The Agape meal is a celebration of Holy Communion (celebrant Tola Badejo) in the context of a simple communal meal. After the Agape, the church is prepared for Good Friday by the 'stripping of the sanctuary', in which all decoration is removed from the sanctuary; in churches where the Holy Sacrament is reserved, that too is taken away, leaving only a simple wooden cross;. We then keep silent vigil in semi-darkness for as long as people individually wish, up to about 10 p.m.

The Agape is our most literal commemoration of the Last Supper, the subject of Leonardo da Vinci's famous painting. This painting is not an attempt to illustrate what might actually have happened at a Passover meal in Jerusalem in Biblical times, but a reimagination set in the social and cultural context of Renaissance Italy, with an Italian landscape visible in the background: we can't tell what was in Leonardo's mind, but such 'unhistorical' religious paintings remind us that the Eucharist reflects each successive generation's living relationship with Christ. He is present, not past; wherever we are, and not just in Jerusalem, and criticism that the painting is 'historically wrong' misses the point completely.

Leonardo's material technique, however, was very much open to criticism: his masterpiece was painted directly onto dry plaster, and deteriorated rapidly. Fortunately, his assistant Giampietrino made a full-size copy in oil on canvas, which we can see (without charge!) in the permanent collection at the Royal Academy in London; this copy (in the image above) was used as the basis for recent restoration of the original, but still gives a better impression of Leonardo's intention.