Tag Archives: faith

Fasting for Orthodox Christians

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Contributed by: Fr Ian Wallis, Faith & Spirituality Adviser, Orthodox Church

The Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church is a body with a long history, and a wide geographical spread. It should, therefore, not be at all surprising that there are (and always have been) differences of practice within it; and that applies as much to the practice of fasting, as it does to the practices of prayer, and worship, that accompany it: what is said here about fasting can only be taken as a general guide.

‘Fasting’ is commonly understood as going without food for a limited period of time, but the Orthodox Church more usually employs the term (in the church calendar) as days when Christians should abstain from certain types of food and drink: this means that on ‘Fast Days’ it is customarily understood that meat and fish (including any sea creature with a backbone) should not be eaten, neither should eggs and dairy products, nor olive oil (other vegetable oils are often substituted) and wine (usually understood as including all alcoholic beverages) should not be consumed.

However, the Gospel teaches Christians that fasting should be done in secret (Matthew 6:16-18) it is better to break the fast than to draw attention to the fact that you are fasting. In particular, when eating with people who are not keeping the fast, Christians are encouraged to be careful to eat what they are given, and also to provide for others a choice of food i.e. no one should be forced to fast.

In Britain, there is a long history of Catholic practice, and substituting fish for meat on Fridays is a well-known custom. However, the Orthodox Christian wider form of abstention (outlined above) is not so well-known, and neither is its extension to include most Wednesdays throughout the year. Similarly, Lent (or the ‘Great Fast’) is relatively wellknown as a period of abstention in preparation for Easter (or ‘Pascha’) but not the fast before Christmas (or the ‘Nativity’) sometimes called the ‘Philip Fast’ (because it starts on 15th November, which is the day following St Philip’s Day). Even less well-known are the fasts in the summer: one before the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul (29th June) and one before the Dormition (or Falling-Asleep) of the Most Blessed Virgin (15th August). The Orthodox Church’s calendar tells us when these fasts begin and end (including a number of days not mentioned here) and also those ‘Fast Days’ when fish, wine or oil are allowed.

The Gospel teaches Christians that fasting together with prayer can be of great effect (Matthew 17:21) and the change of diet is offered as a help to prayer. Prayer can be understood as a way of releasing our spirit to love others: if you have loved and served your family, your friends, your neighbours, and your enemies, you have kept the fast.

Birds eye view of a glass of water a crucifix and a slice of break

Photo by Kamil Szumotalski on Unsplash

Holy Week Blog: Easter Sunday

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Today is the final day of our daily blog posts for Holy Week

Thank you for joining us and we hope that you have found these posts helpful and informative.

Contributed by Christian members of the Faith and Spirituality Team.

As soon as the Sabbath was over, at dawn, the women gathered to return to Jesus’ tomb with the intention of anointing his body and wrapping it in a shroud. But when they got to the tomb, they discovered it had been opened. Jesus was not there! The accounts of this discovery vary in the different gospels. Mark tells us the women saw a young man dressed in white, who told them to go tell the disciples that Jesus had been raised from the dead and they were terrified; Matthew’s gospel tells us first an angel appeared to the women and then Jesus himself, telling them to go tell the disciples. In Luke’s two men appear to the women and tell them to go tell the others and much later Jesus appears to them all; and in John’s gospel there is quite a bit of toing and froing, with Mary Magdalene first discovering the empty tomb, returning to get two disciples to have a look. They can’t figure it out and leave. Then as she stands weeping at the tomb, Jesus appears to her. What actually happened we will never know. But in the days to follow, in various ways, people thought they saw him and they seemed to know that Jesus was still with them; and in this knowledge their sorrow turned to joy and they knew they were forgiven for the ways they had let Jesus down. You can read these accounts in the final chapters of each of the gospels.

Christians today believe the resurrection of Jesus was all about the power of love. Jesus lived a life of complete love and his continuing presence in the lives of those who follow him reveals that love is so powerful nothing can defeat it, even death. Resurrection also points to a basic principle of life: good can come out of even the most tragic of circumstances. Dawn follows even the darkest of nights.

