When my family settled in Hamilton, Ontario, in 2001 so I could attend McMaster Divinity College, we went knowing that just a few years before, the Evangelical Missionary Church of Canada congregation there (Calvary) had closed. I chose the church we would go to, Ridgemount Brethren in Christ.

One of the things I hoped would have happened at Ridgemount was to participate in or a least witness a ceremony of Washing the Saints’ Feet, since the BiC still practiced the ordinance. The pastor however, did not have a long experience in the BiC and in our 2 years in Hamilton, we did not see feetwashing carried out. The pastor participated in his first feetwashing ceremony at a BiC General Conference during our time there. I have long had the opinion that the United Missionary Church did not do well to drop the practice, which you will note I call an “ordinance,” implying I think it is a command of Jesus. Jesus, of course, commanded quite a number of things, but an “ordinance” would be the Lord’s command of a certain kind, meant to be perpetuated in the Church by an outward action with inward meaning. There is little agreement on how many there are beyond baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Anglicans call them “dominicals,” I understand: “of or pertaining to the Lord Jesus.”¹

The EMCC, in its precursors as the Mennonite Brethren in Christ and the United Missionary Church, had promoted, as an ordinance of the Lord, washing one another’s feet as directed by Jesus in John 13 and probably referred to in I Timothy 5:10. This was an inheritance from the Mennonite Conferences, which followed the 17^th century Dordrecht Confession, a widely used doctrinal statement among North American Mennonites, and its Article XI, “Of the Washing of the Saints’ Feet.”² The Evangelical Association being Methodist in orientation did not concern itself with feetwashing as an ordinance. In fact, a controversy discouraged attention to it in the early part of the 19^th century when a pastor declared it was essential for salvation.³

Feetwashing has had a long but not a uniform history among Anabaptist/Mennonite bodies.⁴ It has been treated as a sacrament, an ordinance, a practice, for the whole congregation, as a welcoming practice for visiting church leaders, set in a worship service, or used in private homes. In many European Mennonite groups, the practice died out during the 19^th century or earlier, and I have been told is dying out again among many North American Mennonites. Not only Anabaptists have practiced religious feetwashing: the early Church did quite extensively,⁵ so have Moravians (still do), various Brethren (Dunker) groups,⁶ some Baptists and Adventists.⁷ To that we can add the Church of God (Anderson, IN).⁸ Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153), whom some highly regard for his devotion to Mary, urged it to be counted as a sacrament. The RC did not agree, but history records the Catholic Church practicing “pedilavium” by people in the hierarchy and in various leading church buildings, and which some popes adopted since 1950 as a pious liturgical practice for themselves (not as a sacrament, sacramental or ordinance.)⁹ An English Methodist NT scholar called footwashing a “neglected sacrament” over one hundred years ago. James H Moulton concluded however that the action of Jesus should be applied spiritually, as non-observers usually teach.¹⁰ In their early days, some Pentecostal denominations observed the ordinance, and some still do today. People in house churches and various Christian organizations have enjoyed feetwashing in their fellowships, though few groups mandate its observance. Modern liturgical churches have re-introduced the ceremony as an option, meaningful to some.¹¹

Actual Practice in the Early EMCC. EMCC historical records note the conduct of Washing the Saints’ Feet.¹² The Missionary Church Historical Trust received the metal footwashing bowl used at Shiloh MBiC (Shrigley) from 1893 to 1945 for its collection.¹³ It was certainly preached. Menno Bowman, at an extraordinary Quarterly Conference in Toronto, explained the practice to visitors in the 1890s.¹⁴ J A Huffman himself wrote a tract explaining the foundation of the ordinance.¹⁵ Members wrote the church magazine about details of the practice.¹⁶ Herbert Huber, a prominent member of Bethany MBiC church in Kitchener, Ontario, published a tract promoting it.¹⁷ Many Ontario centennial congregational histories recall the practice,¹⁸ and it was introduced in the mission field.¹⁹ Charlie Homuth, MBiC Foreign Mission Board missionary from Ontario, led in the ordinance and communion immediately after the first baptisms he led in the Niger River at Jebba, Nigeria, in 1913.²⁰ Footwashing was observed in Zuru, northern Nigeria, with the first converts on their baptism in 1939.²¹ Just as the United Missionary Society was setting up the United Missionary Church of Africa in 1954-55, the missionaries on the field observed washing the saints’ feet again at Tungan Magajiya.²² Feetwashing appeared in the missionaries’ draft for the UMCA Constitution in Nigeria, but was omitted from the adopted version.²³ Edward Benedict, UMS missionary to India, learned to appreciate the practice. Raised a Quaker, he did some serious study to support introducing the practice to Indian pastors (who were all ready to) about 1942. He became an enthusiastic promoter.²⁴ The Canada Northwest Conference recorded the conduct of feetwashing at their annual conferences up to 1962, when it was replaced by simply the communion service in 1963, in response to UMC General Conference action.²⁵ In modern times, Timothy Paul Erdel, son of missionaries to Ecuador, and himself to Jamaica, now retired from teaching philosophy at Bethel University (Mishawaka, IN), has preached frequently on the value of observing Washing the Saint’s Feet.²⁶ Last but not least, a Leaders in Training camp at EMCC’s Stayner Christian Retreat Centre used a feetwashing activity at the end of the camp week in the 2010s with young teenage campers.²⁷

