Anyone up for a chat thread?

[Shane R]

I've been seeing Holy Week schedules coming out. For the most part they are fairly robust. The bishop published his as:

Palm Sunday: 11 am Holy Communion
Monday before Easter: 12 noon Presanctified gifts
Tuesday before Easter: 12 noon Presanctified gifts
Wednesday before Easter: 12 noon Presanctified gifts
Maundy Thursday: 7 pm Holy Communion and the stripping of the Altar
Good Friday: Stations of the Cross
Easter-day: 11 am Holy Communion
​

No one much seems to have ideas for Bright Saturday. My home parish usually leaves the doors open until about 11 pm or Midnight for any who wish to stop in and pray. Easter sunrise seems to continue its decline in popularity in these parts.

Foot washing at the Maundy Thursday service is not very popular either. That particular practice connotes a certain strand of evangelicalism in these parts.

 

[PloverWing]

@Shane R , is the Vigil not part of your tradition's Holy Week observance? I was surprised to see it omitted from your list.

 

[Philip_B]

No one much seems to have ideas for Bright Saturday. My home parish usually leaves the doors open until about 11 pm or Midnight for any who wish to stop in and pray. Easter sunrise seems to continue its decline in popularity in these parts.

Holy Saturday - the day the Church holds her breath.

 

[Paidiske]

Mine looks like:

Palm Sunday
8:30am, 10am, 5pm Eucharist with palms, procession etc. (all in different churches in the parish).

Wednesday in Holy Week:
9:30am Eucharist

Maundy Thursday
10:00am Eucharist (the usual midweek service for that church)
7:00pm, Maundy liturgy

Good Friday
9:00am The passion and death of our Lord
7:00pm Tenebrae

Holy Saturday
8:00pm, Great vigil of Easter

Easter day
4th April, 8:30am
4th April, 10:00am
4th April, 5:00pm (with baptism).

The unusual thing about this schedule is putting Tenebrae on the Friday instead of the Wednesday, but that was done because we usually have an evening prayer service on the first Friday of the month, so it gave me a natural space to put Tenebrae when I have a group of people who usually come at that time.

Personally I would prefer a dawn vigil, but I'm told this parish prefers it the night before so as not to compete with the local ecumenical dawn observance.

I won't wash feet this year. The Covid restrictions were so difficult that in effect all I would be allowed to do is pour water over people's feet without touching them, then get them to dry their own feet. I thought the symbolism would be lost that way!

 

[Shane R]

@Shane R , is the Vigil not part of your tradition's Holy Week observance? I was surprised to see it omitted from your list.

His Excellency doesn't have that service every year. He likes to do baptisms in conjunction with the Vigil. If he doesn't have any he doesn't schedule the service.

 

[Shane R]

I should clarify the Vigil a bit more. His Excellency told me a while back that for a number of years he ran the Vigil as a regular part of the schedule and each year fewer people came out for it. It got to the point that it was only attended by the clergy team and 1 or 2 people. He reached the conclusion that he was wearing his people out and started scheduling it sporadically, so that when it comes up its been a year or two since anyone has seen it and they come out for it.

A few years ago I ran the Vigil. This was when the Rector was still supplying a mission in Richmond as well as the home parish on the coast. He was up in Richmond and I did the Vigil at the home parish. Evening services are generally poorly attended at our parish and that particular service only saw 3 of the faithful come out.

I haven't been in the scheduling loop lately because I've got one foot out the door. I'll be moving in May to an entirely different state. But I imagine we'll have Maundy Thursday and Evening Prayer on Good Friday - my rector hates the Stations of the Cross and he's not the type to put a lot of effort into trying some other form of service so he just goes with Evening Prayer. Then Easter Sunday at our regular time.

I noticed many of our Spanish churches like to have a service that focuses on the Seven Utterances of Jesus from the cross as an alternative to the Via Crucis.

Then there's this order, which is preferred by the presiding bishop of the United Episcopal Church:

From my point of view, Litany and Ante-Communion as part of the Good Friday observance has a lot going for it. The Litany is a beautiful form of intercession, and one that most parishes do not use enough. The Ante-Communion for Good Friday revolves around the two traditional readings from the Good Friday Liturgy from Hebrews and the Gospel of St John, and should culminate, it seems to me, with either the bidding prayer, or better still the nine solemn collects, which are to be found in several Anglican sources, and a sermon on the Passion. Braver souls might even want to add the veneration of the Cross and the reproaches which are given in the 1933 edition of the English Hymnal (E.H p. 152) which is allowed in most Continuing Churches.​

 

[Paidiske]

I noticed many of our Spanish churches like to have a service that focuses on the Seven Utterances of Jesus from the cross as an alternative to the Via Crucis.

Decades ago that was common here; a three hours' devotion in the afternoon focussing on the seven last words. These days it is seldom done except in a very few parishes which have retained the custom.

For Good Friday we have a service unique in the year, with a liturgy of the word (focussed on the passion gospel), solemn prayers and veneration of the cross. Communion with reserved sacrament is optional and tends to be done only in the more self-consciously catholic parishes; I haven't been anywhere that's done it since my first curacy.

 

[seeking.IAM]

...Communion with reserved sacrament is optional and tends to be done only in the more self-consciously catholic parishes; I haven't been anywhere that's done it since my first curacy.

This is, or rather was, commonplace in my parish pre-Covid.

 

[Philip_B]

 

[Silverback]

I wonder whether padding on the pews ceases to be an acoustic issue, once you've already succumbed to carpeting the nave...

The main reason I'm keen to have new pews is that we would be replacing very long, heavy pews with shorter, lighter ones; making it more possible to arrange them differently and create some flexibility in the liturgical space.

The parishioners are keen on padding. I don't care about the padding so much, but then, I don't sit in them!

We have Godzilla sized pews at my church, you could cut them in half and still have plenty of room to lounge in. They are padded as well...must have killed an entire forrest to make them.

 

[Paidiske]

Goodness, that post's a blast from the past! That was two parishes ago...

 

[Philip_B]

 

[Shane R]

Easter Monday: when the clergy sleep in until around 10.

 

[Paidiske]

I hope your girls let you sleep in, Shane.

 

[Shane R]

View attachment 297357

I hope your girls let you sleep in, Shane.

They did. They slept in too. It's spring break for the older one. Her kindergarten teacher told her she could sleep in and stay in pajamas all week. That won't work the day I take them up the road to Ocean City though!

 

[Philip_B]

 

[Shane R]

I am booked to preach at the Archbishop's home parish Sunday. We've got ordinations Saturday so I'll be in the area. He had a retired Archdeacon booked for the service but that man suddenly passed away last week.

 

[Paidiske]

I'm in the middle of my first synod after moving, this week. This diocese is about a tenth of the size of my former diocese (in terms of number of people) and I'm finding the cultural shift quite an adjustment (a good one, just... so different to what I'm used to)!

 

[Shane R]

We made two deacons on Saturday Evening, the vigil of Pentecost. Interestingly, this was the last Anglican service at this church building. It is a Lutheran church that our people have been sharing space with for some time. Our folks are moving to a new site which will be all theirs and are scheduled to have the inaugural service on Trinity Sunday. (I'm directly behind the crozier.)

 

[Philip_B]