St. John’s keeps up the ancient tradition of an intense week of prayer and worship in the days leading up to Easter, the feast of Christ’s Resurrection. Our services are patterned on the observances of the church in Jerusalem in its early days. Palm Sunday is the Sunday of the Passion, a day that provides a broad overview of Holy Week in its quick transition from the Lord’s triumphal entry to his condemnation. The rest of the week’s services break the action into smaller acts. Simple services of Holy Communion and preaching are held in the Chapel (lower level of Heyward Hall) on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday at 6 PM. Across those days, the tensions in the Scriptures rises, as Jesus’s conflict with the religious authorities intensifies. We gather on Thursday at 7 PM in the church, for a fuller service in observation of Maundy Thursday. A commemoration of the Last Supper, this service includes the washing of feet, the stripping of the altar, and a thankful remembrance of Christ’s gift of Holy Communion to us, all legacies of the final night he shared with his disciples. An all-night watch follows, reminding us of Lord’s long hours spent grieving in the garden of Gethsemane. Good Friday’s 12:15 PM service takes place in a bare church and includes a long reading of St. John’s Passion, the veneration of the Cross, and a sermon that takes us into the wonder of the saving death of Jesus Christ.

These services mean to take you into the core of Christian faith, to the upper room, Cross, and the empty tomb. Spread across Holy Week, they ask for your sustained attention to Christ and his saving work in those places. They ask the question of the old spiritual, “Were you there when they crucified my Lord?” Being there can make a great difference to your spiritual life, in how you experience and receive the Gospel of Christ. I know many will be traveling because of school spring break, but I do urge and invite those who are here to come together to see and hear what God has done in Christ in our holy week services. We don’t have revivals in a tent in August in our tradition, but the holy days ahead offer the same opportunity, to come to Christ and know him as our savior. Be with us. Nicholas+

Learn more about other important updates in the latest church newsletter: The Epistle – May 2, 2024