Holy Week Worship 2011

Holy Week this year, from the Rector:
Holy Week is the richest, most challenging, and most wonderful week of the Christian year. Our destination is the love of God, which was described on Quinquagesima Sunday: Love bears all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Seeing this love leads us to the cross and to the garden of the resurrection. Please consider the schedule for Holy Week services, and decide what you will be able to attend. Good Friday and Easter day are important days to come to worship if you are not ill or prevented. The Good Friday stations of the cross service (10 am) and the Easter morning service (10:30 am, with an Easter egg hunt) are especially appropriate for children, grandchildren, and their friends. Easter morning is the best day of the year for baptisms, for rising with Christ in His resurrection. God willing, the exuberance of our worship will testify to our Easter joy: Christ rose from the dead, trampling down death by death. But first, we learn again to walk the way of the cross with Christ, to be moved to a renewed repentance in sorrow for our sins, and to discover a yet more full and abiding joy and peace in the love of Christ.
There are services at many times during the day to give you a chance to come to worship. This will not always be easy or convenient, but then the struggle we have to make time for prayer and worship is, especially this week, part of how we are conformed to the life of Christ, in the way of the cross and in the Resurrection.
There is a booklet available, which describes the Holy Week services in detail to help you understand their character, to decide when you can attend, and to enter more deeply into the spirit of Holy Week worship. If you are not able to get to a church, a particularly good way to join in with the worship of the Church is by reading the Holy Week propers for each day, pages 154 and following, or the readings in the Holy Week booklet. Let us seek to support one another in walking the way of the cross and in discovering the abiding joy of the resurrection.

The meditations throughout Holy Week and the Triduum will be given by various members of St George's Parish.

Palm Sunday - April 17

Monday in Holy Week - April 18

7.00am Morning Prayer - said
7:30 pm Choral Communion with small choir
     Meditation: Darren Dyck
     Setting: Missa Orbis Factor - Plainsong
     Motet: Thou Knowest Lord - Purcell
     Hymns: Sing, my tongue, the glorious battle (Pange Lingua); Ah, Holy Jesu (Herzliebster Jesu); In the Cross of Christ I glory (Cross of Jesus)

Tuesday in Holy Week - April 19

7.00am Morning Prayer - said
5.30pm Evening Prayer - said
7:30 pm Choral Communion with small choir
     Meditation: Darren Dyck
     Setting: Missa de Angelis - Plainsong
     Motet: Nolo Mortem Peccatoris - T. Morley
     Hymns: Glory be to Jesus (Caswall); Throned upon the awful Tree (Redhead No. 76); When I survey the wondrous Cross (Rockingham); Lord Jesus, think on me (Southwell)

Wednesday in Holy Week - April 20 

7.00am Morning Prayer - said
10.00am Holy Communion (said) - signed for the Deaf
5.30pm Evening Prayer
7.30 pm Tenebrae
The Office of Tenebrae ('darkness') is a dramatic hour and a half entirely sung to plainsong. The choir leads up in psalms, canticles and antiphons that give life to the symbolic drama of light and darkness, revealing something of the mystery and power of Holy Week.
Twenty-five candles are lit at the beginning of the service, standing for the twelve Prophets, twelve Apostles, and Our Lord. As the Office is sung, the candles are extinguished one by one, until only one light remains. But this one is hidden from our sight. We are meant to consider the darkness gradually closing about Our Lord during His Passion, and the darkness that came over the world with His death.
Suddenly, as we wait and pray in the darkness, the congregation helps to create a confusing noise symbolizing the anguish of the disciples at Christ's betrayal, and the confusion of nature at His death. Now the hidden candle is brought back - the Light of the World has never left us.

