Agape

Although the Agape is not one of the key liturgical events of Holy Week it is nonetheless one of the ways in which we manage to celebrate Holy Week together with our brothers and sisters from S. George's. There remains much scholarly debate as to exactly what form the Agape took in the early church took, and whether it preceded the eucharist or was something entirely separate from it. For us it is simply an opportunity to hare together in a meal in Holy week with prayers and readings and the opportunity to break bread and share wine together. It is not a Eucharist, though it carries of course echoes of the Eucharist in it, and it is not a passover meal, though in this week it of course carries echoes of that meal too. Fr David took as his text the Gospel reading of the day (John 12: 1-11), which I had enjoyed preaching on at the morning Eucharist, and also took the opportunity to share some of his thoughts on the BBC Passion, not too dissimilar to my comments already posted on the Blog. For him the disappointment was not the interpretation (inevitably perhaps it is going to try to balance some of the religious and secular agendas already mentioned) but the fact that it departs so much from the text of the scriptures. No disagreement here! Last year I was impressed by Pope Benedict's book on Jesus, which has an excellent introduction about how to read scripture in a way that takes into account the usefulness of modern historical criticism without forgetting to read the scriptures prayerfully. I'm still recommending it as the best book to buy on Jesus! I hope he is able to write the second part for us.

I am especially grateful to the many people who worked so hard to prepare the meal, especially Erica and Lynne among many others, not least those from S. George's who helped us as we used their Hall, which is bigger than ours! You can see from the pictures how hard (and blurrily fast!) people worked to clear up afterwards.