Participation in Holy Week is found in over 80 volunteer activities, all of which are very important to Holy Week.

There are a couple of new wrinkles this year. We need help with both of them!

The first is, that in an effort to keep from tripping over each other on Holy Saturday, the scrim (the curtain hiding the Sanctuary) will be put up in the MORNING of Good Friday. So if you have Friday off, or you take Good Friday off, please talk to Ron Russell to see if this is something you can help accomplish.

The second new activity doesn’t even have a volunteer card, because it a one time thing. We are assembling the new altar platform during the day on Good Friday, so that it’s in place for the Good Friday Liturgy. If you can help with this platform assembly, please talk to Bill McGlinn.

We have participation opportunities including everything from Praying (the Gethsemane Vigil) to weeding; from washing windows, to making lunch; from moving tables to directing traffic. There is something to enable everyone to have their part of Holy Week!

Finally some encouragements:

1. Please, DO sign up for Lunch on Lazarus Saturday, March 27, it’s your reward for hard work and a great way to meet new people.
2. Please, DO come to the Conclusion of Lent Liturgy at 7 pm,  March 27; it is a perfect transition to Holy Week (like a bookend with Ash Wednesday).
3. Please, DO come to the designated rehearsals for activities you’ve chosen. Even if you’ve done the activity before, your experience will be helpful to someone doing it for the first time.
4. PLEASE do make ALL the Holy Week Liturgies part of your experience. It can change your life!

THANK YOU!!

At this liturgy, the first thing to strike our senses is the unfamiliar barrenness of the worship space. There is nothing to distract our attention from the Cross and the saving events we commemorate. It is a time of great solemnity. However, the profundity of the liturgy should not be confused with mourning. We are not conducting a “funeral for Jesus”. Instead, with awe, we contemplate the deep redemptive love of God and its meaning for ourselves and the World.

The liturgy begins in the Nave (our main worship space) with prayer, biblical readings (including The Passion of Our Lord according to John) and a sermon.

Following the sermon, a 2nd Century form of the Prayers of the People called “The Solemn Collects” is prayed. Through them, we pray for the World, Creation and ourselves, for whose redemption Our Lord suffered and died.

Next, we participate in devotions which extol Christ’s victory on the Cross.

At the conclusion of these devotions. The figure of the Crucified Lord is taken down from the Cross, wrapped in a linen shroud and carried in solemn procession to the Chapel.

The figure of Our Lord is symbolically buried in the Chapel.

The liturgy concludes with a prayer.

Immediately following the prayer, we move silently to the Narthex and stairwell. An account of Jesus’ entombment is read and the doors into the worship space are closed and sealed, symbolizing the sealing of Our Lord’s body in the Tomb.

We depart in silence.

The word “Maundy” in this day’s title comes from the Latin word “mandatum” which means “commandment”. It is taken from the Gospel according to John’s account of Jesus’ washing of the disciples’ feet at the Last Supper.

On this day we rejoice in Christ’s establishment of the Holy Eucharist (Holy Communion) as the “sure and certain” means for us to have communion wit him and receive the redemptive power of his sacrifice into our lives.

Prior tor receiving Holy Communion on Maundy Thursday, we participate in a ceremony of foot-washing. In John’s Gospel we learn that foot-washing was an act of love by Jesus to his disciples, as well as a reminder of the type of service Christians are called to exercise toward the World and one another. In many parts of the early church it was considered to be a sacrament (i.e., the power and love of God were conveyed through the action.)

At Redeemer, the foot-washing consists of a small amount of water sprinkled upon your foot, immediately dried and followed by a kiss, the Christian sign of peace and love. It is a potent experience of the unconditional love God has for all.

After we receive Holy Communion, a large piece of the consecrated bread (marked with consecrated wine) is carried in procession to the Altar of Repose in the Education Building. A psalm of praise is sung. The congregation departs in silence. Those who desire to do so return to the Nave. All decorations, altar furnishings and linens are removed from the sanctuary while an anthem is sung. This prepares the worship space for the solemn liturgy of Good Friday, and symbolizes the beginning degradations of Our Lord’s Passion.