In churches, Christians will celebrate with singing, music, shouts of “Christ is risen! Alleluia!” and with joy unbounded! From the Iona Community’s Stages on the Way:

A Prayer for Easter Day

Lord God,
Early in the morning
when the world was young,
you made life in all its beauty and terror;
you gave birth to all that we know.
Hallowed be your name.

Early in the morning,
when the world least expected it,
a newborn child crying in a cradle
announced that you had come among us,
that you were one of us.
Hallowed be your name.

Early in the morning,
surrounded by respectable liars,
religious leaders,
anxious statesmen
and silent friends,
you accepted the penalty for doing good:
you shouldered and suffered the cross.
Hallowed be your name.

Early in the morning,
a voice in a graveyard
and footsteps in the dew
proved that you had risen,
that you had come back to those and for those
who had forgotten, denied and destroyed you.
Hallowed be your name.

This morning
in the multi-coloured company
of your church on earth and in heaven,
we celebrate your creation, your life,
your death and resurrection,
and your love for us and all the world.

So we pray,
Bring new life,
where we are worn and tired;
New love,
where we have turned hard-hearted;
Forgiveness,
where we feel hurt and where we have wounded;
And the joy and freedom of your Spirit,
where we are prisoners of ourselves.

Thank you God,
that dawn comes after darkest night
and we can begin again. Alleluia!
Amen

Painting of Jesus tomb at dawn. Mary Magdeleine is shown in awe at finding the tomb empty and only emitting light. Trees are shown in the background. Painting by Shirley J. Veater

Easter Dawn II. Painting by Shirley J. Veater

The material from Iona comes from Stages on the Way, 1998. Copyright(c) WGRG, Iona community, Glasgow Scotland. wilgooselscotland. Reproduced with permission.

Artworks by Shirley Veater used with grateful thanks. www.shirleyveaterdesigns.co.uk

Holy Week Blog: Saturday

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Blog posts will be released each day until Easter Sunday 4 April

Contributed by Christian members of the Faith and Spirituality Team.

Saturday

Saturday was the Sabbath, a holy day of rest. The disciples were shattered, shocked, heart-broken, terrified, inconsolable. They were probably in hiding. But all the men would have felt guilty. They had not defended Jesus or stayed with him; they were not at the cross to witness his death; they did not help take his body down. Only the women had stayed and observed and wept; and they had seen where his body was taken. Mark tells us nothing about this long sad day.

Some Christians will hold a vigil through the night. Others will spend the day decorating their church with flowers, as if anointing the body of Christ and in preparation for the morrow.

Holy Week Blog: Good Friday

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Blog posts will be released each day until Easter Sunday 4 April

Contributed by Christian members of the Faith and Spirituality Team.

Friday

Jesus was held in the high priest’s house overnight and the interrogating was brutal. In the morning he was taken to the Roman Governor, Pilate, who also interrogated him. He did not find Jesus guilty of much except perhaps self-delusion; but the crowd had been whipped up to demand the death penalty. Pilate conceded and sent Jesus to be crucified. As Jesus was now a capitol prisoner, the soldiers treated him with the utmost severity and mocking him as a self-styled King, they made a crown out of thorns and squeezed it onto his head. He was then made to carry the cross from the prison to a hill outside the city, called Golgotha. He was nailed to it and it was erected, Mark tells us at 9am. Two others were crucified at the same time. Jesus died at 3pm. While on the cross he was goaded by the crowd; but his response was to ask God to forgive them, for they did not know what they were doing. After he died, his body was taken down and put into a newly made tomb and the tomb was sealed. The whole story can be found in Mark, chapter 15.

Good Friday is the most solemn day in the Christian calendar; it is only “good” because Easter Sunday will follow. It is observed by Christians in many ways. The most common is to gather at mid-day for an afternoon of prayer, music, reflection, concluding at 3.00pm when people leave in silence. From the Iona Community’s Stages on the Way:

It was on the Friday
that they ended it all.

Of course,
they didn’t do it one by one.
They weren’t brave enough.