The Demise of Feetwashing in the United Missionary Church. The MBiC tendency to assimilate to the evangelical and also cultural mainstream saw growing uneasiness about this counter-cultural practice, which was conducted along with the Quarterly Conference meetings before the Lord’s Supper, led by the Presiding Elder (later called the district superintendent). Samuel Goudie, in his 28 years’ service as a Presiding Elder (1905-1933) in his district in Ontario obeyed the MBiC Discipline regularly in leading the Washing of Saints’ Feet, as witnessed by frequent references in his extant diaries.²⁸ At Bethany Church in Kitchener (Berlin), the practice was that “the ladies would enter the anteroom to the left of the platform, while the men washed one another’s feet at the front of the church to the right of the platform. Several ladies customarily took the lead for the women, while the pastor and the deacons did so with the men.” In Bethany apparently, this did not mean that all the congregation participated, for the writer Ward Shantz said that “[w]hile this observance was going on, a praise and testimony meeting was going on in the main body of the congregation.”²⁹

You can’t say the Church was very enthusiastic about the practice: in our oldest church history, it is only mentioned by being included in a summary of the Dordrecht Confession which was accepted by the union conference of 1875 at Bloomingdale, Waterloo, Ontario,³⁰ and in Everek Storms’ history as still practiced, but not by all.³¹ When the UMC centralized and strengthened its official commitment to Wesleyan Arminian doctrine after 1947 (at the expense, one must say, of its Anabaptist character,) Quarterly Conferences were replaced with biannual business meetings and the conduct of the ordinances were left for the local congregation to observe. We know how things fare when that is allowed. In the 1955 Discipline, the “ordinance” was reduced to a “practice” and in the 1962 Constitution, it was removed entirely. Ward Shantz has perceptive comments on the disappearance of the practice at Bethany, last observed there September 10 1958.³² I’m sure pastors read mainstream commentaries which raised doubts about the literal conduct of feetwashing as an ordinance. The practice was looked on as weird by many young people in the church (not to mention other churches,) and so was not missed by many when it was abolished. Yet the words of Jesus, “Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you should also wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done to you” (John 13:14-15, NIV 2011), still impress many as more than a culture-bound metaphor for service, humility, or whatever.

What does Washing the Saints’ Feet mean? Feetwashing promoted humility according to the Dordrecht Confession, and others say it symbolizes equality, service and unity. It is also interpreted as a symbol of daily sanctification. Jesus noted that after a “bath” the result—presumably regeneration (eg “washing of rebirth,” Titus 3:5, symbolized by baptism)–required only washing the feet on entering a house. Participation was interpreted as obedience to Jesus: “you ought to do this” (KJV). No Christian Church doubts that it has spiritual, symbolical meaning, mostly to do with humbly serving one another in the body of Christ; the question has always been, did Jesus mean washing the saints’ feet to be perpetuated as an action in all congregations? Who, how and when are entirely secondary questions.

I would love to see the ordinance re-instituted in the EMCC. I told you my blogs were personal and unofficial!

Banner: Detail of a painting of Jesus washing Peter’s feet. Picryl, Public domain.

1Personal communication by a Canadian Anglican friend, Rev Ross Gill.

2John C Wenger, The Doctrines of the Mennonites (Scottdale, PA: Mennonite Publishing House, 1950) p 80.

3Raymond W Albright, A History of the Evangelical Church (Harrisburg, PA: Evangelical Press, 1956) p 220-221.

4See Harold S Bender and William Klassen (1989) in https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Feetwashing

5Wikipedia, “Maundy (footwashing).”

6Eg Herman A Hoyt, This Do in Remembrance of Me (Winona Lake, IN: For the Author, 1947) p 67-84.

7https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maundy_(foot_washing), also F L Cross and E A Livingstone, ed, The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church 2^nd ed (Oxford, UK, Oxford University Press, 1983) p 1057.

8E E Byrum, The Ordinances of the Bible (Anderson, IN: Gospel Trumpet, 1904), p 98-110. My copy was owned by Alvin Traub, founder of Mountain View Bible College, Didsbury, AB.

