Holy Week

We remove the urns with sticks on either side of the chancel for Passion/Palm Sunday, and return the palms for this day. Lenten wreaths are fixed with red streamers. We use a gauzy red cloth to adorn the Table. Our red Passion/Palm Sunday parament is draped from the pulpit, as depicted in the left panel below.

Palm Sunday 2008

In preparation for Good Friday, all adornment is removed from the Sanctuary at the end of our Maundy Thursday Service (with the exception of the urns and branches. The first two panels below show the table decorations for our Maundy Thursday Agape Meal and the arrangement of a footwashing station for the sanctuary service (respectively); the final panel shows the Good Friday sanctuary at the conclusion of the service.

Maundy Thursday Agape Meal & foot washing station; Good Friday Sanctuary 2007

Special arrangements are made for the Easter Vigil. A fire is lit beside the parking lot for the gathering and initial Liturgy of Light; it is used to light the Paschal Candle, whose flame was transferred to indivdual beeswax candles which lit the way for procession to the Fellowship Hall. Here the vigil continues with a Liturgy of Word. Youth, adults, and affirmers present Bible readings illustrated with creative props. At the conclusion, the group files to the sanctuary along a "path of water" to conclude with Liturgies of Water and Eucharist.

For the 2008 vigil, a scroll depicting stories from the Liturgy of the Word was created. Over a period of months, our youth envisioned, designed, and fashioned this remarkable addition!