CLASHES IN JERUSALEM

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 625, 30 March 1929, Page 1

CLASHES IN JERUSALEM

RELIGIOUS BODIES AT VARIANCE OBSERVANCE OF MAUNDY THURSDAY (United r.A.—By Telegraph — Copyright) l Australian, and N.Z. Press Association) Received 11.30 a.m. JERUSALEM, Friday. IT became known to-day that two clashes marked the Maundy I hursday religious observances. One was in tlie Church of the Holy Sepulchre between Latins and Greeks, and the other at David’s tomb between Christians and Moslems.

MAJOR KEITH REACH, Governor of Jerusalem, who was lunching with Mr. Rudyartl Kipling, was called to settle the squabble at the Sepulchre. The trouble there arose over the Latins' claim that the Greeks had trespassed on the altav to which the Latips had come for Pontifical Mass, preceding the foot-washing ceremony. The Governor ordered the Latins to wait until the Greeks had finished their incensation services, and a serious conflict was averted. The Moslem-Christian quarrel occurred when the Franciscan monks arrived on their customary pilgrimage to Davids tomb, which is known as the Coonaculum. It is owned by a prominent Moslem family, the sheik of which refused to permit the monks to enter, and beat a Moslem relative who seemed to favour the monks.

The police ordered the monks to r depart and closed the premises. i “Maundy/! a word derived from the i Latin “Mandatum” (a commandment), is l the name given to the ceremony of 4 washing the feet of the poor on the - Thursday before Easter, to the dole .then . | made, and formerly to the Last Supper. . 1 The term refers to the words spoken by Christ at the Last Supper after He had . washed the disciples’ feet: “A new com--1 mandment 1 give unto you.” custom of footwashing on Maundy Thursday was originally kept by noblemen and prelates, as well as by the Pope and Roman Catholic sovereigns. In * England the ceremony was performed by ; the sovereign personally until the reign . of William 111., when it was transferred to the Lord High Almoner. It was abol--1 ished in 1754. w The usage is now confined to gifts of 5 money at Westminster Abbey to as 4 many old men and women as there are years in the sovereign’s reign—one penny for each year.