Trinity Episcopal Church P R OG RE S S I V E
INCLUSIVE
C RE A T I V E
D OW NT OW N
Good Friday Stations of the Cross
12:00pm & 7:00pm Friday, April 19, 2019
The Stations of the Cross Today’s service will begin at Station I.
The Salutation Celebrant:
People:
Celebrant:
People:
Celebrant:
In the name of the Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer. Amen. Lord have mercy. Christ have mercy. Lord, have mercy.
Welcome & Introduction to the Stations Station I Jesus is Condemned to Die A hand towel represents Pilate’s statement, “I wash my hands.”
Reader:
We adore you O Christ, and we praise you: because by your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world.
Reader:
Pilate said, “I find no fault with this man,” but when the crowd grew loud, Pilate grew silent. “I wash my hands. You deal with him.” Pilate had the knowledge and the power to stand and say no to the world as it sought to crush the Lord of Life. He made the choice that day not to use either.
People:
How many times do we have the knowledge and the power to say no, and yet stay silent? How many times do we participate, by our silence, in the Passion of Jesus? Who will die or be injured, or be disrespected because we do not say no?
People:
Dearest Jesus, enter into the fear of our silence. Be with us when we make choices to protect ourselves instead of being brave enough to stand up for you and your love. By the power of your Holy Spirit, give us the courage to stand and say no with you. Help us to take up our crosses and follow you.
Music for Movement & Reflection
Slow Me Down
Robbie Seay Band
Slow me down, O Lord, slow me down Help my heart to hear your sound Speak into my life, Lord speak now Slow me down, O Lord, slow me down (This refrain will be used as we move between each Station of the Cross.)
2
Station II Jesus Takes up His Cross The cross on the floor represents the cross Jesus carried to his death.
Reader:
We adore you O Christ, and we praise you: because by your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world.
Reader:
This cross has been thousands of years in the making. Its weight grows greater each time we look for someone to blame for the pain in the world. Each time we insist that sin must be punished, we add an ounce to the burden Jesus carries for us. This is the cross he carries, the cross of blame, of vengeance.
People:
When have we said, “Well, they certainly deserved that!” or “It’s only fair. Look at what they did!”? When have we failed to forgive as we have been forgiven. When have we laid more weight on your blessed shoulders?
People:
Dearest Jesus, each step you take today is made harder by our hardness of heart. You carry this weight so that no one else ever will, not even those of us gathered here today. By the power of your Holy Spirit, give us the desire and the strength to forgive, to lighten your cross.
Choral Meditation
Go to Dark Gethsemane (Canterbury Choir)
Music for Movement & Reflection
Hymnal 1982 #171
Slow Me Down
Slow me down, O Lord, slow me down Help my heart to hear your sound Speak into my life, Lord speak now Slow me down, O Lord, slow me down
3
Robbie Seay Band
Station III The Cross is Laid on Simon of Cyrene The African-designed cloth represents Simon of Cyrene and his generosity.
Reader:
We adore you O Christ, and we praise you: because by your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world.
Reader:
We need you to die, Jesus, but our rage has gone too far. You are too weak to continue on to the head of the mountain because we have beaten you so severely. When you can’t go on by yourself, we look for a solution that won’t involve us too closely. We mustn’t touch the cross ourselves, but the process must go on. Then we find our answer. A stranger, someone who obviously has no idea who you are will carry the cross. He knows nothing of your innocence.
People:
How many others have we called on to do our violence for us? How many soldiers pulled triggers because we could not? How many executioners pushed buttons for us? How often do we separate ourselves from taking responsibility of the decisions we make or do not make resulting in the deaths of others?
People:
Dearest Jesus, Simon stood in for us when you couldn’t go forward. He helped us carry forward your execution in ignorance. Witnessing your courage and love, he became your friend, and ours. By the power of your Holy Spirit, help us to see our reluctance for what it is, a sign that something very wrong is happening. Give us courage to step forward when you can’t go on and say, “Enough!”
