Maundy Thursday For Confessing Anglicans. By C. F. Fry.

:: Story Update ::

Queen Hands Out Minted Coins on 'Maundy Thursday,' 2010.

Such is also the 8OOth Year of the Maundy Ceremony.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/04/01/world/AP-EU-Britain-Maundy-Thursday.html?_r=1

Maundy Thursday For

Confessing Anglicans.

By C. F. Fry.

Maundy Notes & Editing

By Uncle Monty.
~
Triduum Sacrum - (Lat. The Sacred Three Days) -
Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday.
~

"Maundy Thursday is the Thursday before Easter

Sunday, observed by Anglicans in commemoration

of Christ's Last Supper."

~

"The name Maundy is derived from mandatum (Lat.

'commandment'), the first word of an anthem sung in the

liturgical ceremony on that day. In Roman Catholic, and

many Protestant churches, The Eucharist is celebrated

in an evening liturgy that includes Holy Communion."

~

"During the Catholic liturgy, the ceremony of the washing of

the feet, or pedilavium, is performed: the celebrant – a bishop

or a priest - washes the feet of 12 people to commemorate

Christ's washing of his disciples' feet. In England, a custom

survives of giving alms ("royal maundy money") to the poor;

this recalls an earlier practice in which the sovereign washed

the feet of the poor on Maundy Thursday. In most European

countries, the day is known as Holy Thursday."

~
"Maundy Thursday is of religious importance to (confessing)

Anglicans, along with Lutherans, Methodists, Baptists,

Church of the Brethren and Catholics."

~

"As the (vigil) and eve of the institution of the Lord's Supper,

Maundy Thursday has been kept by devout Christians from

earliest times. By the 4th century it was a feast of The

Jerusalem Church, and in the 6th century in Gaul it was

observed as Natalis Calicis ('Birthday of the Chalice')."

In medevial Britain, it was known as Chare Thursday

(from the scrubbing of the altar) and in Germany as Green

Thursday (Grundonnerstag, either from the green

vestments then worn or from grunen, "to mourn")."

~

"The day is (also) associated with Tenebrae, a ceremony

of extinguishing the altar candles in preparation for Good

Friday. (Such is) observed in the Holy Catholic Church.

Maundy Thursday ceremonies appear in Anglican,

Orthodox, Congregational, Lutheran and Reformed

Episcopal, liturgical calendars and is almost universally

celebrated with (the rites) of the Lord's Supper."
~

The Lamb triumphant!

~
Crown him with many crowns, the Lamb upon his throne.

Hark! How the heavenly anthem drowns all music but its own.

Awake, my soul, and sing of him who died for thee, and hail

him as thy matchless King through all eternity.

~

Crown him the virgin's Son, the God incarnate born, whose

arm those crimson trophies won which now His brow adorn;

fruit of the mystic rose, as of that rose the stem; the root

whence mercy ever flows, the Babe of Bethlehem.

~

Crown him the Son of God, before the worlds began, and ye

who tread where he hath trod, crown him the Son of Man; who

every grief hath known that wrings the human breast, and

takes and bears them for His own, that all in him may rest.

~

Crown him the Lord of life, who triumphed over the grave,

and rose victorious in the strife for those he came to save.

His glories now we sing, who died, and rose on high, who

died eternal life to bring, and lives that death may die.

~

Crown him the Lord of peace, whose power a scepter sways

from pole to pole, that wars may cease, and all be prayer and

praise his reign shall know no end, and round his piercèd feet

fair flowers of paradise extend their fragrance ever sweet.

~

Crown him the Lord of love, behold his hands and side,

those wounds, yet visible above, in beauty glorified. No

angel in the sky can fully bear that sight, but downward

bends his burning eyeat mysteries so bright.

~

Crown him the Lord of Heaven, enthroned in worlds above,

crown him the King to whom is given the wondrous name

of Love.

~

Crown him with many crowns, as thrones before him fall;

Crown him, ye kings, with many crowns, for he is King of all.

~

Crown him the Lord of lords, who over all doth reign, who

once on earth, the incarnate Word, for ransomed sinners slain,

now lives in realms of light, where saints with angels sing their

songs before him day and night,their God, Redeemer, King.

~

Crown him the Lord of years, the Potentate of time, Creator

of the rolling spheres, ineffably sublime. all hail, Redeemer,

hail! For thou has died for me; thy praise and glory

shall not fail throughout eternity.

~

~

Maundy Notes By Uncle Monty.

~

As a Confessing Anglican, Maundy Thursday has

always been important to me since becoming an

adult Christain. It is part of my faith and part of

the "sacred three days" that binds Holy Week each

year with those significant religious dates in the

Anglican Church's yearly calendar.