They did it in crowds…
in crowds where you can feel safe
and lose yourself,
and shout things
you would never shout on your own,
and do things
you would never do
if you felt the camera was watching you.

It was a crowd in the church that did it,
and a crowd in the civil service that did it,
and a crowd in the street that did it,
and a crowd on the hill that did it.

And he said nothing.

He took the insults,
the bruises,
the spit on the face,
the whips on the back,
the curses in the ears.
He took the sight of his friends turning away,
running away.

And he said nothing.

He let them do their worst
until their worst was done,
as on Friday they ended it all.
And they would have finished themselves
had he not cried,
“Father, forgive them.”

And begin the revolution.

Painting showing three women standing at the foot of Jesus' cross. Craggy moutains are depicted in abstract in the background with a red/orange sky. Painting by Shirley J. Veater.

Women at the foot of the cross. Painting by Shirley J. Veater

The material from Iona comes from Stages on the Way, 1998. Copyright(c) WGRG, Iona community, Glasgow Scotland. wilgooselscotland. Reproduced with permission.

Artworks by Shirley Veater used with grateful thanks. www.shirleyveaterdesigns.co.uk

Holy Week Blog: Maundy Thursday

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Blog posts will be released each day until Easter Sunday 4 April

Contributed by Christian members of the Faith and Spirituality Team.

Thursday

By Thursday Jesus’ teaching in the temple was causing a great stir. The Jewish and the Roman authorities were becoming very anxious about the amount of unrest they were witnessing as Jesus’ supporters and detractors argued it out. Some of the supporters were claiming that Jesus was the Messiah, the King who would overthrow the Romans. Jesus would have known that in this overheated atmosphere, he was in grave danger. But it was Passover, and he wanted to celebrate the sacred meal with his friends. They gathered quietly in a private home; but there was a traitor in their midst, Judas, who for a bribe of 30 pieces of silver had offered to tell the authorities where Jesus was. During the meal Jesus told them to remember him every time they have bread and wine. This sharing of bread and wine and remembering Jesus was to become a foundational act of Christendom, called communion. Accounts of the meal vary a bit and in one account Jesus also washes the feet of his disciples, a custom in hot dusty climates, but usually done by a servant, not by the host. Jesus tells his disciples they should have such care for one another. After the meal, Jesus was growing very worried, because he felt sure he was going to be betrayed. He and his friends went into the garden and he asked them to pray with him. But they fell asleep and were awakened by an armed crowd, led by Judas, and Jesus was arrested. They took him away and interrogated him. You can read the full account of the meal, the arrest and the interrogation in Mark, chapter 14, verse 12 to 72.

Christians in English speaking countries call this day Maundy Thursday. “Maundy” (from Latin mandatum) refers to the command to wash one another’s feet and in medieval times, monarchs would wash the feet of their servants. Today the Queen gives Maundy money to a selected group of people. Christians observe the day usually in an evening gathering with readings, meditation, prayer and sharing in bread and wine. It is a solemn occasion. In some churches, the sanctuary is stripped of decoration, the cross is covered, and a vigil is held through the night. From the Iona Community’s Stages on the Way:

It was on the Thursday
that he became valuable.

He didn’t have anything to sell,
not since leaving his carpenter’s bench three years earlier.
He had nowhere to keep his stuff.
He even had to eat his last meal
in somebody else’s dining room.

He wasn’t worth much.
Mostly what he did was…
well,
talking, I suppose,
and listening
and healing
and forgiving
and encouraging
and loving
and the things for which there is no pay
and the job centre has no advertisements.

But suddenly somebody would pay
a silver penny, or two,
or thirty
for him.

And no matter about bread and wine shared,
no matter about feet washed,
no matter about promises of fidelity.
His price was too high.

It was on the Thursday …
that he became valuable.

Painting of the Last Supper shown in shadows. An abstract depiction of Jesus and the Disciples at a long table facing each other. Painting by Shirley J. Veater

The Last Supper. Painting by Shirley J. Veater

The material from Iona comes from Stages on the Way, 1998. Copyright(c) WGRG, Iona community, Glasgow Scotland. wilgooselscotland. Reproduced with permission.

