Palm Sunday

PALM SUNDAY is April 13th and we will have services at 8 a.m. and 10.:30am

The 10:30 service will begin in the courtyard. 

The Sunday before Easter at which Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem (Mt 21:1-11, Mk 11:1-11a, Lk 19:29-40) and Jesus’ Passion on the cross (Mt 26:36-27:66, Mk 14:32-15:47, Lk 22:39-23:56) are recalled. It is alsoknown as the Sunday of the Passion. Palm Sunday is the first day of Holy Week. Red is the liturgical color forthe day. The observance of Palm Sunday in Jerusalem was witnessed by the pilgrim Egeria in about 381-384.During this observance there was a procession of people down the Mount of Olives into Jerusalem. Thepeople waved branches of palms or olive trees as they walked. They sang psalms, including Ps 118, andshouted the antiphon, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” The Palm Sunday observance wasgenerally accepted throughout the church by the twelfth century. However, the day was identified in the 1549BCP as simply “The Sunday next before Easter.” The blessing of branches and the procession were notincluded. The 1928 BCP added the phrase “commonly called Palm Sunday” to the title of the day. A form forblessing palms was provided by the Book of Offices (1960). The 1979 BCP presents the full title for the day,“The Sunday of the Passion: Palm Sunday” (BCP, p. 270). The liturgy of the palms is the entrance rite for theservice. The congregation may gather at a place apart from the church and process to the church after the blessing of the branches of palm or other trees (BCP, p. 270). The liturgy of the palms includes a reading ofone of the gospel accounts of Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem. The branches may be distributed to the people before the service.<

Maundy Thursday

This service marks Christ’s Last Supper and the initiation of the Eucharist. From the Latin word mandatum, meaning “command,” (see John 13:34), Maundy Thursday recalls the new commandment given to us by Christ. The Holy Eucharist will be celebrated and, in accordance with the Gospel of John, foot washing will be offered. At the close of the service, the altar is stripped and elements carried to the chapel for the Altar of Repose.

Good Friday

The Friday before Easter Day, on which the church commemorates the crucifixion of Jesus. It is a day offasting and special acts of discipline and self-denial. In the early church candidates for baptism, joined byothers, fasted for a day or two before the Paschal feast. In the west the first of those days eventually acquired the character of historical reenactment of the passion and death of Christ. The liturgy of the day includes John's account of the Passion gospel, a solemn form of intercession known as the solemn collects (dating from ancient Rome), and optional devotions before the cross (commonly known as the veneratio nof the cross). The eucharist is not celebrated in the Episcopal Church on Good Friday, but HolyCommunion may be administered from the reserved sacrament at the Good Friday service.

The BCP appoints readings for Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer on Good Friday. See Altar of Repose; seeBidding Prayer; see Cross.