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Services & Preacher

  • 7:30pm: The Great Vigil of Easter Liturgy (Part 3 of the Easter Triduum)
  • Mother Meredith is preacher tonight.

Events & Fellowship

  • 9:15pm: Dessert Potluck Reception (Library)

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About Worship Today

  • The Easter Triduum (TRIH-djoo-um), the Great Three Days, includes Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter, and is celebrated as a three-part liturgy. Lent has ended. We begin the celebration of the Passover of the Lord from death to life. During these Three Days Christians still reckon time according to the customs of the Jewish people. 

    Maundy Thursday is the first of the great liturgies of the Easter Triduum. On Maundy Thursday, a number of ancient rites are observed during the Celebration of the Lord’s Supper, including the washing of feet.  Bread and wine are consecrated for the ministration of Holy Communion, both for Maundy Thursday and for the Good Friday Liturgy. At the end of the service, the Eucharist is reposed at the Bolton Altar, the High Altar is washed with wine and water, the sanctuary is stripped of all ornament and furnishing, and the cross is veiled.  

    On Good Friday, we celebrate the second of the great liturgies of the Easter Triduum, the Celebration of the Passion of the Lord. Following the Liturgy of the Word and the Passion Narrative from Saint John, the Church offers its prayers in a form used by the ancient Church, a form now used only on Good Friday. Then at the Showing of the Cross we are invited to kneel or sit for a period of reflection and prayer. Finally we receive Holy Communion from the Sacrament consecrated at the Celebration of the Lord’s Supper. 

    The Great Vigil of Easter, celebrated on Saturday night, is the final part of a service which began on Maundy Thursday. It begins in an Upper Room. It ends at a tomb wherein Christ rises from the dead.  In the dark we await the light that proclaims the resurrection. Then we share that light, hear the great prophecies about Christ, renew our Baptismal vows, and celebrate the resurrection of our Lord in word, song, and at our Lord’s Table. The ceremonies of this night are about death and life, about an old Adam and a new Adam, about an apple, about bees, and about the smell of blood, both at death and at birth.  The central Christian belief is that Jesus was crucified and he rose from the dead.  In the liturgical tradition of the Church this is not a past or an abstract reality.  The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is remembered and made present in our worship and in our common life.  “Jesus Christ, yesterday and today, the Beginning and End, Alpha and Omega.  His are all times and ages.  To him be glory and dominion through all eternity.”  

  • Today’s liturgy is from the red Book of Common Prayer 1979.  All hymns are taken from the blue Hymnal 1982 or other authorized hymnals for use in the Episcopal Church. All hymns are reprinted with permission under OneLicense.net A713125.

Music & Lectionary Notes:

  • The Lighting of the Pascal Candle & Procession
  • The Paschal Proclamation: Exsultet
  • The Story of Creation: Genesis 1:1-2:4a & Psalm 36:5-10 (Tone I.I)
  • Abraham's Sacrifice of Isaac: Genesis 22:1-18 & Psalm 16:1, 7-11 (Tone VIII.I)
  • Deliverance at the Red Sea: Exodus 14:10-31; 15:20-21 & Selections from the Song of Moses (Mode I)
  • The Valley of the Dry Bones: Ezekiel 37:1-14 & Psalm 143:1, 3-4, 6-7, 11 (Tone VI)
  • The Three Young Men in the Furnace: Selections from Daniel 3 & Selections from the Song of the Three Young Men (Tone VIII)
  • Renewal of Baptismal Vows
  • The Great Noise & Easter Hymn: #207, Jesus Christ is risen today, Easter Hymn
  • Epistle: Romans 6: 3-11
  • The Great Alleluia & Sequence Hymn: #187, Through the Red Sea brought at last, Straf mich nicht
  • Gospel: Matthew 28:1-10
  • Offertory Anthem: He is Risen by Percy Whitlock 1903-1946
  • Sanctus & Benedictus: #S-125 from A Community Mass by Richard Proulx (b. 1937)
  • Agnus Dei: #S-163 by Robert Powell (b. 1932)
  • Communion:  This Joyful Eastertide by Woodward/VRUECHTEN
  • Postcommunion Hymn: #174, At the Lamb's high feast we sing, Salzburg
  • Processional: Toccata (Symphony No. 5) by Charles-Marie Widor (1844-1937)
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