Choral Meditation
Ave Verum Corpus (Canterbury Choir)
Music for Movement & Reflection
Slow Me Down
Slow me down, O Lord, slow me down Help my heart to hear your sound Speak into my life, Lord speak now Slow me down, O Lord, slow me down
4
W.A. Mozart
Robbie Seay Band
Station IV Jesus Meets His Mother The icon of Mary has been an image of protection through the centuries.
Reader:
We adore you O Christ, and we praise you: because by your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world.
Reader:
We want to make you a clown. We want to isolate you completely, but your mother will not permit it. She withstands the blows of taunt and sorrow to be present for you along the way. She alone remains to give you courage. She reminds us that you are someone’s child, just like us.
People:
How many times have we watched another suffer, but from a safe distance? How often have we simply forgotten that each of us is a child of God; each of us yearning to belong and to be loved?
People:
Dearest Jesus, your mother stood with you to give you strength, and to hold up your humanity in the face of our indifference. By the power of your Holy Spirit, help us to see the humanity of those whom the world wants to erase, and give us courage to stand with them, to strengthen them, and to claim them as brother or sister.
Choral Meditation
Motherless Child (Grace Hirt, Soprano)
Music for Movement & Reflection
Slow Me Down
Slow me down, O Lord, slow me down Help my heart to hear your sound Speak into my life, Lord speak now Slow me down, O Lord, slow me down
5
Harry Burleigh
Robbie Seay Band
Station V Jesus is Stripped before the Crowd The crown of thrones is used to mock our Savior and King.
Reader:
We adore you O Christ, and we praise you: because by your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world.
Reader:
Physical humiliation isn’t enough. Spitting isn’t enough. Whipping isn’t enough. Crucifixion isn’t enough. We need to shame you. We need to strip away from you any shred of human dignity. We are blind to the dignity that forms the fabric of your very essence. Unable to see your deeper dignity, we revel in the shame we pour out on you.
People:
How many times have we judged, condemned or humiliated someone else? How many times have we labeled our brother or sister, setting them apart, reducing them, criticizing or shaming in hopes that we will seem better, brighter, bigger? How many times have we failed to treat another the way we want to be treated ourselves?
People:
Dearest Jesus, as you stand there, stripped before the crowd, you are more dignified than any of us present. In our blindness, we still believe that shame reduces you. By the power of your Holy Spirit, help us to see the dignity that you have; that every child of God has, a dignity that neither we nor anyone else can take away.
Choral Meditation
Drop, Drop Slow Tears (Jobst Choral Scholars)
Music for Movement & Reflection
Slow Me Down
Slow me down, O Lord, slow me down Help my heart to hear your sound Speak into my life, Lord speak now Slow me down, O Lord, slow me down
6
Orlando Gibbons
Robbie Seay Band
Station VI Jesus is Nailed to the Cross The cross was used as a weapon of torture and death and should never be sentimentalized but remembered as a sign of radical love.
Reader:
We adore you O Christ, and we praise you: because by your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world.
Reader:
Hanging for hours on a cross is not cruel enough, Jesus. Watching you suffocate will not mollify our rage. Life has been so unfair to us, we have such rage that we have to use nails, instead of the traditional ropes. Rage bleeds away as nails, meant for wood, cut easily through human flesh.
People:
How many times have we allowed our rage to drive us to cruelty? How often have we let rage drive us to acts of cruelty, large or small? When have our words hurt another deeply? How many times has another had to live with the scars of our rage?
People:
Dearest Jesus, we cannot free ourselves of this frustration, this fury, by means of our own strength. This is a moment when we must ask for your grace and compassion. By the power of your Holy Spirit, free us. Take from us this rage, lest someone else suffer to ease our pain.
Choral Meditation
Eternal Lord of Love Behold Your Church (Canterbury Choir)
Music for Movement & Reflection
Slow Me Down
Slow me down, O Lord, slow me down Help my heart to hear your sound Speak into my life, Lord speak now Slow me down, O Lord, slow me down
7
Hymnal 1982 #149
Robbie Seay Band
Station VII Jesus Dies on the Cross Three crosses mark the scene of Jesus’ death.
