Holy Week at All Saints-by-the-Sea
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Have you tasted the bread of life?
Have you been gathered in beloved community?
Have you known the dark night of the soul?
Have you ever been lost?
Have you ever been found?
Have you been set ablaze by the Light of Christ?
If you have answered yes, then you have discovered the Paschal Mystery. Christ’s death and resurrection, what we call the Paschal Mystery, is the heart of Christianity, and it is the life-saving center of our own lives and stories. It is indeed a mystery how the love of Christ, made known to us on the cross, and the transforming power of God, revealed in the resurrection, saves us, but we know that they do. Christ’s Paschal Mystery finds us in the darkness of our human life, gathers us in beloved community, and makes us, once again, a new creation.
This Holy Week, come and experience the life-saving mysteries of Christ’s death and resurrection anew. The services of Holy Week are the most meaningful and life-changing services of the year for many. During Holy Week, we not only remember Christ’s saving acts for us, but we enter into the Paschal Mystery. We participate in the very acts of Christ’s passion, so that on Easter we can become God’s Resurrection people, agents of God’s transforming love to this broken world.
Maundy Thursday, April 2, 5:30pm Supper in the Parish Hall, 7pm Service Gather in beloved community to break bread and share Christ’s servant ministry. Here we gather, as Jesus did with his disciples on the night of the last supper, to carry out the commandment Jesus gave his disciples then: “love one another as I have loved you.” We do this by washing one another’s feet as servants to one another and by sharing a simple yet sacred meal of bread and wine as friends. Water. Grain. Grapes. Love. This is the stuff of salvation.
Good Friday, April 3, Noon & 7pm Service On Good Friday we commemorate and participate in Christ’s suffering and death because we believe they have purpose—the salvation of the world. We believe that Christ’s death has conquered death, in all of its forms, once and for all: that is why we call the Friday on which he died “good.” When we have found ourselves on one of life’s many crosses, Christ, who suffers with us, has sustained us. We meet Christ on the cross, and we know that there is nothing that can separate us from the love of God. In baptism, we die with Christ on the cross, promising to surrender ourselves to God for the sake of our salvation, and to enter into the suffering of others for the sake of their salvation. Come walk the way of the cross for salvation’s sake.
The Great Easter Vigil, April 4, Sunset 7:45pm Service on the patio Fire. Light. Word. Water. Bread. Wine. These are the symbols that lead us from death to life with Christ in this ancient service, the most important service of the year. The service begins with the kindling of a new fire – the light of Christ breaking into the darkness of our world. And then we hear the story, our story, of salvation. We gather on the patio around the fire as we share our ancestral stories of how God has worked for our salvation since the beginning of time, and how we still participate in God’s ongoing story of salvation. We will renew our baptismal covenant as we commit ourselves anew to be people of Christ’s resurrection. And we will celebrate that resurrection in the first Eucharist of Easter. Dress warmly, and don’t miss this principle liturgy of the year gathered around the simplicity of a campfire.
Easter Sunday, April 5 Alleluia! Christ has Risen! Come celebrate the victory of Christ’s resurrection. 8 a.m. Easter service of Holy Eucharist with Baptisms 10 a.m. full Choral Eucharist with Renewal of Baptismal Vows