Artworks by Shirley Veater used with grateful thanks. www.shirleyveaterdesigns.co.uk

Holy Week Daily Blog: Wednesday

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Blog posts will be released each day until Easter Sunday 4 April

Contributed by Christian members of the Faith and Spirituality Team.

Wednesday

During the week Jesus and his friends were probably staying outside Jerusalem in a village called Bethany at the home of Simon who had a skin disease and was therefore considered unclean, an outcast. But Jesus’ trademark was to befriend those whom other people disregarded and Simon made him welcome. During supper on Wednesday a woman joined them and, wanting to do something kind for Jesus, broke open a jar of very costly ointment and anointed him with it. The disciples thought this extravagance was ridiculous and reprimanded her. Jesus however was greatly moved and noted that such tender and unexpected acts of kindness are sometimes the most important thing we can do for each other. So touched was he that he said, “Wherever the good news is proclaimed in all the world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her.”  You can read this lovely story in Mark chapter 14, verses 3 to 9.  From the Iona Community’s Stages on the Way:

It was on the Wednesday
that they called him a waster.

The place smelt like the perfume department of a big store.
It was as if somebody had bumped their elbow
against a bottle of something expensive
and sent it crashing to the floor.

But it happened in a house,
not a shop.

And the woman who broke the bottle
was no casual afternoon shopper.
She was the poorest of the poor,
giving away the only precious thing she had.

And he sat still
while she poured the liquid all over his head,
extravagant, fragrant, comforting, tender

And those who smelt it,
and those who saw it,
and those who remembered
that he was against extravagance,
called him a waster.

But they forgot
that he too was the poorest of the poor
and that he was exhausted and fearful and anxious.

Jealousy was in the air
when a poor woman’s generous and tender love
became an embarrassment to their tight-fistedness
and their hard hearts.

That was on the Wednesday …
when they called him a waster.

Painting of an abstract forest early in the morning at sunrise. The trees are spindly and cast in shadows going in to the distance and in monchrome tones. Painting by Shirley J. Veater

Very Early. Painting by Shirley J. Veater

The material from Iona comes from Stages on the Way, 1998. Copyright(c) WGRG, Iona community, Glasgow Scotland. wilgooselscotland. Reproduced with permission.

Artworks by Shirley Veater used with grateful thanks. www.shirleyveaterdesigns.co.uk

Holy Week Daily Blog: Tuesday

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Blog posts will be released each day until Easter Sunday 4 April

Contributed by Christian members of the Faith and Spirituality Team.

Tuesday

Jesus was a Rabbi (teacher) and throughout the week his main activity was to talk with anyone who would listen. He had a reputation for teaching radical things, not, he said, to abolish the law which Jews observe, but to fulfil it. So, his teaching was not about the letter of the law, but the spirit. And to Jesus the spirit was always love and forgiveness. Many wanted to debate the issues. You can read some of that debate in Mark’s gospel, chapter 11, verse 11, through to chapter 12, verse 37. But if you want a concise summary of the best of Jesus’ teaching, go to Matthew’s gospel and read chapters 5,6,7, what we call “the sermon on the mount.”  From the Iona Community’s Stages on the Way:

It was on the Tuesday
that he gave it to them in the neck.

If you had been there
you would have thought
that a union official was being taken to task
by a group of back bench Tory MPs;
or that the chairman of a multinational
was being interrogated by left wing activists,
posing as shareholders.

They wanted to know why
and they wanted to know how.

They were the respectable men,
the influential men,
the establishment.

The questions they asked
ranged from silly speculations
about whether you would be a bigamist in heaven
if you had married twice on earth,
to what was the central rule of civilized behaviour.

They knew the answers already ….
or so they thought.

And like most of us
they were looking for an argument
with no intention of a change of heart.

But he flailed them with his tongue,
those who tried to look interested
but never wanted to be committed.

And that was on the Tuesday…
the day when he gave it to them…
to us,
in the neck.

Painting showing Jesus and the Desciples. Jesus is washing one of the Disciples' feet in a shallow basin. Painting by Shirley J. Veater.

