With this Sunday being Palm Sunday, or the Sunday of the Passion, we are about to enter Holy Week. While it’s wonderful to celebrate Christmas with all its accompanying joys and traditions, it is this – Holy Week and Easter – that defines us as Christians. On Palm Sunday, we will end the service with a reading of the Passion Narrative; that is, the story of Jesus trial, crucifixion, and death. It will be a dramatic way to end the service, and we will all leave in silence.

For those who wish to make Holy Week a special part of their Lenten discipline and experience, we will have service each night. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday will be simple, quiet services of the Holy Eucharist. Then begins the sacred Triduum: Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Eve – sometimes referred to as one service with two long intermissions.

Maundy Thursday will begin with a simple supper of soup and bread in the parish hall during which we will hear the readings and a brief reflection. That will be followed by foot washing (always optional) in the church, and the Holy Eucharist. Then the altar will be stripped and washed. Consecrated bread and wine will be reserved for the Chapel of Repose and for the Mass of Pre-sanctified Gifts at the evening service on Good Friday. [Note: Stations of the Cross will be said at noon on Friday.]

While we do not have the resources to provide our own Easter Eve service, we have been invited to worship with the good people of St. Ann’s in Woodstock. This service includes The Great Vigil, Renewal of Baptismal Vows, and the First Eucharist of Easter. Perhaps next year, we will have our own Easter Vigil here at St. Paul’s. Meanwhile, I hope you will join Bill and me there at 7:30pm.

However many of these special services you are able to attend and experience, they will certainly enrich your Easter and our identity as Resurrection People. Easter morning, of course, we will celebrate the Risen Lord on Sunday at 10am. May God bless us all during this holy season!