Every year Christians around the world celebrate Holy Week. As we worship, we remember that our loving God lived, died, and rose again for us. The four services our church offers during Holy Week combine together to tell the story of the last few days of Jesus’ life, culminating in his resurrection on Easter morning.
Holy Week begins with Palm Sunday (also known as Passion Sunday to some). On this day, our service will begin like many others, where those who are willing enter the church waving palm branches to rejoice that our Lord came to Jerusalem and that the crowds acknowledged him as their king.
On Maundy Thursday we hold a 7pm evening service to celebrate the Last Supper of our Lord. This is a Divine Service with Communion, and it concludes by stripping the altar as Jesus Christ was stripped by those who arrested him.
On Good Friday we have a reflective and sombre morning service. This service often focuses on how the same crowds that welcomed Jesus Christ with palms and hallelujahs now called for his crucifixion. This year’s Good Friday service is called “The Way of the Rose”. A living rose is used to dramatically show how Jesus was treated before his death.
On Easter Sunday morning we rejoice that the death of Jesus was not the end of his story. We decorate a wooden cross with flowers to show the vibrant new life that comes to us in Christ’s resurrection. We proclaim loudly that “Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! (Hallelujah!)”.
