New Vision Notes Maundy Thursday 2020: The Easter Weekend Edition

This day in Holy Week is named after the commandment Jesus gave his followers to love one another. (Latin, “mandere,” became “Maundy” in English). Typically New Vision recognizes this day with a meal in commemoration of the last supper Jesus had with his disciples.  We share in a communion meal, we engage in washing each other’s feet, we then participate in a “service of the shadows” in which readers recount the passion and crucifixion of Christ, where, after each reading, we extinguish a candle until there is one left, and that last one taken out of the room (now in darkness), to be returned after a time of silence, as a sign of the resurrection.

In that spirit I am sharing with you this week a Resurrection Craft for Easter.  It is a craft that will enable you to reflect on the death of Jesus as well as on Jesus’ resurrection.

Just like last week’s palm-waving craft, if you are interested in this craft, please improvise and accept what you can do with supplies you have on hand and what you can’t do. It can be fun just doing something like this craft based on what you do have within reach.

It is a strange season in our lives in community. I encourage you to allow the Easter weekend that begins tomorrow to be a time of refreshment and quiet. If you are able to join me for a brief Good Friday virtual worship gathering tomorrow morning at 10:30 am you can do so by clicking on this link. New Vision as a gathered community will also be available to you on Sunday morning at our regular time of Sunday virtual worship here.

For phone-in connection, you can call 1 647 374 4685. This is a Toronto area number. If you don’t have a phone plan that covers Toronto as a local call, you might incur long-distance charges. Please determine this before calling. When phoning in to this number you will be asked for the meeting ID. For Sunday (every Sunday) it is 782-292-511. For Good Friday, it is 215-888-027.

New Vision has joined Caremongering Hamilton by putting New Vision’s lower hall and kitchen to use as the movement’s operations centre. Caremongering Hamilton will begin operations at 24 Main W on Easter Sunday. For more information about Caremongering and how its world-wide beginnings occured in Toronto, and quickly spread to Hamilton, read this BBC article. CHCH covered the local initiative in a March 26 news story. Here is the on-line stream for the CHCH story.

Holy Week blessings ~

Ian