Maundy Thursday - April 21

7.00am Morning Prayer - said
5.30pm Evening Prayer - said
Maundy Thursday Liturgy
7.30 pm The Washing of Feet
     Preacher: Fr Purchase
     Organ Prelude: O Mensch, Bewein' dein' Sünde Gross [BWV 622] - JS Bach (1685-1750)
     Anthems during foot washing: Ubi Caritas - Maurice Duruflé (1902-86); A New Commandment Give I Unto You (Thomas Tallis (c.1505-85)
7.45 pm The Liturgy of the Last Supper
     Setting: Missa Tu es Petrus - Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525/6-94)
     Communion Motet: Adoramus Te - Gasparini
     Hymns: The King Of Love My Shepherd Is (St. Columba); Thou Who At Thy First Eucharist Didst Pray (Song 1); The Heavenly Word (Verbum Supernum); Now My Tongue (Pange Lingua); Go To Dark Gethsemane (Nicht so Traurig)
The Stripping of the Altar
All Night Prayer Vigil in the Round Church

Good Friday - April 22

  7.30am Morning Prayer & Litany
  8.00am Holy Communion, said.
10.00am Stations of the Cross (especially suitable for children)
noon-3pm The Three Hour Service
   With meditations on the Seven Last Words from the Cross by seven different members of the congregation.
     Hymns: Sing my tongue the glorious battle (Mode iii); Ah, Holy Jesu, how has Thou offended? (Herzliebster Jesu); Lord Jesus, think on me (Southwell); At the Cross her station keeping (Stabat Mater); O Sacred Head, Surrounded (Passion Chorale); Faithful Cross! above all other (Mode iii); Glory be to Jesus (Caswell); When I survey the wondrous cross (Rockingham)
Motets: Nolo Mortem Peccatoris - Thomas Morley (1557/1558-1602)
          Remember not, Lord, our offences - Henry Purcell (1658-/59-1695)
          Hosanna to the Son of David - Thomas Weelkes (bap. 1576-1623)
          Adoramus Te - Quirino Gasparini (1721-1778)
          When Jesus wept - William Billings (1746-1800)
          Miserere Mei - Antonio Lotti (1666-1740)
          Praise To Thee Lord Jesus - Heinrich Schütz (bap.1585-1672)
          Plorate Filii Israel (Jephthah) - Giacomo Carissimi (bap. 1605-1674)
5.30pm Evening Prayer - said

Easter Even - April 23

10.00am Morning Prayer & Ante-Communion
Followed by the cleaning of the church for Easter
11.00 pm Great Vigil & First Mass of Easter
    Meditation: Elizabeth Curry
     Setting: Kyrie: Lux et Origo - plainsong; Sanctus & Benedictus: Office of the Holy Communion: Collegium Regale - Herbert Howells (1892-1983)
     Canticle: Sicut Cervus - G. P. da Palestrina
     Hymns: Jesus Christ is Risen Today (Easter Hymn); Ye choirs of new Jerusalem (St. Fulbert); Lord, enthroned in heavenly splendour (Bryn Calfaria); Jesus Lives! (St. Albinus)
     Organ Postlude: Erschienen ist der herrliche Tag [BWV 629] - JS Bach (1685-1750) with an improvised variation by organist, John Overton.

Easter Day -  April 24

  8.00am Holy Communion (said)
10.00am Morning Prayer (said)
10.30am Choral Holy Communion & Holy Baptism
Special Activities for the children in Sunday School
     Organ Prelude: Erstanden ist der heilige Christ [BWV 628] - JS Bach (1685-1750)
     Setting: Missa Brevis in D - W.A. Mozart (1756-1791) with strings
     Communion Motet: This is the day - Anon. c.1600.
     Hymns: Light's glittering morn (Parts I & III) (Lasst uns erfreuen); Come, ye faithful, raise the strain (Ave Virgo Virginum); The strife is o'er (Victory); Jesus Christ is risen today (Easter Hymn)
     Organ Postlude:Toccata, 5th Symphony - Charles-Marie J A Widor (1844–1937)
  5.00pm Evensong

Monday in Easter Week - April 25

  10.30am Choral Communion at the Little Dutch Church for the 250th anniversary of the church.
  Preacher & Celebrant: The Rev'd Dr Paul Friesen, Rector of St Paul's Grand Parade, Halifax.
Reception to follow in the St George's Parish Hall.

Tuesday in Easter Week - April 26

  5.30pm Evening Prayer & Holy Communion - said

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St George's Round Church, 2222 Brunswick St, Halifax NS B3K 2Z3
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