9Bender and Klassen. See also “Washing of Feet,” International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (Wilmington, DE: AP&A, reprint of 1915) Vol 5. Of the two authors, Frederick Lincoln Anderson rejected it as a continuing ordinance, Daniel Webster Kurtz, writing for the Church of the Brethren, defended it.

10James Hope Moulton, “A Neglected Sacrament,” in A Neglected Sacrament: and Other Studies and Addresses (London, Epworth Press, 1919) p 89-102.

11https://www.christiancentury.org/first-person/strange-humbling-ritual-foot-washing

12Eileen Lageer, Merging Streams: History of the Missionary Church (Elkhart, IN: Bethel Publishing, 1979) p 62.

13Box 9101 MCHT.

14Maude Chatham, “Toronto Quarterly Meeting,” Gospel Banner (April 2 1895) p 12; and by Jesse Guy as recorded by Sam Goudie, “Elmwood Camp-meeting,” Gospel Banner (September 29 1896) p 8 and (October 6 1896) p 8.

15Jasper A Huffman, “Twin Memorials: The Sacrament and the Washing of Feet,” copy in Charles Gingerich Collection, Box 6030 MCHT.

16J Swank, “Feet Washing,” Gospel Banner (March 15 1892) p 11, concerning the timing of observing the ordinance in relation to the Lord’s Supper, responding to earlier correspondents.

17Herbert Detweiler Huber, “The Ordinance of Feetwashing,” ([Berlin,] ON: By the author, nd); copy in Box 7201 MCHT.

18Eg Geraldine Johnson, “A Memory,” in Carolyn Ratcliff, ed, Historymaker: One Hundred Years of Faithful Ministry (Stouffville, ON: Stouffville Missionary Church, 2003) p [10]; Skip Gilham, ed, The Church on the Hill: Vineland Missionary Church (Vineland, ON: Vineland Missionary Church, 1991) p 9; Shantz, p 37; Clarence McDowell, et al, Built in This Place: Centennial 1877-1977 (Markham, ON: Markham Missionary Church, 1977) p 35; Muriel I Hoover, Bethel “House of God”: A History of Bethel Missionary Church (New Dundee, ON: Bethel Missionary Church, 1978), p 13; F Arthur Sherk, Keeping Faith: A Centennial History of Banfield Memorial Church (Willowdale, ON: Banfield Memorial Church, 1997) p 10.

19Cornelia W Pannabecker, “Diary, 20 Dec 1911,” and “Diary, 23 June 1912,” with mission staff only, MCHT Box 3012. Also Stella Lantz, “On Vacation in Nigeria,” Gospel Banner (December 1 1927) p 11.

20Charlie Tobias Homuth, “Foreign Missions,” Gospel Banner (July 3 1913) p 12.

21Helen (Ummel) Harnness, Letters from Mother and Daddy: The Missionary Life in Nigeria, Africa 1924-1960 (Maitland, FL: Xulon Press, 2006) p 249.

22Marie (Clendenen) Yates, reporting on regional meetings of Hausa-area missionaries in July 1954; Missionary Banner (September 1954) p 10.

23Recommendation: “34^th Annual Nigerian Field Conference, Oct 1954, Share,” UMS Journal 1954, p 21. Not included: UMS Journal 1955, p 42.

24Edward Benedict, “Thoughts on Feetwashing,” Missionary Banner (July 1944) p 5-6.

25Canada Northwest Conference, United Missionary Church, annual conference records, 1957-1963.

26Erdel, Timothy Paul, ‘“Whose Shoes do you Shine?” (Or, ‘What Will People Think?’)” Ordination Sermon, 10 February 2002. See his bibliography, in particular, John Stott, “The Foot-washing Lord and Savior (John 13),” in John R W Stott and others, Christ the Liberator (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1971) p 13-28.

27S Fuller, a participant.

28Diaries preserved by the Bunker family and to be deposited at the Mennonite Archives of Ontario, Waterloo, Ontario.

29Ward M Shantz, A History of Bethany Missionary Church 1877-1977 (Kitchener, ON: Bethany Missionary Church, 1977) p 37.

30Jasper Abraham Huffman, ed, History of the Mennonite Brethren in Christ Church (New Carlisle, OH: Bethel Publishing, 1920) p 147.

31Everek R Storms, History of the United Missionary Church (Elkhart, IN: Bethel Publishing, 1958), p 227, with a note that it was relegated to being a practice in 1955 and never conducted by some pastors and congregations, p 228-229. He mentioned it and non-resistance as doctrines dying out already in an editorial in Gospel Banner (October 15 1953) p 2. I don’t recall Eileen Lageer mentioning it in Common Bonds: Story of the Evangelical Missionary Church of Canada (Calgary, AB: Evangelical Missionary Church of Canada, 2004).

32Shantz, p 39.