Community Celebration of the Christian Holy Week

by Father Martin Yabroff, St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church

This is a special week within the Christian faith as Christians around the world celebrate Holy Week, a time of reflection on Jesus’ last week before his Crucifixion and Resurrection. Today also marks the beginning of the Jewish celebration of Passover for the next eight days.  Both are a time to reflect on that which is holy and powerful and mysterious in our lives and world. 

At St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church all our communities will be welcome to the annual Community Good Friday Service, co-sponsored by 13 neighboring churches:  Assemblies of God, Baptist, Church of God in Christ, Disciples, Episcopal, Foursquare, Lutheran, Methodist, and Presbyterian.  It is a blessing to have such a range of congregations worship together!   The one-hour service will bring a range of voices together to lead us in reflecting and praying about our witness as persons of faith in a time of darkness – the darkness of a good and holy man being crucified for his faith and love, and the darkness of our world of cruelty and hate and distrust today. 

All are welcome, for any religious tradition or spiritual path as these churches express their faith in an open and inviting and respectful way, a witness I believe we need today. You can find more information about the service online.

I would like to share a description of Holy Week from my teacher, the Rev. Herbert O’Driscoll:  Holy Week is “a pilgrimage, a sequential majestic journey into the most profound levels of divine and human nature, taking us into a place of profound darkness before bringing us into halls of almost inexpressible resurrection light.” 

May this be a time for all God’s people of peace and blessing.  Amen.