Message From the Pulpit

April 2003

Dear Members and friends of All Saints Parish:

It has been said that a healthy family creates its own rituals–its own way of doing things. In one family the father fixes pancakes on Saturday morning. In another family, the teenagers get the greens for the Christmas decorations. It is part of family identity. At All Saints we have developed our own way of doing things, and this is particularly evident at Holy Week. Some of these developments started under Bishop Gramley; some have come about since, but all are within the limitations of the Prayer Book.

Holy week begins on Palm Sunday, with the distribution of palms at both services and the traditional Palm Sunday bake sale. This year the services will be Holy Communion at 8:00 a.m. and Morning Prayer at 10:30 a.m., with the bake sale after each service.

On Maundy Thursday, this year on April 17^th , there is the traditional Lord’s Supper, but last year we added the reading of Jesus’ washing the feet of the disciples. This year the reading of the foot washing (which is an optional Gospel for Maundy Thursday, p. 155) will be at 6:45 p.m., followed by the Lord’s Supper at 7:00p.m. Following that, the altar is stripped of all hangings, the cross is draped in black, and for those who can stay the Watch in the Garden begins. During this time the lay readers and clergy read the Great Discourse from the Gospel of St. John, our Lord’s Prayer for the Church, and the account of the arrest. By the end of the readings, the church is in almost complete darkness, and we leave in silence.

Again, on Good Friday our traditional observances have grown. We start with the reading of The Trial of Jesus at 11:45 a.m. There is then a brief pause, and we begin the traditional Three Hour Service at 12 noon. This Three Hour Service is built on the Seven Last Words (or Sentences) of Christ, as gathered together from the different Gospels into Hymn #82. With an introduction to the service and the Litany at the end, we have about 20 minutes for each of these seven sentences. With Scripture, prayers and meditation, we have a full schedule.

The Three Hour Service has developed at All Saints as one of the central services of the Christian year. It is the celebration of Christ’s Victory on the Cross. As St. Clement of Alexandria (Egypt) was saying about 200 A.D.: “Here in overwhelming final strife/ The Lord of life hath victory;/ And sin is slain, and death brings life,/ And sons of earth hold heav’n in fee.” Good Friday is the Victory! Easter is the Proclamation of the Victory!

Our observance of Holy Week concludes on Friday evening at 7:00 p.m., as we remember the Burial of our Lord in Evening Prayer with Litany.

I hope you can share with us in Christ’s Victory on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday.

“Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Yours in our Lord,

Hugh Hall