Holy Week and Easter

Palm Sunday (March 24)

  • Holy Eucharist at 9:30am

  • Taizé service at 7pm

This Sunday, Palm Sunday/The Sunday of the Passion, marks the beginning of Holy Week, the week leading up to the celebration of Easter, and the rituals marking the church’s most powerful confession of its faith. Through participation in the whole sequence of services, the Christian shares in Christ’s own journey, from the triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday to the empty tomb on Easter morning.

Within Holy Week, the three holy days of the Paschal Triduum – Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Saturday’s Great Vigil of Easter – mark the three holiest days of the church’s year of grace.

  • This form of contemporary liturgical song was first developed for use by the ecumenical Christian community at Taizé, France. It uses repetitive structures that can easily be memorized, along with other parts for solo voices, choirs, and instruments.

    Jacques Berthier prepared the musical settings for Taizé chant. In recent years it has gained acceptance and is used in many denominations. Latin is now used for singing Taizé Chant at Taizé because of the international nature of the community.

    However, settings of Taizé Chant are edited for use in other languages, including English. Wonder, Love, and Praise has a variety of hymns that use Taizé chant, such as “O Lord hear my pray'r” (Hymn 827) and “Laudate omnes gentes” (Hymn 830).

Maundy Thursday (March 28)

  • Liturgy service at 12:10pm and 7pm

Maundy (a name taken from the Latin word mandatum meaning “commandment” as in “a new commandment I have given you, that you love one another”) marks the institution of the Lord’s supper, the last meal that Jesus shared with his friends before he was arrested, tried and executed. In keeping with that commandment of love, and in imitation of the example set by Jesus, we share the option of washing one another’s feet. 

At the conclusion of the service, the altar is completely stripped of all its furnishings, and all the church decorations are removed, leaving behind only a simple table with the sacrament reserved from the Eucharist, covered in a veil, and lit with a candle. As the people leave silently, an overnight vigil begins that will continue until morning, in the church and on Zoom, remembering Jesus’ words to his beloved disciples in Gethsemane to keep watch with him for one hour

Good Friday (March 29)

  • Liturgy service at 7pm

The liturgy for Good Friday marks the middle part of the triduum – the day itself is marked by great solemnity, devotion, self-examination, and prayer. The liturgy invites the congregation even deeper into that mystery. The traditional passion gospel and prayers have been modified slightly in recognition of the ways in which our own sacred texts have been used as an instrument of terror for the Jewish people. 

Holy Saturday (March 30)

  • Liturgy service at 12pm

We will have a brief prayer service in the middle of the day, when the body of Jesus is lying in the tomb. In some ancient Christian traditions, this apparently silent day is when Jesus descended to the realm of the dead and proclaimed good news, breaking the bonds of death. 

Easter Sunday (March 31)

  • Festal Holy Eucharist at 9:30am and 5:30pm

  • Easter Egg hunt follows 9:30am service

  • Begun in dark and in quiet, we light new fire, and illumined by candlelight, we recount the story of salvation revealed in ancient scripture, proclaiming that the God who in the Hebrew scriptures is revealed as the maker and ruler of all creation is the same God disclosed to us in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, the Anointed One. At that magnificent turning point, the lights are up, the bells are rung, and the people proclaim the good news, Alleluia! Christ is risen!

    Note – we will join our neighbor parish, St. James’ in Pullman for this celebration

  • We proclaim the triumph song of resurrection in our Easter celebration, with bright colors, flowers, exuberant singing, and celebration. Upon arrival at the church we add flowers to the cross outside our door, a bright sign of our hope and faith.

    Following the service, the children are invited to an Easter egg hunt, and to chase one another with cascarones, brightly painted egg-shells stuffed with (biodegradable) confetti

  • The last service of Easter Day, when we hear the story of the journey to Emmaus, when two bewildered, grieving friends, making their way back from Jerusalem, are met by a stranger who is apparently the only one in all Jerusalem who hasn’t heard what happened.

    Our Easter celebration continues for fifty days, concluding May 19 with the fiery tongues of Pentecost.