Page last Published 4/10/2024
Adult Christian Formation
Growing in our faith, also called Christian Formation, is the journey of a lifetime.
Below you will find resources we pray will aid you in your journey.
Below you will find resources we pray will aid you in your journey.
Formation Friday An essay on the Gospel reading for the week or on the liturgical season is sent to those on our email list every Friday. These essays, written by members of the parish, provide food for contemplation each week. The most recent essays can be downloaded from here. If you would like to receive these essays, click here to get on our email list. 
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Dwelling In the Word Every Thursday at 10:30 a.m. a group meets for the Dwelling in the Word, a scripture meditation on the Gospel for the coming Sunday. Dwelling in the Word is a spiritual practice of reading and dwelling in the biblical text with an openness to be formed and transformed by the Living Word. This practice is an intentional way of allowing God to speak to us both individually and as a gathered community. Dwelling in the Word honors each person's ability to listen to God and to each other. We are formed spiritually by encountering the Word and allowing the text to inform our lives, address our deep needs and to encounter God. Anyone is welcome to participate in Dwelling in the Word. | ||||||||||||
Prayer and Worship in Our Homes
Grow closer to Christ even when you can't be in church. Learn more about the practice of prayer in its many forms from an array of studied experts.
More Information on the Free Course from ChurchNext
Education for Ministry (EfM)
Education for Ministry (EfM) is a four-year program of study and reflection for lay Christian formation structured by the University of the South School of Theology.
Visit ECCT Site for More Information on EfM
Additional Resources
Visit the ECCT for Additional Resources
Grow closer to Christ even when you can't be in church. Learn more about the practice of prayer in its many forms from an array of studied experts.
More Information on the Free Course from ChurchNext
Education for Ministry (EfM)
Education for Ministry (EfM) is a four-year program of study and reflection for lay Christian formation structured by the University of the South School of Theology.
Visit ECCT Site for More Information on EfM
Additional Resources
Visit the ECCT for Additional Resources
What is Holy Week?
As we approach Holy Week, we also approach one of the most complex liturgies of the Church calendar. Holy Week is actually two liturgical services: Palm Sunday and then a continuous service that begins on Maundy Thursday, passes through a night of prayer, descends into darkness and death at noon on Good Friday, and then rises in Resurrection on Easter Sunday. The week is one of majestic and solemn symbolism, I have been privileged to attend all of the services and the movement from apparent triumph to utter betrayal and deadly absence before Resurrection is truly moving. Over the next weeks we will briefly touch on these services. We hope you and your family and friends can come to as many of these services as possible.
We begin with Palm Sunday. As celebrated in the Church as a the Passion, the Palm Sunday service begins with Jesus entering Jerusalem in mortal triumph, as Mark records:
"Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut in the fields. Then those who went ahead and those who followed were shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David! Hosanna in the highest heaven!”
In the choral service that our church holds, we follow Jesus through the week: from the prophesy of His coming, His arrival, and the rising tide of anger that culminates in His betrayal, trial, and crucifixion. Each reading is paired with choral music that reflects on the fact that, though challenged, our faith remains steadfast. The Palm Sunday service always ends in silence. We have approached the darkest night and while we know Easter will come; we must remember that the disciples of Christ had no such knowledge, only faith in God.
Following Palm Sunday the services of Holy Week unfold the full majesty and sorrow of the events leading to the Crucifixion. Called the Easter Triduum; Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday mark a three day holy service that leads to Easter. Maundy Thursday has a peculiar name, but once explained it becomes clear: 'Maundy' is an English word that comes from the Latin: mandatum novum, “new commandment,”. This is a direct reference to the Gospel of John 13:34
'A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.'
Maundy Thursday's readings always follow the night of the Last Supper and commemorate the institution of the Eucharist. We celebrate the Eucharist so regularly, that it can come as a shock to realize that we remember, we witness, an event that happened over 2000 years ago. On this night, as He must have done all His life, Jesus celebrated the Jewish Passover; but this was the last time. This Passover became the Eucharist, our principal form of worship. Jesus said that whenever we gather to bless the bread and wine He will be in our midst. It is a testament of our powerful faith that we still follow the commandment that is at the heart of that night so long ago.
Jesus' new commandment of love and service is often demonstrated by the ritual of foot washing. In the ancient world, the act of washing another's feet was a powerful symbol of humility and service. No mortal king would wash the feet of his followers; only slaves did such things. In this act our Lord taught that the ministry of those who follow the Messiah is one of humble service.
