St. Paul's Wickford
Holy Week and Easter Services 2010
Palm Sunday March 28 to Easter Sunday April 4

Subject to revision and update
All Holy Week services take place in the church unless indicated



The Sunday of the Passion, Palm Sunday
• Saturday March 27 •
5:15 pmLiturgy of the Palms and Holy Eucharist, Contemporary

• Sunday March 28 •
There will be Sunday School for children through 4th grade, Older children are encouraged to attend services with their families.
7:30 am Liturgy of the Palms and Holy Eucharist, Rite 1

8:30 am Liturgy of the Palms (Parish Hall) and Festival Choral Eucharist *

10:30 am Liturgy of the Palms (Parish Hall) *

* With choir at 8:30 am and 10:30 am services - Please check back later for more music details.

Holy Week

Maundy Thursday
• April 1 •


4:00pm Service of Foot Washing Ceremony for Children
7:00pmThe Lord’s Supper with the Liturgy of Foot Washing
8pm to 8am Vigil of our Lord’s Passion
  


Good Friday April 2
10:00am Children’s Stations of the Cross (Greene Way)
Noon Ecumenical Stations of the Cross *
2:00 pm Liturgy for Good Friday with sung St. John’s Passion
7:00pm Stations of the Cross

Holy Saturday and The Great Vigil
4:00pm Holy Baptism with Eucharist
7:00pm The Great Vigil of Easter and Festival Choral Eucharist

Easter Day
• Sunday April 4 •
The Feast of the Resurrection of our Lord
6:00am Sunrise Eucharist (Outside ONC)
7:00am Holy Eucharist, Rite 1 (St. Paul’s)
8:30am Holy Eucharist, Rite 2 (St. Paul’s)
9:30am Holy Eucharist, Rite 2 (ONC)
10:30am Holy Eucharist, Rite 2 (St. Paul’s)
* North Kingstown Ecumenical Good Friday Service

The churches of North Kingstown will offer a service for Good Friday at noon on April 2nd. The service will begin at St. Paul's. From there, weather permitting, there will be a procession patterned after the Stations of the Cross, which will follow a route through Wickford to the Town Hall and back to Wickford Baptist Church - stopping at locations along the way that represent aspects of our shared community life. Those unable to follow the more than 2-mile procession may remain at St. Paul's for another form of service for Good Friday.


The Meaning of the Holy Week Services

Holy Week is a drama in five acts – a passion play like the famous one at Oberammergau in Germany. Each special day with its own unique services is an act in that play. To miss one is to miss God’s most important actions, and in the process to miss out on understanding the whole play, like walking in on film when it is more than half finished. Each act has a most powerful part to play in the whole drama of God’s saving action.

Act 1 – Palm Sunday: Jesus comes to Jerusalem at the height of His popularity. He is regarded by the masses as the long-awaited Messiah. Expectations are high, and many of the people rush to the road He’s traveling to enter the city in order to welcome Him as their God-sent liberator and king. They wave palm branches like flags to welcome a conquering hero. We reenact that event with palm branches, ourselves, and at the 8:30 and 10:30 services by parading from the Parish Hall, where the service begins, to the church, where the service climaxes with the reading of the Passion Narrative and the celebration of Eucharist.

Act 2 – Maundy Thursday: Jesus enjoys His last meal with His closest friends. Some, like John’s Gospel, see it as a Passover Seder in which Jesus replaces the lamb sacrificed so that God’s judgment will pass over all who trust in Him. During the meal Jesus washes His friends’ feet, demonstrating that He was their servant and ours, and that we, too, are called to serve others as He did. He also established the Lord’s Supper to help us remember Him and continually receive Him ourselves. We reenact those events with foot washing ceremonies at 4 and 7 pm in the church and with the celebration of the Lord’s Supper during the 7 pm service. The 7 pm service ends by stripping the altar and the church of all decorations to symbolically reenact how Jesus was stripped of His dignity that night, arrested, tortured and tried. There will be an all-night vigil in the chapel in half-hour rotations for those who wish to pray and meditate. Please sign up on the list that will be displayed in the narthex.

Act 3 – Good Friday: Jesus endures His passion. Each step of Jesus’ trials and tortures as well as His crucifixion, death and burial are recalled and enacted in several different services – 10 am for children, a noonday ecumenical service of the Stations of the Cross, The liturgy for Good Friday and St. John’s Passion at 2 pm, and the 7 pm Stations of the Cross in the church.

Act 4 – The Great Vigil of Easter: Jesus’ body lies interred in the grave – a borrowed tomb. We gather to reenact the watch His disciples kept in their disbelief and grief at their Master’s death. We think back together, as those early disciples may have, to other times in history when God snatched people from what seemed to be fatal ends and lost causes – times without hope. The Vigil begins at 7:30 pm at the church. This is one of the most solemn and beautiful services of the year.

Act 5 – Easter Day: Jesus’ friends and disciples go to the tomb to do their last duties for Him – the proper burial rites. To their profound confusion and consternation, they find the tomb open and the body gone. They don’t know what to think. But then, little by little, here and there, Jesus – the Risen Christ – meets them and they realize that Jesus is alive. He has been resurrected by God. God, Christ Jesus, has overcome death! This we celebrate with services of Holy Eucharist at 6, 7:15, 8:30 and 10:30 am on Easter Day.