Holy Week in The Christian Calendar - Leading to Easter

This Sunday - called Palm (or Passion) Sunday - is the beginning of Holy Week in the Christian Calendar. On Sunday, we will enter church in formation with palm branches raised, celebrating Jesus' arrival in Jerusalem.

This is a very somber week that leads to Easter Sunday, a joyous celebration.

Maundy Thursday is a very somber service. It recognizes the last supper - the last celebration of our Lord, Jesus Christ with his twelve disciples. We hear about Jesus washing the feet of his disciples, including "Doubting Thomas" and the one who would betray Him, Judas. This was the Last Supper. Most of us know that painting of Jesus and his disciples sitting around the table.

We will celebrate communion. Communion represents this meal - simple bread and wine - representing Jesus' body and blood.

At the end of this service, during a Psalm reading, the alter will be stripped of all linens, candles and ornaments. It is left bare.

We leave the church in silence after the service this night.

The next evening, we will have Good Friday Service. This is the Blackest of Days. Jesus is nailed - through his hands and ankles to a rudimentary cross between two common thieves. He is offered vinegar to drink. His Mother, Mary and the other two Marys are watching this crucifixion. This is a very grim service. A man from our congregation will carry a heavy, plain wooden cross with the appropriate nails and place it at the front of the sanctuary.

We will likely sing the old hymn everybody knows: The Old Rugged Cross.

This service represents the crucifixion of our Lord, Jesus Christ. We believe that he died that we might live.

Again, we will leave in silence.

On Easter Sunday, Jesus, who had been buried in a borrowed tomb where a huge boulder sealed the entrance, rises! We believe HE IS RISEN! HE IS RISEN INDEED. And so we celebrate!

Sunday morning, we return to church and are served family breakfast. The children will have an Easter Egg hunt.

Easter Sunday is the day most Christian churches are filled. This is such a happy day in the Christian calendar:

"Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!"

This is a very upbeat service with an upbeat sermon and beautiful hymns everybody knows. We will celebrate communion.

On Easter afternoon, families will celebrate - perhaps with lunch and a gathering together. It is truly one of the happiest times in the Christian time. In North America it also represents the rebirth of the land with all the flowers back in bloom - everything is reborn!