About 100 people celebrated Holy Thursday by holding a foot washing service in downtown Orlando.
The Foot Washing and Prayer Service outside the Federal Immigration Court in downtown Orlando was sponsored by the Faith Leader Network of the Immigrants Are Welcome Here Coalition and Hope CommUnity Center. The service drew people from a variety of religions who showed up to express their faith and to support Central Florida’s immigrant community.
Pastor Socrates Perez of Horizon West Church in Winter Garden said the service was a commemoration of one of Jesus’ last acts before he was crucified – washing the feet of his disciples.
“Today I’m a part of a coalition that’s putting together this event to show love and service toward immigrants on Holy Thursday, which is historically a day that we remember when Jesus washed the feet of his disciples,’’ Perez said. “And so we want to do the same. We want to wash the feet of immigrants and just show them in humility and service that we are for them. That it doesn’t matter our position in society or class, that we want to serve them and let them know that they’re not alone.’’
Priests and ministers like Father Mario Magana washed the feet of participants – some of them immigrants, some of them native-born Americans.
“Humble us all, Father, in this moment,’’ prayed Father Magana, a Franciscan priest. “Give me especially the humility, especially, to wash your child’s feet, to show my love for this world. To show my love for you. May we radiate this love from this day forward. In Jesus’ holy name I pray, amen.’’
He then sprinkled drops of holy water into a basin and reenacted Jesus’ act of washing a woman’s feet – as 15 feet away from him immigrants with court dates lined up for entry into the Federal Immigration Court building in downtown Orlando.
In addition to foot washing, participants prayed, sang hymns and encouraged immigrants in the crowd – some of them legal residents and some naturalized U.S. citizens. Sister Ann Kendrick of the Hope Community Center and the Florida Farmworkers Association read Scripture.
“God exhorts us to treat each other as we would like to be treated,’’ Kendrick told the crowd. “If the stranger or the forastero comes among you, says the holy book, you must treat them as one of your own family. You must help the ones among you who are suffering. The widow, the orphan, the stranger. See them as one of you. Have compassion.’’
Organizers said the two-hour event was supported by about 40 Central Florida faith and advocacy groups.
