Holy Week at Rome’s Trinity United Methodist Church

While Easter Sunday marks the culmination of the Lenten season for many Christians, the week leading up to the celebration of the Jesus’ resurrection, Holy Week, holds many important traditions as well.

Trinity United Methodist Church will open its doors in welcome on Easter, but the staff and congregation also invite the public to join them at their Turner McCall Boulevard sanctuary for Maundy Thursday and Good Friday services.

The word “maundy” means “mandate.” Maundy Thursday commemorates Jesus’s mandate in the Gospel of John when he commanded his followers to love as he loves. The service includes foot washing as a symbol of loving service to others.

Communion is a significant part of Maundy Thursday as Christians remember Jesus’ final meal with his disciples and renew their covenant to live in unity and love with all other Christians in service to God in the world.

“This year’s Maundy Thursday service will be held outdoors in front of our newly painted Lord’s Supper mural, sketched by local artist Chip DeYoung after Leonardo da Vinci’s painting,” said the Rev. Nanci Hicks, pastor-in-charge at Trinity. “Volunteers from the church have worked with Chip to paint and ready the mural. We are thrilled to offer this mural and worship opportunity as a witness to love and inclusivity for the Rome community.”

Trinity’s Maundy Thursday starts at 6 p.m. on April 14 outside on the front lawn bordering Turner McCall. There will be prayers, songs, the act of church members washing the feet — or hands if preferred — of attendees and then the invitation to gather at tables set up to seat 12 people at a time for communion.

“Holy Week worship is more somber than most of our worship celebrations,” Hicks said. “We slow down to remember the truly overwhelming love of God who gathers people together in hope and love, both of which can seem in short supply these days. Trinity strives to be a sanctuary for all and in service for and with all.”

Trinity’s Good Friday service begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Turner McCall sanctuary.

This year the church is holding the evening gathering in the tradition of a Tenebrae service. There will be a brief time of song and prayer, which will be followed by various scripture readings related to the death of Jesus.

“The church doors will open Good Friday, or Holy Friday as most of the world calls it in their languages, for the community to gather and proclaims God’s purpose of loving and redeeming the world even in the face of human rejection and cruelty through the cross of our Lord, Jesus Christ,” Hicks said.

“It is a day that is holy and makes us holy because God was drawing the world to God’s self in Christ.”

The sanctuary will be lit by candlelight. At the end of each of the scriptures presented, the reader will extinguish one candle. The darkening of the sanctuary symbolizes the darkness that fell on Jerusalem and the deep despair of his followers when Jesus was crucified.