Good Friday

The First Parish Seder


And I'm running a little behind here with my posts, having hoped to keep up pretty much in "real" time. But the nice thing about the internet is that it lets you change the time if you like.

Good Friday was also the date of our annual First Parish seder -- a tradition that's been going on here for over a decade now, and has just been passed down to a new leader, since the woman who originated the service here just moved to Portland Oregon. And this was also, I'm told, the best attended seder we have ever held, with over 50 participants. A fun, joyous, convivial time...but also a time for us all to be reminded of the reality of slavery and oppression still in this world, and the important Passover lessons of hospitality, gratitude, compassion....

I was there with my brother and nephew, who had just celebrated their own Seder a few days earlier. Erik converted to Judaism when he married his current wife in 1999, but neither of them are especially observant, and Erik especially I think might best be described as "Jewnitarian" at best. Have some photos I want to post too, but I haven't quite figured out how to get them from my cell phone to the computer to here.

For me though, this Good Friday/Passover Seder truly was a "Last Supper" with these good folk: a reminder again of how much I love them and how much I am going to miss them, and yet also a reminder that my time here among them is nearly finished, and I have other things awaiting me down the road.

One of oUUr Stalwart Cooks, near the end of a long evening