Seder (Passover) Meal

Join us for an evening of sharing an historic meal that comes to life through the lens of the Scriptures. We will journey through the last Passover meal Jesus shared with His disciples before going to the Cross. Your senses will be opened through the sights, sounds and tastes of a dinner that has become the Christian Communion. 

 

 
The Passover is a Jewish ritual feast that marks the beginning of the Jewish holiday of Passover. It is conducted throughout the world on the evening of the 14th day of Nisan in the Hebrew calendar (with a calendar day reckoned to start at sunset). The day falls in late March or in April of the Gregorian calendar .  The Seder is a ritual performed by a community or by multiple generations of a family, involving a retelling of the story of the liberation of the Israelites from slavery in ancient Egypt. This story is in the Book of Exodus. Seder customs include telling the story, discussing the story, drinking four cups of wine, eating matzo, partaking of symbolic foods placed on the Passover Seder Plate, and reclining in celebration of freedom.  The Seder is performed in much the same way by Jews all over the world. The Seder is the most commonly celebrated of Jewish rituals.
The Seder is conducted in the family home, although communal Seders are also organized by synagogues, churches, schools and community centers, some open to the general public. It is customary to invite guests, especially strangers and the needy. The Seder is integral to Jewish faith and identity: if not for divine intervention and the Exodus, the Jewish people would still be slaves in Egypt. Therefore, the Seder is an occasion for praise and thanksgiving and for re-dedication to the idea of liberation. Furthermore, the words and rituals of the Seder are a primary vehicle for the transmission of the Jewish faith from grandparent to child, and from one generation to the next. Attending a Seder and eating matzo on Passover is a widespread custom in the Jewish community, even among those who are not religiously observant.

It was in this context, the Seder meal that Jesus was having with his disciples, the LAST SUPPER, before His arrest, trial and crucifixition that Jesus instituted for us as His followers, the sacrament of Holy Communion.  For us as Anglicans, the words of the liturgy for Holy Eucharist contain the exact words of Jesus regarding His body and blood, “Whenever you eat or drink this, do it in remembrance of me.”  The 4 cups of the Passover become one with the blood of Jesus.  The bread or Matzo, become the body of the Pascal Lamb, the body of Jesus in which we find the forgiveness of our sins, the complete and total defeat of evil in our lives and true freedom in a relationship with Jesus Christ, the living God.  As Anglicans, the whole liturgy of Holy Eucharist is a preparation to coming to the Lord’s Table to receive His most precious body and blood.  Holy Eucharist is our way of reliving that Passover Meal, that Last Supper, the disciples enjoyed with Jesus.