I've recently been toying with the idea that people in the West should remove their shoes when entering churches as a sign of respect and humility. The practice of standing with bare feet comes originally from the Hebrew tradition, as we know, and the classic example is Moses before the Burning Bush where God commands Moses to take off his sandals.
The ancient Eastern tradition has always been the opposite to that of the West in this respect. In the West, one shows respect by removing one's head covering and by having shoes on one's feet. In the East, the opposite is true, one covers one's head and removes one's shoes.
Feet have a great religious significance. They symbolize not only the power to be mobile but also the idea of "solid foundation" upon which one stands. One stands on one's feet also as a symbol of the Resurrection. One showed one's respect for another in the Middle East by washing the feet of a visitor or friend. Christ commanded His disciples to "shake the dust off their feet" before towns and cities that would not receive the Gospel message.
Christ Himself washed the feet of His disciples at the Mystical Supper as an example of humble service and love, and the rite of foot-washing is often held in Eastern Churches on Holy Thursday.
Later Christians also went on pilgrimage in bare feet as a form of penance where one would deliberately experience cuts and bruises and other discomforts connected to walking barefoot on one's way to a pilgrimage site. Monastics also walked barefoot as an expression of voluntary poverty.
When the English King Henry II was excommunicated by the pope of Rome for his complicity in the death of the Archbishop of Canterbury, St Thomas Beckett, the king walked barefoot to a monastery in repentance where he also received a lash across the back from each of the resident monks there!
Thaink about it people, the Last Supper was a bunch of good friends having dinner together, sitting around a table as equals. Jesus would want us to be close to him, and feel united during the ceremonies that commemorate his life. Just a thought from someone who thinks we could all do with a big slice of simplicity pie.