Take a moment to watch these worship services:

• Maundy Thursday, April 14, 2022
• Good Friday, April 15, 2022
• The Great Vigil of Easter, April 16, 2022
• The 10:00 service on the Sunday of the Resurrection, or Easter day, on April 17, 2022

From early times Christians have observed the week before Easter as a time of special devotion. As the pilgrim Egeria recorded in the late fourth century, Jerusalem contained many sacred places that were sites for devotion and liturgy. Numerous pilgrims to the holy city followed the path of Jesus in his last days. They formed processions, worshipped where Christ suffered and died, and venerated relics.

From this beginning evolved the rites we observe today on Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday. These services provide a liturgical experience of the last days of Jesus’ earthly life, as well as the time and events leading up to his resurrection.  

Read more about Holy Week.

Worship for Maundy Thursday

The name “Maundy” comes from the Latin mandatum novum, “new commandment,” from John 13:34. The ceremony of washing feet was also referred to as “the Maundy.” Maundy Thursday celebrations also commemorate the institution of the Eucharist by Jesus “on the night he was betrayed.”

Egeria, a fourth-century pilgrim to Jerusalem, describes elaborate celebrations and observances in that city on Maundy Thursday. The Council of Hippo attested to the special celebration of the institution of the Eucharist on Maundy Thursday.

Read more about Maundy Thursday.

Worship for Good Friday

Good Friday is the Friday before Easter Day, on which the church commemorates the crucifixion of Jesus. It is a day of fasting and special acts of discipline and self-denial. 

In the early church candidates for baptism, joined by others, 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.

Read more about Good Friday.

The Great Vigil of Easter

The Easter Vigil is the liturgy intended as the first and, arguably, the primary celebration of Easter in the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer. It is also known as the Great Vigil.

The service begins in darkness and consists of four parts:

• The Service of Light. This starts the service with the kindling of new fire and the lighting the Paschal candle.
• The Service of Lessons. This has readings from the Hebrew Scriptures interspersed with psalms, canticles, and prayers.
• Christian Initiation. This is the sacrament of Holy Baptism and/or the Renewal of Baptismal Vows by all present.
• The Eucharist. The sacrament of Christ’s body and blood, and the principal act of Christian worship. The term Eucharist is from the Greek, “thanksgiving.” Christ’s body and blood are really present in the sacrament of the Eucharist and received by faith. Christ’s presence is also known in the gathered eucharistic community.

This liturgy recovers an ancient practice of keeping the Easter feast. Believers would gather in the hours of darkness ending at dawn on Easter to hear scripture and offer prayer. This night-long service of prayerful watching anticipated the baptisms that would come at first light and the Easter Eucharist.

Read more about the Easter Vigil.

Worship for the Sunday of the Resurrection, or Easter Day

Easter Day is the annual feast of the resurrection, the Pascha or Christian Passover, and the eighth day of cosmic creation. Faith in Jesus’ resurrection on the Sunday, or third day following his crucifixion, is at the heart of Christian belief. 

Easter Day starts the Easter Season, the Great 50 Days. It lasts until the Feast of Pentecost, celebrating the coming of the Holy Spirit. During the Easter season there is no fasting. 

Read more about Easter.

This was the 10:00 am worship service.

Church of the Redeemer

Welcome to Church of the Redeemer: Worshiping God, living in community, and reaching out to the world. We are an Episcopal Church serving north King County and south Snohomish County, Washington. As you travel your road, go with friends walking the way of Jesus at Redeemer.

Church of the Redeemer is at 6210 Northeast 181st Street in Kenmore, Washington. We are a short distance north of Bothell Way, near the Burke-Gilman Trail. The entrance looks like a gravel driveway. The campus is larger on the inside than it is on the outside. And we managed to hide a large building on the side of a hill that is not easily seen from the street.

The Episcopal Church welcomes you.