When I was in college, I worked at a church that had a junior altar guild, made up of young women in about 4-7th grade. I never knew that the junior altar guild even existed at that church the whole time I worked there until Maundy Thursday, when they, under the direction of one of their mentors, were the ones who stripped the altar at the end of the service. Wearing all black, they walked up and down the aisle of the church carrying items from the altar area, back to the back of the church, and out the back doors. They walked reverently and took the job seriously, but they were still kids; one with a shoe untied, one who couldn’t help but walk a little faster than I imagine they were probably instructed to walk. As long as I attend Maundy Thursday services, the image of those young women stripping the altar will come to mind for me because I learned something important from them.

For me, Maundy Thursday, paradoxically, is about both living the life of service that Jesus calls us to, and also about feeling worthy to receive the love and service of others. What I learned from those young women, is that sometimes it requires being invited into a relationship of service, both of serving and being served. And in that invitation to serve others, one learns to feel worthy of love and service themselves. By being invited to serve the church in a special way, these young women were empowered to be full participants in the life of the church, and this can never start too young.

So, on this Maundy Thursday, you’ll be invited into a brief relationship of service, the ritual of foot washing. However brief this encounter may be, it represents an invitation to serve and to be served by this faith community. And in so doing, acting as a vessel both to receive God’s love, and also to pour it out on someone else.

-Maggie+

Good Friday

I’ve struggled with Good Friday. I struggle because I don’t always know how to sit with a death that is so far from me, and to sit in a story that we’re only re-enacting. And, I struggle to make meaning of Jesus’ death, what it means about God, and what it means for us as followers of Jesus. However, what I know is that every Good Friday, I come to these services (both the 12-3 contemplative service and the 7:30p spare Eucharist) and I am moved. And by that I literally mean that my internal affairs, the make-up of my internal life, is changed––even if only for a very brief moment during the day. I invite you all (and to invite your friends and those close to you) to stop in on Friday sometime between 12-3p or to attend the spare 7:30p service and bear witness to this thing that we can’t fully know and see, but has truth for us, even beyond our understanding of it.

-Emily

Holy Week Service for Families

The Triduum—the Three Great Days—has for centuries upon centuries been a time for Christians to gather and retrace the last steps of Christ. From Maundy Thursday to Good Friday to Holy Saturday, we as a community at All Souls engage each year in profound and meaningful liturgies, many of which speak to children, but which are not always accessible to them either because of their timing or length.

Our Holy Week with Children service, on Friday from 4-5pm, draws upon the rituals and symbols of these services—inviting children and adults into the story, the action, the reflection, and the wondering about this Mystery we are coming close to.

Using the framework of Godly Play, this service offers a time to slow down and get ready as we encounter this holy story of the last time Jesus came to Jerusalem. We gather to listen and watch, to wash each other’s feet, to reflect through art and action as we wonder what it could all mean, and then close with prayers and an invitation to return—to come and experience the ending that was a new beginning—Easter.

Holy Saturday

In the language of our Godly Play stories, Holy Saturday is the day when all of Creation holds its breath. Our day begins with a simple, spare service with readings and a short reflection in the Chapel of the Nativity at 9:30am. Then the day is spent in preparation, for what will unfold that night with the Easter Vigil and into the next day for Easter Sunday. 

My first experience with an Easter Vigil happened almost nineteen years ago this month. I was in my first year as a priest, serving as an Associate Rector in a church that at the time did not practice the Easter Vigil. So I reached out to a friend and colleague who served at St. Gregory of Nyssa in San Francisco to see if I could be part of their Vigil.

I had never been part of an Easter Vigil––sunrise services and Easter Sundays with brass and flowers, yes, but not a Vigil. Many of those Easter morning services were beautiful and moving. But I think that I understood the resurrection of the Christ in an embodied, fundamentally different way that first Vigil 19 years ago. There is something about telling story after story after story from the arc of salvation, hearing poems and midrash in response, singing to the saints to “Come, rejoice with us!”, entering into the Easter proclamation, and the Resurrection Gospel and Communion anew that is profound and often brings me to tears.

