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The piece on the four questions of the Seder and the Exultet was quite lovely. I think, though, that the 'answers' are our answers to the four questions as we heard and interpreted them, and that it is important to acknowledge that we are not answering the four questions of the Seder in any way a Jew would recognize or identify with.

Judith Guttman
Luther Memorial
Madison, Wisconsin, USA
14 April 2014

Some years ago I shared a Sabbath evening with Jewish friends. As the host blessed the bread, broke it and shared it, then blessed the wine and shared it, and gave Thanks and Praise, the roots and meaning of our Eucharist were planted ever deeper into me.

Br Franklin Kline OP
Christ Church Cathedral
St Louis, Missouri, USA
15 April 2014

 

We, as a parish, celebrated the Passover Seder last night. It was a delight to welcome among us a Jewish friend. This is a tradition we have established for every Monday in Holy Week. It sets the scene for the week ahead, espcially for our Maundy Thursday Liturgy. Celebrating the Passover certainly enhances our understanding both of the Eucharist and of Christ's Exodus, his death and resurrection.

Paul
St John with St Mary
Devizes, Wiltshire, UK
15 April 2014

 

I am half-Jewish by birth. As I get older, I treasure more and more that part of my heritage. I am deeply aware that Jesus (Yeshua) was, among many other things, a profoundly devout and learned Jew who never forgot his heritage. In fact, he was its apotheosis: 'I have come not to destroy the law but to fulfill it.'

Mark Siegel
All Saints Atlanta
Atlanta, Georgia, USA
17 April 2014

A clergy colleague recommended the title Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist by Brant Pitre, Doubleday, 2011. I have been reading it this Holy Week and it's been incredibly informative. The few scholarly reviews of it I've seen give his handling of some of the later Jewish sources mixed reviews, but his focus on certain details in the Torah alone, leaving aside the later material, is incredibly illuminating.

Gillian Barr
Church of the Good Shepherd
Pawtucket, Rhode Island, USA
21 April 2014

On Spy Wednesday

You mentioned Spy Wednesday in your front page article last week, and it was mentioned again in the notices in church yesterday. I honestly don't think I'd ever heard of this before. Is it an innovation or has the Wednesday of Holy Week been called this for centuries without my ever having noticed till now?

Robert W. M. Greaves
All Saints Anglican Church
Jakarta, Indonesia
14 April 2014

Editor: This references Judas Iscariot's betrayal of Jesus. The Revd Scott Gunn of Forward Movement covered this as part of the 2012 Lent Madness. Read http://www.lentmadness.org/2012/04/spy-wednesday/ for more.

Earlier letters

We launched our 'Letters to AO' section on 11 May 2003. All published letters are in our archives.