From that moment until midnight, all are invited to spend a period (traditionally one hour) of prayer, meditation and reflection near the Altar of Repose. (Reading and devotional materials are provided.) This Gethsemane Vigil recalls Our Lord’s prayerful struggle in the Garden of Gethsemane. At midnight, the account of Jesus’ arrest and removal is read. A prayer is said. The consecrated bread and wine is taken away.

Please join us on Palm Sunday for a single 10:00 A.M. service, beginning with a procession from the Undercroft to the Nave.

Actually, the correct title of this first day of Holy Week is not “Palm Sunday”, but rather “The Sunday of the Passion.”

The central experience of all worship at Redeemer is communion with Christ and reappropriation of the redemptive power of God in and through receiving the consecrated bread and wine.

However, every liturgy has a thematic core. On this day, that core is the dramatic reading of the account of Our Lord’s passion and death from one of the Gospels; thus its actual title, Sunday of the Passion. We do this to “set the stage” and remind us of the events that we will commemorate during the rest of Holy Week.

It is the ancient custom of the church to begin important events and observances with a solemn procession from one location to another. On this day we begin Holy Week with just such a procession. This procession recalls Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem to begin the “mighty acts of salvation”, often called his Exodus (recalling the salvation journey of the Old Testament.)

During this procession we frequently hear the word “hosanna” sung and said. “Hosanna” is a Hebrew word which means, “Save us, we beseech you.” The word comes from the Gospel account of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem. It is a reminder that salvation comes to us from God through Christ, accompanied by the events of this last week of Christ’s life.

From the moment of our baptism onward, we have all become participants in the saving activity of God, making a journey into fuller experience of the Kingdom of God. The Palm Procession, Passion Gospel and reception of the consecrated bread and wine connect our personal spiritual journey with the events through which life and immortality have been given.

Friends of the Memorial Gardens have a combination meeting and work party scheduled for Monday, March 8. The meeting will begin at noon — bring your lunch. After the meeting the group will adjourn to the garden to continue spreading mulch. Anyone interested in the garden is invited.

Cellist extraordinaire Nathan Whittaker will perform J. S. Bach’s Suite #5 in c minor for this service of music and readings. This is a great opportunity to invite friends and neighbors to be part of the season at Redeemer, as well as deepening your own Lenten journey. A soup supper will follow the liturgy.

The Arts Committee will be installing the Lenten artwork in the Nave on Saturday morning at 10:00. Creative types are welcome to come wrangle chicken wire into place, cut paper into snippets, and other fun activities!

Friends of the Memorial Gardens have a work party scheduled for Saturday, February 27 at 9:30 am.  There is much work to be done — mulching, pruning and spring clean-up.  Help would be appreciated and anyone interested in the garden is welcome.  Bring your own garden tools.  The work party will be held “rain or shine”.

There will be no services at Episcopal Church of the Redeemer on Thursday, Friday and Saturday of this week.

Wednesday, February 17th at 7:30 p.m.

“Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

Photo: “Food For The Journey” by robinsan

We will be having Noonday Prayer and Imposition of Ashes at 12:00 on Wednesday, February 17th.

The Washington chapter has put together a pilot project to bring Christian support to teenage children of people in prison.  The project involves a summer camp experience (for about 20 young people) and a full year of follow-up mentoring.  They are looking for people willing to serve as mentors (considerable training is required) and for $10,499 to cover the cost of the summer camp facilities.  All the organizers and mentors are volunteers.

If you are interested in participating in, supporting, or just learning more about this program, please let Karl Oles know (karloles@comcast.net) and plan to attend an informational meeting after the 10:30 liturgy on February 28.  There is a brochure about the program attached to the kiosk in the undercroft.

Thank you for your consideration of this opportunity.

Karl Oles

Save the date! Concerto Baroque (featuring our own Sheila Bristow) will be performing the music of Kuhnau, Telemann, Graupner and Bach at Mercer Island Presbyterian Church on Friday, March 5th at 7:30 pm. More info at concertobaroque.com and mipc.org/concertseries.

The annual parish meeting will be on Sunday, February 21st following the 10:30 liturgy. The outgoing Vestry members will provide a light lunch.