If you have yet to experience an Easter Vigil be sure to dress warmly, as the first part of the service is outside in the courtyard. Come rejoice with us, starting at 8p this Saturday, April 7th!

Phil+

Easter Sunday

For me, the rigors of planning, rehearsing, and producing Holy Week liturgies reaches its high point in the Easter Vigil. We’ve worthily lamented our sins and examined our lives during Lent, and then dramatically followed the footsteps of Jesus through the last week of his life. I LIVE for that moment when, at the Easter Vigil, new Christians are made at the font in baptism, the lights come on, the organ thunders, bells ring, and the first Alleluias rend the air, bringing the Christian Liturgical Year to its high point.  To do it all over again the next morning seems almost anti-climactic.  One year, at about 1AM, sitting in the after-glow of the experience, enjoying a worthy chocolate morsel and sipping a quality glass of champagne, a few colleagues and I decided it would be an excellent idea to lock the doors, and put a sign in the windows, reading, “He is not here, he is risen!”  What a way to greet the vast hordes that would join us for worship on Easter Day.  Sure, they may have missed all of the deep drama that led to this special Sunday.  But like St. John Chrysostom’s Easter Sermon says, the joyful call to share the Paschal Feast is made to ALL: those who came to work early, and those who’ve arrived at the last minute. And to that end, we have planned to celebrate the Feast on Easter Sunday (April 9, 9:00 & 11:15) with all the trimmings.  The church will be decked out with flowers; brass and timpani will accompany favorite Easter hymns, the Resurrection will be preached, and joy will abound as we renew our baptism at the 11:15 service.  There will be festive receptions after each service. (reception after 9AM features a special Easter Egg Hunt.)  Come kick off the Great Fifty Days with us!

-Dent

Stations of the Resurrection

The journey depicted in the Stations of the Cross does not end with the burial of Jesus. It is His resurrection and subsequent appearances that are the basis of our faith. The path from the Way of the Cross, from suffering and sacrifice towards the Way of the Light, towards true liberation and joy and peace are the actual pascal end point.

On Easter Sunday we see the 14 Stations of the Cross replaced by the Stations of the Resurrection. Out of the darkness of death we watch the bright radiance of the light of God’s grace enfold.

This year we have chosen images from our own neighborhoods, contributed by Pat Jones, Inara Hoffman, Alisa Hoffman, Lenore Williamson, Sarah Crawford, Kieran King, Diane Haavik, and curated with special care by Kieran King.

Take a meditative walk around the sanctuary columns and prayerfully consider this miracle of Light.

-Diane Haavik, Arts at All Souls

Full Holy Week Schedule

Holy week is the week leading up to Easter Sunday, where we follow the path of Christians who for centuries upon centuries have been gathering together to retrace these last steps of the Christ. While the week’s services are meant to be experienced as one service spread out over several days, please join for any or all that you are able. Here is the schedule for the week (*live streamed services):

Maundy Thursday

• 6p Agape Meal
• 7:30p Eucharist, with the Washing of Feet, Stripping of the Altar, and Procession to the Altar of Repose*

Good Friday

• 12-3 Contemplative Service (with poetry, silence, song, and prayers)
• 4-5p Holy Week for children
• 7:30p Eucharist with reserved sacrament, reading of the Passion Gospel, and Veneration of the Cross*

Holy Saturday

• 9:30a Holy Saturday liturgy
• 8p The Great Vigil of Easter, with lighting of the New Fire, and the First Eucharist of Easter* (don’t forget to bring your bells!)

Holy Week Needs:

• Help set-up for the 6p Agape Meal––just show up sometime between 4-6p in the Parish Hall
• Sign-up to hold vigil and pray through the night after the Maundy Thursday service (sign-up here)
• Bring food/drinks to share for the reception following the Easter Vigil on Saturday! 
• Show up a little early on Saturday night to help set-up (arrive between 6-8p)