Holy Week 2025
Our journey through Lent has brought us to Holy Week and Easter.
The Season of Lent is drawing to a close. Thank you to Linda Brown and Myrle Bowden who led five Sunday afternoon Lenten services at Umina, helping participants to journey through the wilderness. Watch out for future Taizé-style services on Sunday afternoons.
Sunday 13th April is Palm or Passion Sunday. Our Liturgy, Learning and (purposeful) Life (LLL) Lectionary resources explain this: “As we enter Holy Week, we observe the themes of Palm and Passion Sunday … The Liturgy of the Palms celebrates Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem, marked by shouts of ‘Hosanna’, while the Liturgy of the Passion leads us into the profound narrative of Jesus’ suffering and crucifixion. These dual themes capture the transition from joy to solemnity on the journey toward Easter”.
Our Maundy Thursday Communal meal and Service with Communion will be held at Kincumber on 17th April starting at 5:30pm. The meal will loosely follow the Passover food and the Seder plate. There will be Bible readings, foot washing and Communion.
Our Good Friday service will be held at 10am on 18th April at Umina. This is a Combined service. It will not have a sung Benediction/Blessing because it flows into the Easter Sunday service.
The Easter Sunday service will be held on 20th April at our usual times: Umina (9am) and Kincumber (11am). This day marks the start of the Church Season of Easter: “The great fifty days of Easter includes 8 Sundays … concluding on the Day of Pentecost. The season celebrates the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit”.
Sunday 27th – the Sunday after Easter Sunday - is traditionally known as “Low Sunday”. We have “come down” from the “high” of the Day of Resurrection. This is “Easter 2”, or the Second Sunday of Easter, in our Revised Common Lectionary.
However and wherever we spend Holy Week, may we remember that we can’t experience the joy of the Resurrection without going through the pain of the Crucifixion. Suffering and death are not the end, but steps on the journey to eternal healing and life everlasting.
With hope and joy,
Rev. Frank (Van Der Korput), Supply Minister