Reader:
We adore you O Christ, and we praise you: because by your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world.
Reader:
We stand in stunned silence as we survey the result of our sin. The Lord of Life hangs dead from the tree. The peace we pursued as we chased you up the hill refuses to come. As we gaze upon you, Jesus, our victim, the realization dawns. Violence will never again bring peace, and we are terrified.
People:
Mute with horror, we stumble to our homes, as though the earth were moving under our feet. The ground itself seems unsteady as we contemplate a world without violence. On what will we stand?
People:
Dearest Jesus, keep our eyes fastened on you, hanging lifeless on the Cross. Not only today, but every day, remind us of the cost, the bankruptcy of our old ways, drive us into this silence so that you might speak a new world into being through our lives.
Choral Meditation
Pie Jesu (Grace Hirt, Soprano)
Music for Movement & Reflection
Slow Me Down
Slow me down, O Lord, slow me down Help my heart to hear your sound Speak into my life, Lord speak now Slow me down, O Lord, slow me down
8
Gabriel FaurĂŠ
Robbie Seay Band
Station VIII Jesus is Taken Down from the Cross The tipped over chalice marks the completion of Christ’s death.
Reader:
People: Reader:
We adore you O Christ, and we praise you: because by your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world. We have all departed by the time the guards permit those who love you to bring you down from the Cross. Once the spectacle ended, we are compelled to leave. There is something horrible and fascinating about you as you hang there, and it frightens us. We leave the task of dealing with your body to those who are already unclean. How often have we fled our own horror, left the care of the dead and the dying to others? How many times have we let our fear of the power of death drive us into hiding?
People:
Dearest Jesus, as your mother and your friends cared for your dead body, we are nowhere to be found. We refuse to become uncomfortable with what we fear and do not understand or cannot accept. Infuse in us a willingness to see what is difficult; help us learn how to grow in love and truth as we face into the darkness and lay our burdens down.
Choral Meditation
Near the Cross (Canterbury Choir)
Music for Movement & Reflection
Slow Me Down
Slow me down, O Lord, slow me down Help my heart to hear your sound Speak into my life, Lord speak now Slow me down, O Lord, slow me down
9
LEVAS #29
Robbie Seay Band
Station iX Jesus is Laid in the Tomb The marble tomb is adorned with petals.
Reader:
People: Reader:
We adore you O Christ, and we praise you: because by your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world. In a tomb that you could never have afforded, those who did not abandon you, those who refused to join the mob, lay your body to rest with great tenderness. There is nothing divine in the torn flesh, nothing holy in the bloodied brow. There is only sorrow, deeper than the greatest trenches in the ocean. Sorrow. You will breathe life once again into our deadened spirits, Jesus, but not on this day. Today we walk as those robbed of hope, shuffling from one place to another as though we belonged in the tomb with you. Perhaps, without the breath of your new life, that is precisely where we belong.
People:
Dearest Jesus, we have seen ourselves in those who insisted on your torture and death. We are no different than the ones who demanded your death. We can be full of vengeance, greed, violence and selfishness. We wait now, for your redemption. We are hungry now for a life that doesn’t need the blood of victims to sustain itself. Our hunger threatens to consume us. By the power of your Holy Spirit, keep this hunger alive. Help us never again to be satisfied with the bread of this world alone.
Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence - See insert.
Hymnal 1982 #324
Offertory As we sing together, we will collect the “Good Friday Offering” All monies received today at both services will be donated to the Episcopal Church Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society Good Friday offering. Please see the back side of the music insert provided to learn more about this important offering.
