Guidelines For Planning A Footwashing Service

Congregational leaders planning their first liturgical footwashing may take comfort in recognizing that the rite's traditions allow for tremendous flexibility and creativity. As with other symbolic religious acts, there is no one right way to celebrate footwashing.

Because of footwashing's cultural strangeness, pastors and other church leaders may encounter some resistance to including footwashing with the Maundy Thursday or Lord's Supper services. Some may suggest that washing the feet of others is foreign to their daily experience so it cannot carry meaning in Christian worship. However, the bodily practice itself—stooping, touching the feet of another, and kneeling before another—continues to indicate a kind of humbling of oneself. With persons washing each other's feet, the practice primarily suggests mutual service with another. And while practitioners' feet are usually clean when they come to the basin, water continues to signify—as it does in baptism—spiritual cleansing, forgiveness, and renewal. Those planning a footwashing service need to decide beforehand whether persons will wash in pairs or in rows; what level of modesty is appropriate for the parish or congregation; and whether men and women may be mixed in the washing or segregated. Planners are discouraged from making the service more palatable by substituting handwashing for footwashing, partly because handwashing has its own religious history. Church leaders should be sensitive to the special needs of persons with disabilities, as well as those who choose not to participate in the footwashing. If pair-washing is chosen, service planners at first may want to observe the pairing process, then search out persons who do not have partners so that no interested person is excluded. To celebrate footwashing, a fellowship will need a sufficient number of basins or tubs, perhaps one for every fifteen persons. Sometime just before or during the service, the basins may be placed in various open spaces throughout the auditorium or sanctuary, or in educational classrooms. A small stack of towels should be placed near each basin. Because footwashing is new to many people, some explanation of not only the theological and ethical symbolism, but procedural arrangements is needed. It is best if, during the service itself, announcement of procedures is limited. Service planners may include in the bulletin a succinct explanation of how footwashing is celebrated, and of where basins are located. In addition, it would be helpful if church leaders could use the educational hour during preceding weeks to discuss the history, development, and theology of footwashing. Some fellowships may choose to include footwashing in a small-group worship service before introducing the practice into formal, corporate worship. Then those already experienced could serve as mentors or examples in the designated basin areas. In some religious traditions, footwashing services are accompanied by an offering for the alms or outreach fund. In combination with the ritual, church leaders may also consider asking participants to sign a covenant committing themselves to a specified amount of concrete voluntary service during the coming months or year. No one would expect to conduct flawlessly a first-time footwashing service, with the unusual demands and clumsy gestures the symbolic act necessitates. Service planners will need to be flexible and good-humored in their efforts and integrate learning from initial celebrations into later footwashings.