~

What is also special about Maundy Thursday is the

fact the our reigning monarch presents royal maundy

money each year to worthy British pensioners.

In 2008, the Queen for the first time presented such

maundy money at the Church of Ireland as seen in the

above lead photo of Her Majesty and Prince Philip.

~

And while talking of the Anglican Church of Ireland, I

thought the website ukirishhistory did a good job of

presenting the ins and outs, if you will, of the historical

background behind the giving of maundy money and

the maundy service. So I decided to include a little

bit from ukirishhistory for you:

~
"The distribution of maundy money dates back to the 13th

century and the recipients were selected as a reward for their

service to the community. Until the 18th century, the money

went only to persons of the same sex as the reigning monarch,

but thereafter both equal numbers of men and women were

rewarded. With each passing year, one more penny is added

to commemorate the monarch's age. Instead of general

currency, coins were especially minted for the occasion in

four denominations - a groat, a threepence, a half groat and

a penny. They were - and still are, made of silver. The British

coins bear the original image of Queen Elizabeth II, first

minted at the time of her accession in 1953 and designed

by artist Mary Gillick."

~
"The Maundy Service is now held at different cathedrals each

year and pensioners from that locality are selected to be re-

cipients of the royal largesse. Yeomen in their traditional tudor

uniforms carry the money to the cathedral on golden alms

trays on which are a series of red and white pouches."

~

"Each recipient will receive one of each colour, in which will be the

traditional maundy coins (white purse) and some other symbolic

money (in red). In 2009 at Bury St Edmunds, a special £5 coin

was distrubuted, marking the 500th anniversary of the accession

of Henry VIII plus a 50 pence coin celebrating the founding of

Kew Gardens."

~
This year 2010 the Maundy Ceremony moves to Derby

Cathedral at where the Queen will hand out maundy money

to the value of 84 pence, being the sum of her age.
~

So here we are at another Holy Week. As good Christians,

I pray we will remember our Lord's Cruxification and His

Resurrection by taking personal time to mark this

Triduum Sacrum. And remember without Him in

our lives, our world would be even more of a grimmer

place to live. It is through Him then, that our lives hold

a special meaning and spiritual value that is otherwise

dead without Him. When we have "things," but not

Him, then we are hollow and empty despite all the

shopping bags, fancy clothes, greediness, full food

larders, and expensive digital gadgets, that we

surround our modern and secular lives with ...

~

I see in London so many empty people, day in and

day out, I could almost cry for them ... Yet, they gladly

go on their self-centred ways without a single thought

for their utter emptiness and Godless lives! Most

of them will do that until the very day they die

and never know or care of who was Him!!

So, pitiful are they ... aren't they?

~

Faithfully, Uncle Monty.

+Tuesday of Holy Week, 2010.

~
"The Christianists" or Hutaree Christian Warriors.

FBI Goes After Christian Militia in Series of Weekend Raids.

By Mike Householder, Associated Press
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/63474

~
http://hutaree.com/

~
It would take only the secularist and arrogant and

governmentally-armed-to-the-teeth FBI to make

raids and arrests of Christian folks on ironically the

eve of Holy Week!! Surely, we'd expect Muslim cops

in Iran or Islamic states to do such to Christians and

not our Yankee cops? But not so, baby, in the Good

Ole US of A of today ... No, sireeeeeeeeeee!

Notes Uncle Monty ...
~
Global Persecution of Christians
http://www.persecution.com/
~

Renewed call made for a common Christian Easter calendar.

New York (Ecumenical News International - ENI).

The U.S National Council of Churches has renewed its call to set

a common date for the celebration of Easter, when Christians

mark the raising of Jesus from the dead. This year marks a rare

occurrence as Christians from both Orthodox and non-Orthodox

traditions will mark Easter on 4 April. A similar call for a common

date for Easter was made more than 10 years ago, when

Orthodox and non-Orthodox Christians celebrated Easter

on the same date.

~

The renewed call came in a joint letter to member churches

by the Rev. Michael Kinnamon, the NCC's general secretary,

and Antonios Kireopoulos, the NCC's director for faith and order

and interfaith relations. They said that "almost every year the

Christian community is divided over which day to proclaim this

good news. Our split, based on a dispute having to do with

ancient calendars, visibly betrays the message of recon-

ciliation. It is a scandal that surely grieves our God."

~

Coming shortly: "Making Way For The Holy Father."

By Uncle Monty. Preparing for Pope Benedict XVI's

Official State Visit to the United Kingdom for

this September, 2010.

www.thepapalvisit.org.uk/

+