10
The Collect Celebrant:
People: Celebrant:
People:
Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer of the world, by the cross you have paved a road of redemption for all of creation. Save us and help us, we humbly beseech you O God. Let us pray together. God of our hopes and dreams, we give thanks to you this hour for delivering us from the domination of evil and alienation. Through the power of your Holy Spirit you have brought us into the Kingdom of your Son. We pray that through his death, he has recalled us to life, so by His love He may raise us to eternal joys; who lives and reigns with You, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
The Lord’s Prayer Celebrant: People:
And now, as our Savior Christ has taught us, we are bold to say: Heavenly Father, heavenly Mother, Holy and blessed is your true name. We pray for your reign of peace to come, We pray that your good will be done, Let heaven and earth become one. Give us this day the bread we need, Give it to those who have none. Let forgiveness flow like a river between us, From each one to each one. Lead us to holy innocence Beyond the evil of our days Come swiftly Mother, Father, come. For yours is the power and the glory and the mercy: Forever your name is All in One. Amen.
Celebrant:
To Christ who came to love and heal the world, but whom we mocked and scorned and put to death; to him be glory and honor in this hour of darkness. To Christ who welcomed and embraced the lowly and the shamed, but whom we ridiculed and mocked; to him be glory and honor in this hour of darkness.
People:
To Christ who loves us as we stand quietly at his tomb and wait for the promise of new life; to him be glory and honor in this hour of darkness. Amen.
Please maintain silence within the Church walls and depart quietly when you are ready. You are free to reflect on the stations of the cross as you wish.
11
Trinity Episcopal Church PROGRESSIVE
INCLUSIVE
CREATIVE DOWNTOWN
Vestry Leadership Alice Todd, Senior Warden Darrell Cousino, Junior Warden Greg Shumaker, Treasurer Jamie Paul, Asst. Treasurer Roberta Durham, Clerk Becky Roth, Administration Commission Chair Dennis Degnan, Property Commission Chair Robert Meeker, Finance Commission Chair Jeffrey Albright Jill Hunt Donna Steppe
Parish Staff The Rev. Dr. Lisa Tucker-Gray, Rector Nate Leonard, Director of Music & the Arts Heather Meyer, Director of Operations and Community Development Lynzi Miller, Next to New Manager & Communications Coordinator Jane Bueche, Parish Accountant Amy Saylor, Seminarian Elizabeth Cousino, Special Projects Coordinator Nick Zurawski, Sexton Copyright Info: All printed music from The Hymnal 1982, Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing, My Heart Sings Out, Wonder, Love, and Praise was used by permission through purchase of riteseries.org. All other printed music is used by permission through purchase of CCLI #11294600 All printed music from Gather was used by permission through purchase of onelicense.net License # A-700000 Bulletin Image: Ted DeGrazia's "The Way of the Cross"
TRINITY EPISCOPAL CHURCH PROGRESSIVE
INCLUSIVE
(419) 243-1231
12
Why is the Good Friday Offering Important? The history of the Good Friday Offering reaches back to 1922 when, in the aftermath of World War I, The Episcopal Church sought to create new relationships with and among the Christians of the Middle East. From these initial efforts which focused on a combination of relief work and the improvement of ecumenical and Anglican relations, the Good Friday Offering was created. Through the years many Episcopalians have found the Good Friday Offering to be an effective way to express their support for the ministries of the four dioceses of the Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East. Pastoral care, education and health care continue to be primary ministries through which the reconciling spirit of the Christian faith serves all in need. Participation in this ministry is welcome. The generous donations of Episcopalians help the Christian presence in the Land of the Holy One to be a vital and effective force for peace and understanding among all of God's children.
The city of Jerusalem viewed from Dominus Flevit, the traditional location where Luke notes that Jesus wept (Luke 19:41) The Good Friday Offering brings The Episcopal Church together across all of our cultures, languages, and ethnic diversity – from domestic and overseas dioceses, North and South and Central America, the Caribbean, Taiwan, and our parishes in Europe – to focus our prayers and our tangible support to further the Jesus Movement through the parishes and institutions of healing and education throughout the Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East. Please make out your checks to Trinity Episcopal Church with “Good Friday Offering” in the Memo
Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence
Hymnal 1982 #324
Words: Liturgy of St. James; para. Gerard Moultrie (1829-1885) Music: Picardy, French carol, 17th cent.; melody from Chansons populaires des Provinces de France, 1860; harm. after The English Hymnal, 1906 Meter: 87. 87. 87