A very different Holy Week this year

Thursday evening, the Guilford Church held it's Maundy Thursday service,6:30-7:30p.m., and yesterday, its Good Friday Service, Noon to 1p.m.. Ellen and I sang in the choir at both services. These events are at the core of the sacred story of our faith, and Pastor Elisa packed a great deal of meaning into both Services. We sang several moving anthems: e.g., Morning, What Wondrous Love is This? Kedron (from the Sacred Harp), and a Ukrsinian liturgical piece, Mnohaya Lita. At the Maundy Thursday service, both Ellen and I were readers. I read from the Johannine story of Jesus washing the disciples feet while Pastor Elisa took the role of Jesus and acted out the story. However, this service was differet from the one we have used for many years in Guilford, as was the Good Friday service. In past years, the Maundy Thursday service would begin with a Passover Seder meal downstairs, led by Margarfet Dale Barrand, and then would continue upstairs in the sanctury with communion and the Office of Tenebrae, i.e., a service in which there are several readings and a gradual extinguishing of candles/lights until the church is plunged into darkness. Then a single candle would be lit, symbolizing the light of the resurrectiom to come, and everyone would file out in silence. Margaret Dale died earlier this year, so there was no Seder. Actually, we missed both Margaret Dale and Tony tremendously this year. In past years we have also been invited to the Feinland Family Seder, but that did not happen this year - Ray Feinland died earlier this year. Good Friday was also different in the past: for years, decades even, there was an ecumenical Good Friday service based on the Seven Last Words of Christ, and seven different local churches would each take a word, and you would get to hear seven different preachers and a variety of music. That has not happened for two years because of the pandemic. Also, this year there is no Easter Sunrise Service in Guilford. However, there is one thing the same - I am leading the choir in William Billigs' Easter Anthem in Dummerston tomorrow, as I have done many times in the past. So time brings change, but there is still some live tradition.

Reading the Gospel of John at the Maundy Thursday Service, with Pastor Elisa.