celebration of the Lord's Table (for example, see "A Common Text for the Great Thanksgiving" in chapter 9), but details on the rest of the Communion service are not included here. The footwashing liturgy begins after the gathering, greeting, opening prayers, reading of Scripture, and celebration of the Lord's Table, all of which ought to be sensitive to footwashing themes. The introductory remarks, l…