There is, however, a second part to the Maundy Thursday service: the Stripping of the Altar. By the end of this part of the service, the bare altar stands as a bleak testimony to the betrayal and abandonment of Jesus, not only by Judas, but also by His disciples, remember that Peter will deny Him three times during the night. Neither mortal power nor wealth is left on display, only faith in God. On Good Friday, the altar becomes a symbol of the tomb. Maundy Thursday ends in silence, tonight there will be neither blessing nor dismissal.
In St John's, as in many churches, an overnight vigil is kept between the end of Maundy Thursday to noon at Good Friday. During this time people are invited to keep watch and witness in remembrance of Jesus' long, lonely night in the Garden of Gethsemane; as He had asked Peter, James, and John so to do. I would invite you to do so if you are able. In the dark watches of the night, before a barren altar, we may be blessed to find that our hearts, our minds, and our souls are open to the glory of God in His agony and in His faith.
Over the last two weeks we considered Palm Sunday and then the beginning of the Easter Triduum. This week, we reach the solemnity and depth of Good Friday and Holy Saturday. These are the two days in the Episcopal Church on which no Eucharist service is held; though in times of extreme need consecrated bread and wine may be used from the Reserved Sacrament. This prohibition of the most central aspect of our worship speaks to the heart of these two days: the death and absence of Christ before His resurrection on Easter Sunday. On these two days the altar of the church stands empty, the candles unlit, and the cross shrouded in black. Even in a modern world over saturated with imagery; the symbolism remains bleakly captivating.
The liturgies of Good Friday and Holy Saturday have historically been filled with imagery and symbolism. The concept of Christ's descent to Hell and His time amongst the dead was a favorite topic for the Western Medieval Church in particular. Since the Reformation the emphasis on this has been reduced in the Protestant Church and Holy Saturday is not commonly celebrated in an elaborate fashion, though a simple prayer service can take place. This changes at sunset on Saturday, when the Great or Easter Vigil begins; but more on that next week.
However, Good Friday remains, as it should, in its dominate place. For here we come to an end; but not, as we know in faith, The End. Yet, in reading through the accounts of that day, the human tragedy is so stark. Mary at the foot of the Cross; Joseph of Arimethea offering the only help he could: a new tomb. The bewildered and guilty disciples. And over all, the agony of God's only Son.
In the Episcopal Church, the Good Friday service is commonly celebrated at noon reflecting the tradition that Jesus died at noon. The Gospel for the Good Friday liturgy is from John and retells the events of the prior night, Jesus' trial, crucifixion, death, and being laid in the tomb before sunset according to Jewish law.
The liturgy does not have a Eucharist. Instead it ends with what are known as the solemn collects. These prayers date back to the Roman Empire in the fourth and fifth centuries. Interestingly, despite their age and presence in the 1549 Book of Common Prayer, it was only in the 1979 Book of Common Prayer that the solemn collects were restored to their place in the Good Friday liturgy.
The service ends in complete silence. The altar a tomb, the darkness of death
We have arrived. We are now, as I write this, in Holy Week. When night falls on Friday, Good Friday, Jesus Christ lies in the tomb. We wait for Sunday, Easter Sunday, and the Resurrection.
As an historian, one of the more interesting things that I find when contemplating the rhythms of Holy Week is that even as Christianity split away from its Judaic roots, it retained certain cultural rhythms. Foremost, is of course, that the Eucharist grows out of Jesus celebrating a last Passover supper with the disciples. However, when we come to the Great Vigil of Easter we are also reminded. We are accustomed to think of Easter starting at sunrise, when Mary Magdalene enters an empty tomb. But the Jewish calendar measures the day from nightfall to nightfall. This is why Jesus had to be buried before nightfall on Friday, as the next day was the Sabbath and that started at nightfall not Saturday morning.
The Great Vigil of Easter dates back to the early Church in Jerusalem. In the Episcopal Church it begins in darkness, sometime between sunset on Holy Saturday and sunrise on Easter, and consists of four parts: The Service of Light (kindling of new fire, lighting the Paschal candle, the Exsultet); The Service of Lessons (readings from the Hebrew Scriptures interspersed with psalms, canticles, and prayers); Christian Initiation (Holy Baptism) or the Renewal of Baptismal Vows; and the Eucharist. The services of Baptism and then the Eucharist were commonly celebrated at dawn. The Vigil symbolically emphasizes the new creation and the triumph of Christ over death: out of darkness into light.
And so we await Easter dawn!
Anne C. Hall
