Holy Saturday O God, Creator of heaven and earth: Grant that, as the crucified body of your dear Son was laid in the tomb and rested on this holy Sabbath, so we may await with him the coming of the third day, and rise with him to newness of life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Holy Saturday is one of [...]
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 that confessing Jesus Christ as [...]
Starting on Palm Sunday, we embark on what's known as "Holy Week." 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 (Matt 21:1-11). So, put simply, Holy [...]
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 are being washed, and I'm [...]
At the Easter Vigil we gather to hold a vigil. We gathered in darkness, just as the women who went to the tomb went there before the dawn. Our vigil begins in this darkness and the light is carried into the midst of the people, and spreads. We rehearse the story of our redemption, our story. This is the story [...]