Jesus Washes the Disciples feet. Painting by Shirley J. Veater

The material from Iona comes from Stages on the Way, 1998. Copyright(c) WGRG, Iona community, Glasgow Scotland. wilgooselscotland. Reproduced with permission.

Artworks by Shirley Veater used with grateful thanks. www.shirleyveaterdesigns.co.uk

Holy Week Daily Blog: Monday

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Blog posts will be released each day until Easter Sunday 4 April

Contributed by Christian members of the Faith and Spirituality Team.

Monday

The temple was to be Jesus’ centre of activity for the week. On Monday he went to the temple and found the forecourt was full of stalls selling animals for sacrifice. To buy the animals one had to use the temple currency and the exchange rate was not favourable! The presence of this commercial activity made Jesus extremely angry; a holy place had been turned into a marketplace! In a fury he threw over the stalls and shouted at them all. The temple authorities were very troubled about Jesus and realised he had an agenda that threatened their livelihood.  The story is told in Mark chapter 11, verses 15-19.

There is no particular Christian observance of this day, or on Tuesday or Wednesday. From the Iona Community’s Stages on the Way:

It was on the Monday
that religion got in the way.

An outsider would have thought
that it was a pet shop’s fire sale.
And the outsider, in some ways,
wouldn’t have been far wrong.

Only, it wasn’t household pets.
It was pigeons that were being purchased.
And it wasn’t a fire sale.
It was a rip-off stall in a holy temple
bartering birds for sacrifice.
And the price was something only the rich could afford,
No discounts to students, pensioners or disabled types.

Then he,
the holiest man on earth,
went through the bizarre bazaar
like a bull in a china shop.
So the doves got liberated
and the profit margins got wiped out
and the pigeon sellers got angry;
and the police went crazy;
and the poor people clapped like mad,
because he was making a sign
that God was for everybody,
not just for those who could afford him.

He turned the tables on Monday…
the day that religion got in the way.

Painting showing doves swooping down into a temple and disarray with the contents of the template evaporating into vapours in the air to represent cleansing. Painting by Shirley J. Veater.

Cleansing the Temple. Painting by Shirley J. Veater

The material from Iona comes from Stages on the Way, 1998. Copyright(c) WGRG, Iona community, Glasgow Scotland. wilgooselscotland. Reproduced with permission.

Artworks by Shirley Veater used with grateful thanks. www.shirleyveaterdesigns.co.uk

Holy Week Daily Blog: Palm Sunday

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Blog posts will be released each day until Easter Sunday 4 April

Contributed by Christian members of the Faith and Spirituality Team.

In the Western Church, Easter falls on April 4 this year and during the week preceding it, Christians remember some of the significant things which happened during Jesus’ last days before his death by crucifixion. They call these days Holy Week. It is a week of sorrow and distress; but it ends gloriously in joy and hope with Jesus’ resurrection on Easter Sunday.

Some of the Christian members of the Faith and Spirituality Team have put together a rough sketch of each of those days and included references from the gospel of St. Mark, where you will find a biblical account. We have also given a brief explanation of how Christians observe the day, and a meditation from the Iona Community’s Stages on the Way (used with permission).

Palm Sunday

Holy Week begins with Palm Sunday. Jesus was coming to Jerusalem for the Jewish Passover celebrations with his disciples. During the three years of his ministry of teaching and healing he had gained a huge crowd of followers, mostly humble people who were grateful for his loving, inclusive affirmation. On Sunday he came into Jerusalem. Word had gone before him that he was entering the city and crowds lined the streets to welcome him, waving branches from the trees (palms) crying “Hosanna” which means “save us.” You can read the account at Mark, chapter 11, verses 1-11.

In churches around the world, Christians will celebrate this day by waving palms, some woven into crosses or other shapes, and singing “Hosanna!”  It is a day of joy, but with undertones of sorrow as  they will probably also consider some of the things that happened during Jesus’ last week. When they gather again on Thursday, the tone will be very different. Some thoughts from the Iona Community:

It was on the Sunday
that he took on the city.

