Holy Week
Holy Week is a deeply sacred time in our tradition. With special liturgies throughout the week, we follow the final moments of Jesus’ life, his Passion, death, and we land in the liminal space of Holy Saturday. Each of these liturgies is powerful, but experiencing them as a continuation of each other was the intention of those crafting our Book of Common Prayer. We invite you to come and walk alongside Jesus with us for any or all of these liturgies.
Easter Flowers
A $25 contribution in memory or thanksgiving of someone you love helps underwrite the cost of decorating St. Mark’s altar with a magnificent floral display on Easter Day. The publishing deadline to be listed in the Easter bulletin is Tuesday, April 1, but we welcome altar flower contributions year-round.
April 13
Sunday of the Passion:
Palm Sunday
Our service times change to 9:00 am and 11:15 am to accommodate the liturgy of this day. This liturgy begins with “Hosannas” being sung and shouted in parade as we re-enact Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. However, our cries of praise turn to shouts of “Crucify him!” as the liturgy shifts, and we enter into the Passion of Christ.
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Rite II Liturgy - 9:00*, 11:15 am*
Both of these services begin in Travis Park across the street.
Reception and Petting Zoo - 10:10 am
Passiontide Lessons and Carols - 4:00 pm*
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* Streamed Service
April 14-16
Weekday Eucharists
Gather at noon for Holy Eucharist in Bethlehem Chapel on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday. These simple, brief Eucharistic liturgies, marking the moments leading up to the Last Supper, allow us time and space to reflect and prepare for Jesus’ Passion and Crucifixion.
April 17
Maundy Thursday
In these liturgies we enact the mandate (mandatum in Latin, thus the name for this day) that Jesus gave to his disciples during the Last Supper in John’s Gospel: “Love each other as I have loved you.” We do this symbolically by washing one another’s feet. This ritual offers us the opportunity to be humbled by Christ’s love for us and by our love for one another, both as givers and recipients of the simple gift of footwashing. We once again re-enact the Last Supper with the Holy Eucharist, and then poignantly the altar and our whole worship space is stripped bare, turning the nave into a tomb, where it will remain barren and dark until Easter morning.
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Family Maundy Thursday Liturgy with Simple Dinner Following - 5:30 pm
Holy Eucharist with Foot Washing and Stripping of the Altar - 7:00 pm*
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* Streamed Service​​
April 17 - 18
Gethsemane Vigil
Keep watch for an hour or two, staying awake with Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane in the hours before his Crucifixion. You can sign up for time slots and come to Bethlehem Chapel to pray in silence, read or journal, or to walk the labyrinth (set up in Gosnell Hall). The vigil concludes with a Eucharist from the reserve sacrament – that which was removed from the altar on Maundy Thursday – at 7:00 am on Friday.
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Begins Thursday - 9:00 pm​
Concludes Friday - 7:00 am
April 18
Good Friday
This bleakly beautiful liturgy holds the space for us to relive the stories of the Passion and Crucifixion (sung by the choir) and to venerate the cross of Jesus by offering our prayers for our community, our nation, and our world. There is no Eucharist at this service which is held in the main sanctuary, now turned into the darkened tomb of Jesus. The second liturgy of the day is a simple walking of the Stations of the Cross, a metaphorical pilgrimage the church has been practicing since the 12th Century.
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Holy Eucharist from the Reserved Sacrament in Bethlehem Chapel - 7:00 am
Good Friday Service - 12:00 pm*
Stations of the Cross - 1:00 pm
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* Streamed Service
April 19
Holy Saturday
The church finds itself in the in-between, a liminal space between Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Some of the preparations for Easter have begun, but some of the darkness of Friday lingers. We pause in this moment to pray, looking back on pain and grief, and beginning to look ahead to the joy that comes in the morning.
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Holy Saturday Service - 1:00 pm
April 20
Easter Day
The day of Resurrection begins before the sun rises with The Great Vigil of Easter. This liturgy (which originated in the 3rd Century) begins with a new fire, the light of Christ that is paraded into the darkened church. The space is lit slowly by the rising sun and by the re-telling of God’s stories of salvation in the darkest of times going all the way back to the Garden of Eden. We celebrate baptisms, welcoming new members into our community, and then share in the first Eucharist of Easter.
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Two festal Eucharists are celebrated later in the morning – one at 9:00 am and one at 11:15 am – both with brass and choirs. We have multiple breakfast feasts offered along with the flowering of the cross to begin these liturgies.
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The Great Vigil of Easter with Baptisms and Incense - 6:00 am
Begins in Travis Park.
Breakfast and Flowering the Cross in Gosnell Hall - 8:00 am
Choral Eucharist - 9:00*, 11:15 am*
Incense at 11:15
Breakfast and Flowering the Cross in Gosnell Hall - 10:10 am
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* Streamed Service
