Dear Friends,
In this week so full of sadness as we remember Jesus’s last days with his disciples, it is good to report a piece of delightful news: the birth, on Tuesday, of Samuel John Womack to proud parents Erin and Travis, and proud grandparents Pam and Chip. Little Samuel (8 lbs., 6 oz) and his mother are doing very well. Let us rejoice that a new little soul has made it safely into the world, a reminder of Easter hope into which all of us are born in Holy Baptism.
As we now concentrate our attention on remembering the events that led to the Easter miracle, don’t miss this evening’s Maundy Thursday service at 7 P.M. We will sit with Jesus and his disciples at his Last Supper with him, wash one another’s feet in the same sign of love and servanthood he shared with them,* share the holy meal he instituted, and remove all ornaments from the altar and within the chancel, suggesting the barrenness of the world with Jesus gone from it.
Tomorrow evening’s Good Friday service (7 P.M.) is very like a funeral service. Jesus has died on the cross, and it is our time of mourning. We read John’s account of the Passion, contemplate the cross, and sing the songs of grief and love. We pause on this day to experience the grief of the disciples, for whom the resurrection was not yet a reality.
On Saturday evening at 8 P.M. we hold The Great Vigil of Easter, a journey from darkness to light, from grief to joy, from death to life. My favorite service of the year, it offers the first announcement of Easter and the first Holy Eucharist of the resurrection. Then, of course, we continue with Christians the world over to celebrate Jesus’s resurrection on Sunday morning at 10. Plan to stay to enjoy fellowship and an Easter brunch.
Don’t miss a minute of these unique worship services, and invite your friends and neighbors!
Wishing all of us a blessed Holy Week and a glorious Easter,
Mtr. TJ