Holy Week Worship 2010

Holy Week booklet - detailed descriptions of all Holy Week services

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. Our morning service will include baptisms, and our worship will be enlivened by a brass ensemble. 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 at the back of Church, 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.

Palm Sunday - March 28

Monday in Holy Week - March 29

7.00am Shortened Morning Prayer - said
7.15am Holy Communion - said
5.30pm Evening Prayer - said
7:30 pm Choral Communion with small choir & homily
     Meditation: Dr Tracy Demmons - Acadia Divinity School
Tracy Demmons holds a Divinity degree from Acadia University, and a Doctorate of Theology from the University of St. Andrew's in Scotland. She has worked for the UN as a staff counselor in New York and Afghanistan, and is currently employed at Acadia Divinity College.
     Setting: Missa Orbis Factor - Plainsong
     Motet: Thou Knowest Lord - Purcell
     Hymns: Sing, my tongue, the glorious battle (Pange Lingua); Ah, Holy Jesu (Herzliebster Jesu); Drop, drop slow tears (Song 46); In the Cross of Christ I glory (Cross of Jesus)

Tuesday in Holy Week - March 30

7.00am Shortened Morning Prayer - said
7.15am Holy Communion - said
5.30pm Evening Prayer - said
7:30 pm Choral Communion with small choir & homily
     Meditation: Dr Tracy Demmons - Acadia Divinity School
Tracy Demmons holds a Divinity degree from Acadia University, and a Doctorate of Theology from the University of St. Andrew's in Scotland. She has worked for the UN as a staff counselor in New York and Afghanistan, and is currently employed at Acadia Divinity College.
     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 - March 31 

7.00am Shortened Morning Prayer - said
7.15am Holy Communion - said
10.00am Holy Communion (said) - signed for the Deaf
5.30pm Shortened Evening Prayer
5.45pm Holy Communion (said)
7.30 pm Tenebrae (sung by the men of the choir)
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 1

7.00am Shortened Morning Prayer - said
7.15am Holy Communion - said
5.30pm Evening Prayer - said
Maundy Thursday Liturgy
7.30 pm The Washing of Feet
     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
     Preacher: Fr Mercer
     Setting: Missa Brevis - Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525/6-94)
     Communion Motet: In Manus Tuas - John Sheppard (1515-58)
     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 2

  7.30am Morning Prayer & Litany
  8.00am Holy Communion (Mass of the Pre-Sanctified)
10.00am Stations of the Cross (especially suitable for children)
noon-3pm The Three Hour Service
   Preacher: Dr David Deane Prof. of Systematic & Historical Theology at AST will be preaching 7 short homilies on the Seven Last Words from the Cross.
Motets: Ne Irascaris/Civitas Sancti Tui - William Byrd
          Popule Meus - Victoria
          Rise up my love, my fair one - Willan
          A Hymn to the Virgin - Britten
          Vinea Mea Electa - Poulenc
          Praise To Thee Lord Jesus - Schütz
          Crux Fidelis - Clemens (non Papa)
          Charlestown (Gently Lord) - Anon.
5.30pm Evening Prayer - said

Easter Even - April 3

10.00am Morning Prayer & Ante-Communion
Followed by the cleaning of the church for Easter
11.00 pm Great Vigil & First Mass of Easter
    Homily: Fr Mercer
Music by Palestrina

Easter Day -  April 4

  8.00am Holy Communion (said)
10.00am Morning Prayer (said)
10.30am Holy Baptism & Choral Holy Communion with the St. George's Brass Ensemble
Special Activities for the children in Sunday School
     Easter Anthems: Crhist our Passover - P. Halley
     Setting: Messa a quattro voci da cappella - Claudio Monteverdi
     Offertory Anthem: Wonderous Love - P. Halley
     Communion Motet: Dum Transisset Sabbatum - John Taverner (c.1498-1545)
     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)
     Voluntary: Christus Vincit/Entrata Festiva - Flor Peeters
  5.00pm Evensong

Monday and Tuesday in Easter Week (April 5 & 6)

  7.00pm Evening Prayer & Holy Communion - said

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