Religious freaks usually appear in the desert,
cutting themselves off from the hurly burly
for God wouldn’t dirty his hands
with things of the city,
political things,
criminal things,
beggars and thieves and prostitutes.

But on the Sunday
he rode in,
to claim all he saw
for God does weep in the dust of the streets.
God does cry out in the grand temples and courtyards.
God does yearn for the hustlers and the crooks,
the power hungry and the power brokers,
the fashionistas and the dolly birds,
the addicts and the dealers.

It was on the Sunday …
that he took on the city.

Painting of Jesus in white robes on a donkey amongst many palm trees with a blue sky

Triumphal entry – Hosanna! Painting by Shirley J. Veater

The material from Iona comes from Stages on the Way, 1998. Copyright(c) WGRG, Iona community, Glasgow Scotland. wilgooselscotland. Reproduced with permission.

Artworks by Shirley Veater used with grateful thanks. www.shirleyveaterdesigns.co.uk

Passover – sundown 27th March, until nightfall 4th April

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Pesach – Nissan 15-22, the Hebrew Calendar dates (27 March – 04 April)

Featuring contributions from: Raf Salkie, Rebecca Graber, Josh Newman, Fiona MacNeill

Pesach is almost certainly the most celebrated festival in the Jewish calendar – and celebrated almost entirely at home.

Pesach (/ˈpɛsɑːx, ˈpeɪsəx /, English Passover) is a Jewish holiday which celebrates the escape of the Hebrew slaves from ancient Egypt.  The highlight is the evening Seder (SAY-duh, meaning ‘order’), which is a combination of a religious service and a celebratory meal.  The service retells the story of the Exodus from Egypt over several obligatory glasses of wine.  The Seder is a family event, centred round children.

During the Seder various symbolic items are assembled on a plate.  The pictures included below show a traditional Seder Plate with explanations, and a similar plate with some extra new traditions.

Line drawing of traditional Seder plate with written descriptions included in the caption

Descriptive text in this image: The traditional seder plate includes: a roasted egg representing a new life after Egypt. Parsley, a spring vegetable and sign of new life. Charoset (a mix of apples cinnamon, nuts and wine), the mortar used making bricks as slaves. Salt water, the tears of the slaves. Lamb bone, the sacrifice on the last night. Matzah (unleavened bread), as there was no time in the escape to let it rise.

As a point of clarity in relation to the illustration above. The lamb, as the source of the lamb bone, would traditionally have been slaughtered before Passover begins. In the story, the blood of the lamb was daubed on the doorways of the Hebrews’ homes to let the Angel of Death know to ‘pass over’ these homes while enacting the 10th plague, the death of first born sons. The 10 plagues are key to the Judeo-Christian story of Moses or Moshe. For a brief refresh read this article (Gill, 2021; SEE also Shemōt the second book of the Torah, known as the Book of Exodus in the Christian Old Testament).

Illustration of a non-traditional Seder place with descriptions included in the caption

Descriptive text in this image: What’s on your Seder plate? Bitter herb, often romaine lettuce. Bitter herb, often horseradish. Shank bone. Hard-boiled egg, often roasted. For vegans flower or seed replaces the egg. For vegetarians and vegans, roasted beetroot, replaces the shank bone. Charoset (mixture of chopped nuts and apples, wine and cinnamon). Parsley or boiled potato for dipping in salt water. New traditions: some celebrants have introduced additions to their Seder plates: orange in support of LGBT inclusion; olive in support of peace between Israelis and Palestinians; artichoke in support of interfaith families; tomato in support of farmworker’s rights.

Practices and observances

The story of Pesach is the foundation story of Judaism and is absolutely central to the first five books of the Hebrew Bible (the Torah): the divinely driven escape from slavery that takes the Hebrews into the desert and to the revelation on Mount Sinai where Torah is handed to Moses*. This is officially marked 50 days later on Shavuot (on 17/18th May in 2021).

The story told at the Seder is in the first person: Jews say we were slaves in Egypt – and explain the story to the children. It is common, as illustrated by the ‘new traditions’ of the illustrated Seder plate above, to discuss oppression in current society and to think about how to fight against slavery – real and metaphorical – in the world today.

