Good Friday
Noon - 3:00 PM - Nave open for private prayer
7:30 PM - Good Friday Liturgy
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 Baptistry (the place where baptisms are performed).
The figure of Our Lord is symbolically buried in a tomb prepared in the Baptistry..
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.