Dom Hugh Somerville-Knapman OSB (Letters, 6 August) reminds readers that, at the Last Supper, Jesus and his disciples sat on the same side of the table. But that in no way means that Jesus persistently looked away from the disciples. He obviously looked at them, when he spoke to them; when he listened to them; when he knelt to wash their feet; when he broke a loaf of bread and gave it to them, saying “Take, this is my body”; when he took a cup of wine and handed it to them, saying, “This is my blood of the covenant”.

Celebrating the Eucharist with one’s back to the people and facing an eastern wall or window may look devout, but it does not correspond to the face-to-face encounter of Jesus and his disciples at the Last Supper.