Gaining a Dose Of Humility, One Washed Foot at a Time

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A Soapy Supplication
In a church in downtown Richmond, volunteers revive an age-old ritual of humility, submission and spiritual connection by washing the feet of the homeless.

"It's a curious thing because, if you listen to what Jesus said, it certainly sounds like a commandment," said Samuel Wells, a minister at Duke University. "But feet are an uncomfortable thing and, for many, too intimate."

Last year, when he was installed as Duke's chapel dean, Wells insisted on washing the feet of students, housekeeping staff and colleagues at the ceremony.

Although there are no statistics on foot-washing, religious scholars across denominations say they have noticed an increase not only in its popularity but its application.

Black and white Christians have washed one another's feet as a sign of racial reconciliation at religious conferences in Birmingham, Memphis, Oakland, Calif., and Knoxville, Tenn. Last year the spokesman for the Presbyterian Church in Canada praised foot-washing in marriage ceremonies.

In Germany, the president of the lower house of parliament washed the feet of strangers at a religious festival in 2001. And two years ago at a worldwide Christian conference, a group of Hutus and Tutsis -- bitter enemies during the Rwandan civil war -- washed each other's feet.

"The popularity might be related to this wider move toward more meaningful spiritual practices, almost as a critique of institutionalized rituals," said John Christopher Thomas, a biblical studies professor at Church of God Theological Seminary in Cleveland, Tenn., who has studied foot-washing for 26 years. "I mean, you can sanitize baptism and the Eucharist, but it's pretty hard to sanitize feet."

In most churches that have adopted the practice, foot-washing is incorporated into the Maundy Thursday service, though the details vary. Some have pastors wash the feet of parishioners. In others, church members pair up to wash each other. At St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Bethesda, which started foot-washing during the 2004 Easter season, parishioners form lines and wash the person behind them.

At St. David's Episcopal Church in Northwest Washington, the congregation added foot-washing two years ago to its Maundy Thursday feast, passing a basin around the table after the meal. "People had tears welling up in their eyes, a lot of sniffling going on," Assistant Rector Jennifer McKenzie said.

A few miles away, at the First Church of Seventh-day Adventists in the District, parishioners washed last week while singing lively hymns and swaying to the piano. At the church, as at most Adventist churches, members have been washing feet for decades, with women in separate rooms from the men. The church particularly encourages members with grudges to pair up for the ceremony.

"It makes you vulnerable, makes you transparent to your brother," said Rocky Twyman, 58, who played the piano while the men took turns washing in green plastic tubs. "I mean, just think about what the world would be like if more people did this."

It's a sentiment shared by many foot-washing proponents. The Mennonite Central Committee's Washington office devoted an entire issue of its public policy newsletter in 2003 to the idea of Washington's elite washing feet.

U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) washed the feet of a retiring aide in 1998, according to a Topeka-based political newsletter. Recent calls to his office were not returned, but Brownback told the New York Times this fall that the action was a "biblical model of what servant leadership is."