Saturday, April 03, 2004

Holy Week and Easter

We hope that Holy Week and Easter will be exciting and meaningful time.
We have many things planned. Please join us!

Holy Wednesday:
Holy Eucharist, Rite Two – 6:00 p.m.
Adult Education Class - 6:30 p.m. – Meets in the parish hall.

Maundy Thursday:
Holy Eucharist and Foot Washing - 7:00 p.m. - The Maundy Thursday Liturgy is a beautiful service that includes foot washing where we remember Jesus’ example of servant hood.

Good Friday:
Good Friday Liturgy – Noon
The Good Friday Liturgy remembers the death of our Lord.
Stations of the Cross – 6:30 p.m.
This is a very moving service of prayer and contemplation. Come see where The Passion of the Christ gets many of its images.

Holy Saturday:
Community Egg Hunt – 10:00 a.m. - Join us in Oak Ridge for the hunt!
The Great Vigil of Easter - 7:00 p.m. - This year, we’ve been invited by Father Bill Bryant to join with St. Alban’s Church in Monroe to participate in this ancient Easter celebration. The Rev’d Dale Farley of Messiah Lutheran will preach, and Father Whit will celebrate at the Eucharist.

Easter Day:
Easter Day Holy Eucharist – 9:30 a.m. - A wonderful celebration with
wonderful music!

Bring a friend!

Thursday, April 01, 2004

The Presiding Bishop’s Easter Message 2004

There is no evil that humankind can commit that Jesus has not taken upon himself and carried freely to the Cross. Through the Cross, evil has been defeated, and life in all its unimagined fullness–-animated by God’s mercy and truth, God’s justness and peace--has been unleashed upon an unsuspecting world.

Such is the power of the resurrection. Such is the ground of our hope. Such is the root of our confidence. Such is the source of our courage and our capacity to wage reconciliation in the face of seeming endless cycles of violence, battle and murder that destroy life around the globe.

Alleluia is our Easter song. As we sing alleluia we are crying no to the poverty, disease, and injustice which afflict millions who, like ourselves, are made in God’s image. We are refusing to accept things the way they are. As we sing Alleluia we are proclaiming an unequivocal yes to the vision of a world transformed, healed and reconciled in the One who has drawn all to himself. Alleluia is our acknowledgement that we have been caught up into Christ, and Christ’s continuing work of binding up and making all things whole and new has become our own.

As we sing Alleluia this Easter may we do so willing to live the deep meaning of our Easter song not only with our lips but in our lives-–for the sake of the world.

The Most Rev. Frank T. Griswold
Presiding Bishop and Primate
The Episcopal Church, USA

(Posted April 1, 2004 on the Episcopal News Service)