Holy Week and the Easter Triduum
Holy Week begins with Palm Sunday. At Bourne Abbey we celebrated the beginning of Holy Week with the Liturgy of the Palms and the Liturgy of the Passion in Dramatic Reading. The Choir and Altar Party began the Service around the font with the Blessing of the Palms, the branches of which were then processed by the Choir to the Chancel. Later in the Service, the Passion Narrative was read dramatically and in parts. This year the flavour was created by using voices with regional variations. This gave a sense of Christians from different backgrounds and places meeting together to celebrate and reflect upon Our Lord’s entry into Jerusalem and subsequent betrayal and death. It set the scene for the unfolding of the events of Holy Week and the Easter Triduum.
Between Monday and Wednesday there was an evening Eucharist which places us with the disciples in Jerusalem, as they await the celebration of the Passover. The gospels of the day tell us of Mary’s anointing of Jesus’ feet; the announcement by Jesus that his time for glorification has come when those other than Jews wish to believe in him; and the determination of who was to betray him.
Maundy Thursday marks the end of Holy Week, and the beginning of the Easter Triduum, which incorporates the Services of Jesus’ Passion and Resurrection. Maundy Thursday sees Jesus and the disciples celebrating the Passover Meal, at the end of which Jesus institutes the Eucharist, the sacrament by which we continually receive Jesus in the bread and wine of the Sacrament. It is the pledge of God’s overwhelming love for his people. At the end of the Service, we process the Sacrament to the Chapel of Repose, where in vigil, we await what is to happen in the Garden of Gethsemane. We reflect upon S. Mark’s words from chapter 14, as we wait and watch with the disciples to see what is going to happen after Jesus is taken prisoner in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Good Friday begins in Bourne with an act of witness. Christians from the different Churches in the town meet together at the United Reform Church to worship, before departing on a silent walk of witness through the town, finishing at the Baptist Church for a short service.
Afterwards, there is the Service at the Abbey of ‘An Hour by the Cross’ at 1pm, followed by the ‘Liturgy of Good Friday’ at 2pm. This includes the Passion Narrative spoken in three parts, the Veneration of the Cross, and the Mass of the Pre-sanctified. The Service concludes with the ‘passing bell’ which is the tolling of the Abbey’s great bell for the death of Our Lord.
On Holy Saturday evening, the Church meets together in the dark, and begins with a shorter vigil, reminding us of God’s saving acts in history. Then a new fire is lit and blessed, and the new Paschal Candle is prepared and lit from the fire and blessed. It is then processed through the Church, with each person having their own candle lit as the Christ candle passes through their midst. This is a dramatic moment, for we can see the darkness been progressively lifted to be replaced by the light of Christ – signifying his light banishing the darkness out of our hearts, lives, and the world around us.
It reminds us that to live as Christians is to spread the light of Christ and to be involved in God’s work of regeneration and spreading the kingdom of his love. The liturgy moves into the Eucharist – the first Eucharist of Easter – as we proclaim that Christ is risen from death to new life.
Easter Sunday is the greatest of the Christian festivals, for it celebrates the supreme act of God’s love for his people in the raising of his Son from death to new life. The Service begins with a procession around the Church, stopping at the Easter Garden where we can see that the stone has been rolled away from the tomb. [Easter Garden photo] The readings, prayers, hymns, and indeed everything about the Service proclaims to the hundreds in attendance that Jesus Christ is Risen Today. It is a proclamation of hope to a jaded world, and that God continues to offer his gracious love to us. At the Easter Eucharist, [Easter Sunday Eucharist photo] this love is made real, and empowers us to go forth from the Abbey renewed with hope and expectation. And it is intriguing to reflect that five days later, this message uplifted a nation during the sacrament of marriage at a different Abbey a hundred miles south of here…
E-mail: info@bourneabbey.org.uk