Mark your calendars now and plan to join us for Holy Week at Holy Cross! Scroll below to check out all the happenings of Holy Week, and plan to join us as you are able. Peace to you today, and we look forward to journeying with you through Holy Week to the joy of Easter Day!!
Scroll below for detailed information for each worship experience. You will find the Zoom link for all services here.
Palm Pickup on the Holy Cross Patio
Friday, March 31st from 9 am to 6 pm
If you would like a palm to wave from your home during worship via Zoom for Palm Sunday, drop by the patio in front of the main entrance at Holy Cross between 9 am and 6 pm and pick up a palm (or two!) You may also make a palm out of any items you have in your home for worship via Zoom–be creative and have fun making it! Palms will be available on-site on Palm Sunday.
I look forward to a journey through Holy Week with you!
The Great and Holy Week
Saint Augustine (354-430 CE) called Holy Week the “Great Week” because of the powerful things God accomplished during these days. Today, followers of God continue to journey through Holy Week—Sunday of the Passion/Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Resurrection of Our Lord: Easter Day—to remember and celebrate God’s action through the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, as well as to claim that God’s story of resurrection becomes our story of new life every day.
Sunday of the Passion/Palm Sunday
On this day we take our place with all who gathered around Jesus as he made his entry into the city of Jerusalem to suffer and die, those initially gathered around Jesus were hungering and thirsting for transformation in their lives and in the world. Alongside all who gathered then, we gather today to wave palms of welcome and cry out “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!” We long for Jesus to enter our lives today to bring the blessing and peace which only God can bring.
Maundy Thursday
Maundy is the English form of the Latin mandatum, from the “mandatum novum,” or the new commandment that Jesus gives on the night he is betrayed and handed over: “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.” (John 13:34) On this day we read the story of Jesus’ final meal with his followers before he was crucified. At this meal Jesus models God’s self-giving love by washing the feet of those who were gathered. This action becomes our call to mission as the people of God, to love one another as Jesus loves us.
Good Friday
In ancient times this day was called the Triumph of the Cross. English speakers now call the day Good (originally “God’s” Friday) because we believe that through Jesus’ death on the cross, all receive the good gifts of salvation, eternal life, and daily resurrection reality. On this day the focal point of the worship experience is an extended and interactive reading of the passion of Jesus from one of the four Gospels. This passion narrative—the story of the betrayal, arrest, mockery, suffering, crucifixion and burial of Jesus—delivers the good news of God’s self-giving love which transforms us and the world. The worship experience concludes when at the foot of the life-giving cross we pray for everyone and everything on earth and engage in a liturgy of reverence for the cross on which hung Christ, the savior of the whole world.
Resurrection of Our Lord: Easter Day
Christians consider Easter to be the “first day.” From Easter comes the practice of worshiping on Sunday morning. It is the first day of the week. It is also the first day of new creation, sometimes called the “eighth day” of the week, for on it Christ restored the image of God in the human and in so doing also brought restoration and renewal to all of creation. The Easter season proceeds from and celebrates this first day. In the resurrected Christ, there is time after the end, life after death, restoration of what was broken, the brightening of what had gone dark. In the fifty days of Easter, Christian communities around the world strive to worship God in a way that illustrates that the body of Christ lives now in the heavenly places and also in the gathered body in the world. Worship is where heaven and earth meet.
Palm Sunday Worship with the Procession of Palms
April 2 at 9:30 am Mountain Time
Worship In-Person and/or via Zoom
Join us on Palm Sunday, April 2nd, at 9:30 am MT for worship as we enter Holy Week. The Gospel reading from Matthew will be Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem in the days preceding his crucifixion. On-site we will process with palms from the covered patio through the sanctuary, palms will be available on-site. If you are worshiping via Zoom you are invited to wave a real or homemade palm. There will be a congregational meeting following worship to discuss and approve the Holy Cross 2023-2024 Mission Spending Plan (annual budget) and new proposed mission statement for the congregation. The Zoom link will be the normal Sunday worship link found on our website, or you may find the Zoom connection here.
Maundy Thursday
April 6 at 6 pm Mountain Time
Worship In-Person and/or via Zoom
This day is also known as Maundy Thursday, from the Latin phrase mandatum novum from the “new commandment" of Jesus found in John’s gospel that we love one another as Jesus loved us. We will read the story of Jesus’ final meal with his disciples from Matthew’s gospel. Worship concludes with the stripping of the altar for Good Friday worship, which dramatizes Jesus’ symbolic stripping of earthly power and his self-emptying love. The Zoom link will be the normal Sunday worship link found on our website, or you may find the Zoom connection here.
Good Friday
April 7 at 6 pm Mountain Time
Worship In-Person and/or via Zoom
Good Friday is the day Jesus was crucified. As we gather for worship on this day the focus will be the extended and interactive reading of the passion narrative, or story of the crucifixion of Jesus, from the gospel of Matthew. The congregation will read the parts of disciples, accusers, chief priests, congregation, soldiers, and bystanders. These parts are in bold type in the attached reading; if you are participating in worship via Zoom this day you may wish to print out this reading so you can participate by reading these bold type parts. The Zoom link will be the normal Sunday worship link found on our website, or you may find the Zoom connection here.