Holy Week At Home

In other years, perhaps you have counted on the special worship times at St Stephen’s to guide your engagement with Holy Week. This year you may find that you have the opportunity to shape what YOU need to make this week as meaningful as possible. Since we are confined due to the pandemic isolation measures, we offer you a variety of resources that you may find helpful in creating a daily practice for these days between Palm Sunday and Easter.  

Please feel free to reach out to Pastor Ruth if you are struggling (with isolation or technology) or if you are looking for a kind of resource not here. It might also be that what you need most this week is a daily chat with your Pastor and that can probably be arranged.  

LIVESTREAM WORSHIP

We’ll be reaching back to a church tradition in which smaller, local congregations gathered at the Cathedral for major feast days and festivals.

Maundy Thursday, 7:30 pm will feature the Rev Matthew Johnson, Street Outreach Priest at St James on the Downtown Eastside preaching.

Good Friday, 3:00pm will feature the Rev David Taylor from St Dunstans, Aldergrove offering an examination of the Cross of Christ.

Easter Sunday, 10:30am will feature Archbishop Melissa Skelton preaching and presiding at a service of Holy Euchairst.

All services will include music from the Cathedral choir. Find links to these livestream worship opportunities at https://thecathedral.ca/holy-week-and-the-three-days/.

WORSHIP AT HOME

Available by email, from the parish, we have put together

• an order for Morning Prayer for Palm Sunday
• Morning, Mid-Day, and Compline (bedtime) Prayers for Holy Week
• SALT Project’s Home-Based Devotional for Tenebrae  

Available online, we recommend

• A Sanctified Art’s Easter Sunrise meditative service: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/575b394d45bf211e060c93fc/t/5e835e5c14f92917c508ff67/1585667678700/SA_athomeeasterssunriseliturgy.pdf.  
• The Diocese of Brandon has prepared this resource for an at-home Easter Vigil, a service typically done on Saturday night going into Easter: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ka063nwwdrtv1qo/AACppB53fqFGFJQCF3env42qa?dl=0  
• A big part of our experience of Holy Week can come from the music that we sing at this time of year. Our Lutheran colleagues have created some playlists of hymns for Holy Week and Easter: https://nlca.com/resources.  

CONNECTING SOCIALLY DURING HOLY WEEK AND EASTER

We will be hosting 2 social Zoom meetings during the weekend. Zoom meeting details available by email

Maundy Thursday Virtual Soup Supper Zoom at 6:30pm. Make your own bowl of soup (or other option or not) and join us for an hour of open space to check in with one another, talk about how you've been marking (or not) this week.

Easter Sunday Zoom Coffee Hour at 11:30am. Following the Livestream of worship at Christ Church Cathedral, log in or phone in for Zoom Coffee Hour. Wear your Easter bonnet, bring your Peeps to munch, and join us to celebrate the Resurrection from home.

A FEW IDEAS FOR REFLECTION  

Our own, Esther Hizsa, is offering some excellent prayer resources on her blog, An Everyday Pilgrim at https://estherhizsa.com/.

Although the Solemn Reproaches aren't always a part of our Good Friday service, the idea within this article about the importance of the themes of Good Friday in this time of pandemic response seems helpful: https://www.christiancentury.org/article/first-person/thinking-about-good-friday-during-pandemic.  

Our Lenten Study on Amy-Jill Levine’s Entering the Passion of Jesus wasn’t able to really get engaged. A few copies of the book are still available at the Parish Office; please contact us to make arrangements. The publisher has made the companion video series available online: https://my.amplifymedia.com/amplify/series/unitedmethodistpublishinghouse/16652-entering-the-passion-of-jesus. Obviously, the videos are best viewed alongside reading the book, but they do stand on their own as well.

The Diocesan Missioner for Christian Formation has recommendations for 6 movies for Holy Week that you might find interesting: https://www.vancouver.anglican.ca/news/six-movies-for-holy-week.    

A NOTE FOR THE EASTER SEASON

We have ordered a number of copies of A Journey through Acts: A 50 Day Bible Challenge. These small paperback books are an ideal way to really dig into the Book of Acts with a daily passage from the Scripture, a reflection, a question, and a prayer. Acts is always an important part of our Easter season worship as it contains the stories of how the disciples became the early church. Additional details at https://www.forwardmovement.org/Products/2481/a-journey-through-acts.aspx?bCategory=FMDAILY. The books are $15 and available for curb-side delivery. Please contact the Parish Office for details.