NSW:Feet washing says a lot: minister

AAP General News (Australia)
04-21-2011
NSW:Feet washing says a lot: minister

By Belinda Cranston

SYDNEY, April 21 AAP - You can tell a lot about a person by looking at their feet,
says Sydney clergyman the Reverend Bill Crews.

"People tell you about their lives through the marks on their feet," the Uniting Church
minister said.

"Sometimes they have gangrene because they use heroin, which they inject between their
toes, so it's quite sad."

For more than 10 years, the Uniting Church minister has been involved in an annual
ritual which involves washing the feet of homeless people each Maundy Thursday.

More commonly referred to as Holy Thursday, the day on which Jesus washed the feel
of his disciples before he was crucified, it is also the day the Pope traditionally washes
the feet of several of his cardinals, in imitation of Christ's humility.

Mr Crews will wash the feet of up to 350 homeless people and financially disadvantaged
people who live in boarding houses at a lunch at The Exodus Foundation in Ashfield at
midday.

The Foundation's Loaves and Fishes restaurant is famed for serving free meals to Sydney's poor.

Mr Crews said the annual feet washing ritual was "a very humbling" experience.

"One of the most intimate things you can do is wash someone's feet, it's very meaningful,"

he said.

"As I wash their feet, the homeless often tell me their life stories. It always deepens
my relationship with them."

Asked if any of his homeless guests were aware of the symbolism behind washing feet
on Maundy Thursday, Mr Crews said he believed all people were religious.

"Everybody has spiritual needs and depths and questions," he said.

"It doesn't matter who you are. Everybody has the same sorts of questions."

AAP bc/tr/jnb

KEYWORD: EASTER FEET

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