April 10, 2025

Holy Days

American Christianity has a tendency to skip the cross and leap to Easter. 

The holiest week of the Church Year begins this Sunday with Palm Sunday. The 8:00 service will begin in the church as usual, but the 10:30 service will (DV and weather permitting) begin at the lychgate with the Liturgy of the Palms and the procession into the church. We’ll hear about Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem and then we’ll hear Luke’s version of his final hours read in dramatized version.

On Wednesday at 7:00 pm we’ll gather for our shortened version of Tenebrae, the service of shadows. As candles are gradually extinguished, we’ll read psalms and hear lessons that we hear at no other service during the year. The service is a wonderful and peaceful way, before the Triduum, to “enter into the contemplation of those mighty acts whereby Christ has given us life and immortality.”

The Triduum, a single continuous worship service in three parts, begins on Maundy Thursday. We’ll gather before the service to share a simple, quiet supper, provided by the Vestry, with the blessing of our Agape Feast at 6:00 pm. The service will begin at 7:00 pm with our remembrance of Jesus’ last night with his disciples in the institution of the Lord’s Supper, the washing of feet, and the great commandment (the Mandate for which Maundy Thursday is named) to love one another. This first part of the Triduum fades to dark as the Elements of Holy Communion are removed from the church to a chapel of repose for vigil and prayer.

The service resumes in the bare church on Good Friday at 7:00 pm with our remembrance of the Lord’s crucifixion and death, the Solemn Collects, the Veneration of the Cross, and Mass of the Presanctified as we consume the last remnants of Christ’s Body and Blood, consigning him to the tomb.

The climax of the Triduum begins at twilight (8:32 pm) on Holy Saturday with the Great Vigil of Easter. We will gather in the parking lot to light the Paschal Fire and proceed into the darkened tomb of the church to wait and watch at the tomb as we recount God’s saving acts in history, baptize newcomers to the faith (Guy Latham), and proclaim the first Alleluia!!!! of Easter as we share again in Christ’s risen and glorified Body and Blood.

We’ll continue our celebration as we mark the Lord’s Day with a single shared service at 10:00 am, followed by brunch.

I am eager to walk with you all through this holiest of times. Remember that Easter, like discipleship, Easter comes at a cost.