Fr. Harrison's Holy Week 2017 letter

"Dear Hearts,

Last Sunday, as we followed our Lord Jesus into Jerusalem, we heard shouts of "Hosanna," that he came in the name of God, and as King David's heir.  Jesus' popular acclaim made the civil and religious authorities truly nervous; what were they going to do with him?  We also heard the answer to that question last Sunday:  They were going to have him killed.  

On three Holy Days, we make the journey from Jesus' Last Supper with his disciples, to his arrest at Gethsemane, to his abuse before religious and civil authorities, to his agonizing death on Calvary, to the tomb, and then after a day of quiet, the emptiness of the tomb; and, we reach with Jesus, the new Risen Life, to which he invites us all.

• On Maundy Thursday we retell and show what happens as Jesus dines one last time with his disciples; we hear his new commandment (mandaturn in Latin) to love one another with his sacrificial love, experience him demonstrating that love by washing his disciples' feet, and giving them (and us) broken bread and poured wine to signify his abiding presence.  As the service is ending, Jesus is arrested and led away.
• On Good Friday, we have an opportunity to break away from our usual schedule to be with Jesus for the three hours he was on the cross.  In the first hour, we hear the story and pray the prayers of Good Friday; and then, for most of the second and third hours (approx 1-2:45 p.m.), we sit quietly with his mother Mary, her sister Mary, Mary Magdalene, and John.  During that time of helpless  sorrow, our thoughts are guided by Organ Meditations, prayers and Scripture readings.  The third hour concludes with communion in silence, and tolling our Tower bell when Jesus dies.  Please feel free to come and go as your schedule permits.
• There are two additional services on Good Friday:
  • at 5:15 p.m., a brief Child-Friendly walk through each day of Holy Week, from Palm Sunday through Good Friday;
  • at 7 p.m., the Prayer Book's one hour Good Friday service, with organ and hymns, also concluding with communion
• On Holy Saturday, while the church is ostensibly quiet, preparations are being made for the following day, including a Yard Clean-up, from 9 a.m.-Noon:30 to tidy up the grounds.  Please consider stopping by for an hour or so; bring your gloves and favorite tool.  Water, coffee and treats provided.
• On Easter morning, we offer nearly identical services at 8 and 10 a.m., with Choir, hymns and organ, to tell Matthew's startling account of what happened when Mary Magdalene and the other Mary returned to the rock garden where Jesus lifeless body had been placed in a stone tomb days before.
• Our Easter celebrations will be enriched if you could bring:
  1. a flower for the cross;
  2. a treat to share for the Coffee Hour; and,
  3. if you're coming with children, a basket for each child's Easter Egg hunt

For a Holy Week reflection on our Holy Land, I remind you of the Episcopal Church's traditional Good Friday offering for our Diocese of Jerusalem.  The American Friends of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem is raising funds for the Schneller School which serves refugee and orphaned children (Palestinian, Jordanian and Syrian).  You can find a four-minute video introduction to the Schneller School here.  I invite you to join me in making a Good Friday offering for the School at the AFEDJ's dedicated Fundly site here.

This Maundy Thursday morning, we learned that the Lent Madness 2017 "Golden Halo" goes to Episcopalian Florence Nightingale!  Through this absurd Lenten ritual, I have again become more aware of, amazed by, and grateful for the "great cloud of witnesses" who surround us all.  Of the other "faithful four," I knew of St. Stephen -- deacon and the church's first martyr, but not of Austrian conscientious objector and Nazi martyr Franz Jaggerstatter, or of devout Episcopalian, temperance and women's equality advocate Amelia Bloomer.  By following Lenten Madness, I learned that in serving her patients, Nightingale recognized she was serving God: “Nursing is an art: and if it is to be made an art, it requires as exclusive a devotion, as hard a preparation, as any painter’s or sculptor’s work; for what is the having to do with dead canvas or cold marble, compared with having to do with the living body, the temple of God’s spirit?"

As the Spirit leads us through these three holy days, I look forward to sharing the journey with you.

In faith and hope,
Harrison+
YFNR