For the eseven or eight days of Passover, observant Jews eat matzah (a crisp, unleavened bread), and do not eat bread or anything made with a number of grains other than matzah.  Fortunately, meat, fish, cheese, vegetables, nuts, crisps and chocolate are allowed.  There is a tradition of making biscuits and cakes out of ground almonds, potato flour or desiccated coconut.

Pesach is one of the three festivals that even many non-observant Jews celebrate (the other two are Rosh Hashanah [New year] and Yom Kippur [Day of Atonement], which fall close to each other in the Autumn).  Pesach is celebrated in Spring: this year Seder is on Saturday 27 March and Passover ends on 4 April.

First-born males traditionally fast on the day before the Seder meal.  Since fasting on Saturday, the Sabbath, is not permitted, this year the Fast of the First Born is held on Thursday 25 March.

Ashkenazi, Sephardic and Israeli Jewish customs

Key points about differences in observances:

  • Passover is a seven day festival, although in the diaspora (outside Israel) most Jews observe an extra day – and celebrate a second Seder on the second night.
  • Observances of which foods are permitted on Passover differ slightly with Ashkenazi (European) Jews refraining from eating nuts, beans and rice, and Sephardic (Spanish and Portuguese) Jews being permitted these foods.
  • It is considered a mitzvah (good deed) to welcome strangers to a Passover seder.

How to respectfully recognise Passover/Pesach as someone who is not Jewish

If you have friends or colleagues who you know are practicing Jews you can wish them a Happy Passover. It is respectful to do this in a one-to-one or via a private written message (during the current lockdown). This year you may wish to do this earlier as the Fast of the First Born, as noted above, starts on 25th March, otherwise the 27th March is fine. If you wish to say ‘Good Holiday’ in Hebrew you can say the phrase: Chag Sameach (pronounced: Chag Sa-May-ach, the ch is like the end of the word loch, this phrase in Hebrew: חג שמח). You can also post a message on social media in a general way, but it is important not to tag people as practice and beliefs can be private and this should always be considered. Also, if you are selecting an image for your social media post, keep it simple with a text-based greeting and visual reference to the Seder. There are some nice examples at this site (although there are also some to avoid on this site too!). If you are invited to a Passover Seder, this is an honour and it is important to listen and learn from the stories shared as part of the meal and to thank your hosts for their trust and hospitality.

Comparative Theology

The foundation story festival of Passover occurs at the same time as the foundation story festival of Easter in Christianity. In the ‘Synoptic Gospels‘ (2021) the Last Supper is traditionally thought to be a Seder. This may explain why in the Western churches the bread shared at the eucharist is unleavened. In John’s gospel Jesus dies at the same time that the Pascal Lamb (from the word Pesach) is slaughtered.

Further reading

In Nazi Concentration Camps, some Jews tried hard to observe Pesach despite the terrible conditions.  Two moving stories are told here:

The Story of a Prayer: A Seder in Bergen-Belsen

A Seder in Dachau: How a “Rebbe” Created Hope in the Most Dire of Circumstances

Passover resources and event

Helpful resources for Pesach from Chabad.org

The British Shalom-Salaam Trust is hosting an event on Tuesday, 30th March at 7.00pm which is open to all. This event will be held on Zoom and for more details please visit the BSST’s Facebook page.

OneTable provides advice for celebrating Passover solo if you are in a situation where you need to self-isolate or cannot be with family and friends.

References

Gill, N.S. (2021, January 26). The 10 Egyptian Plagues. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/plagues-of-egypt-ancient-jewish-history-118238 (Accessed: 14 March 2021).

‘Synoptic gospels’ (2021) Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synoptic_Gospels (Accessed: 14 March 2021).

*Interestingly, Moses is not mentioned in the Seder — it says repeatedly says that God led Jews out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and that God gave the Ten Commandments on Sinai, but Moses is never mentioned by name.  Why Moses is absent, in some versions of the Seder he gets one passing mention, has been a topic of much discussion. For one discussion see this web page.