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Looking to Easter: Jesus’ Last Days

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Looking to Easter: Jesus’ Last Days
Liz Martin

When cleaning out my father’s apartment after his death, I came upon a dusty binder with well-loved pages covered in highlights, notes written in the margins, and dog eared edges. The title, “An Order of Service for Maundy Thursday,” brought back good memories of going with Dad to our Unitarian Universalist church every Thursday before Easter. At the age of 12, he first asked me to read parts from the script with him, which I did. The crowd was often small, but we enjoyed ourselves no matter how many there were.

Though an attorney by trade, my father had an active lay ministry all his life. As I was grieving, I found myself going back again and again to read my father’s writings especially the Maundy Thursday script. Embedded in it I found a message that I realized I had taken for granted, but that I thought of often in how to live my daily life. That message was Jesus’s words to his disciples about love: to love your God and love your neighbor as you love yourself. I talked over my reactions with my small group, the Buddies of Jesus, and realized that I had a leading to bring this message to others.

Over several weeks and working with my Buddies group, especially Helene Pollock, we developed a new text inspired by my father’s work that was refreshed with words from early Friends and selections from the Bible. On Thursday just before Easter in 2015, we gathered with Friends from around Philadelphia at West Philadelphia Friends meeting to read, worship, sing, and break bread together. The longing I had felt had been fulfilled. I was happy to celebrate Easter in a way that was accessible to Friends. Also, I was able to remember my family tradition and to build a new tradition with others.

I invite you to join me in this new tradition on Friday March 25th at 7 pm (program will start at 7:15 pm in the Cherry Street room). Helene Pollock and other Friends will present with me. All are welcome. There will also be some refreshments in the spirit of the “last supper.” Child care is available on request from the Meeting secretary by March 23rd.

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