There may be no more powerful portrayal of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in Christian liturgy than that which happens in the dark of night before Easter morning. In the Easter Vigil, a service that begins in total darkness, light is carried into the midst of the people and spreads, culminating in the jubilant proclamation…
3 Reasons Why Christ’s Descent into Hell Is Good News
Christ’s descent into hell is one of the strangest things Christians confess. Two out of the three ecumenical creeds confessed by Anglicans contain it (Apostles’ Creed and Athanasian Creed). From Augustine to Aquinas to Calvin, the vast majority of theologians have concluded that the descent into hell is implicitly taught in Scripture. They have argued…
Holy Week: A Rookie Anglican Guide
Starting on Palm Sunday, Holy Week begins. As I put it in my overview of the Church calendar and the Christian liturgical year, The last week of Lent, Holy Week, remembers the last week of Christ’s earthly life, beginning with Palm Sunday’s commemoration of Jesus’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Holy Week is the week between…
I’m not an Anglican During Holy Week
I love being an Anglican Christian. This Communion is my home, these are the people I’m called to serve with, and I’m thankful for the beauty of this tradition. But during Holy Week, I’m not an Anglican. I’m not a Baptist either. Or a Presbyterian. Or a Roman Catholic. Maundy Thursday On Maundy Thursday, my feet…
