Holy Week Services 2025
The glory of Easter is the heart of the Christian gospel. It is the centre of the Church's faith and worship. As followers of Jesus, you are asked to participate as fully as you can in the liturgies of the Holy Week. Faithfully being present at the liturgy during Holy Week is to undertake a journey like no other. Observe Holy Week, make the journey as an intentional act of love, faithfulness and sacrifice. Simply being present at the liturgies and giving yourself to them is to become an active participant in the drama; a drama that is not a mere re-telling of our story, but a making present of the mystery of the passion and resurrection; a re-creation, re-formation and restoration of ourselves and the world.
April 13 | Sunday of the Passion: Palm Sunday
10:00 AM
We observe the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem that was marked by the crowds, who were in Jerusalem for Passover, waving palm branches and proclaiming him as the messianic king. The irony of his acceptance as the new Davidic King by the crowds who would only five days later dry for his execution should be a sobering reminder of the human tendency to want God on our own terms. This Sunday is also known as Passion Sunday to commemorate the beginning of the Holy Week and Jesus’ final agonizing journey to the cross. The liturgy will include a re-enaction of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem and a congregational reading of the Passion according to Luke.
April 14 | Monday in Holy Week: Vesper with Anointing Ceremony
7:00 - 7:30 PM
This service remembers the often-neglected memory of Jesus being anointed by a woman in Bethany right before his journey towards the Cross. This contemplative liturgy is written by the Rev. Cynthia Bourgeault to recover the role of the beloved Mary Magdalene during Holy Week. Chants, silence & invitations to anoint each other.
April 15 | Tuesday in Holy Week: A sung service of Compline
7:00 - 7:30 PM
A contemporary version of the monastic prayer time to complete the day written by the Rev. David Taylor.
April 16 | Wednesday in Holy Week: Holy Eucharist
12:15 - 12:45 PM
A mid-day Communion Service with chants and readings reflecting on love and betrayal on Spy Wednesday.
April 17 | Maundy Thursday Supper, Liturgy of the New Commandment & Tenebrae
6:00 PM
Maundy Thursday, from the Latin maundatum meaning commandment, takes us throughthree stages in the last moments of Jesus’ life. First he welcomes his friends to celebrate the Holy Meal of Passover with him by washing our feet saying, “A New Commandment I give to you”. He then celebrates the first Eucharist showing us how to remain part of his body though he is leaving. The liturgy ends with a form of the Tenebrae (Latin for darkness) Service lamenting the arrival of the hour of darkness when the Son of God would soon be betrayed and abandoned. During the reading of Psalm 22, we remember the stripping of Christ's body and the desolation which becomes part of the passion narrative.
April 17 | The Watch
8:00 pm - 8:00 am
The practice of keeping a watch/vigil on the evening of Maundy Thursday came from Jesus’ invitation to his disciples “Could you not watch with me one hour?” in Matthew 26.40. Here at the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus models to us his self-emptying by surrendering himself to be in union with the will and the deep love of his Abba. You are invited to sign-up for an one-hour slot to watch with Christ between 8 pm - 8 am.
April 18 | Good Friday Liturgy
10:00 AM
The Good Friday Liturgy invokes all of our senses to meet our Beloved Christ on the Cross. The shape of the service is patterned after the ancient observance on Good Friday and consists of three parts:
- Scripture Readings (our listening and our minds)
- Praying around the Cross (our touch and our hearts)
- Holy Communion (our taste and our hunger)
You will be invited to pray around the Icon Cross of the Taizé Community. The ecumenical community of Taizé in France was founded with the hope to be a sign of reconciliation between divided Christians and between separated peoples. Every Friday night at Taizé, the Icon Cross is placed flat on the floor of the Church of Reconciliation. All present are invited to come forward to the cross. As a gesture of their solidarity with the poor and oppressed peoples of the world, pilgrims place their foreheads on the Cross and remain there for a few moments. This symbolic gesture brings home very clearly that Christ still suffers in the downtrodden and victims of injustice in the world today
For those who had not taken communion on Good Friday before, the ancient observance invites us to enter into sacramental union with Jesus, the Victim of the Cross, despite the absence of the physical presence of Christ remembered on Good Friday. The Holy Communion used in this service is the reserved sacrament consecrated on Maundy Thursday during the Institution of the Lord’s Supper.
April 19 | The Great Vigil of Easter
8:15 PM
The Holy Saturday Rite is the link between the Good Friday Liturgy and the celebration of Easter. The final act of the one event of the Triduum (the three days). It is a drama of the creation and redemption. It is a slow gathering of all the elements of revelation: The Light, The Word, The Water and the Food - The New Life.
It is a solemn night. The service begins with the gathering of the community outside the Church in near darkness. The Liturgy of the New Fire, the Prophetic Word, the Blessing of the Font and Baptism - the renewal of salvation as it is presented step by step to the Easter Holy Eucharist. We will participate with exclaimations after the Exultet (The Easter Proclamation) is sung. We shall gather around the blessing of the Font, a symbol of our new life in Christ. We are now ready to begin the glorious first Eucharist of Easter as from walk from darkness into light.