Good Friday Service

so, I am in charge of the Good Friday service for the church I attend. I led it last year also and decided to keep much of it the same this time around.

It gives a recovering amateur liturgist like myself a chance to do something I truly enjoy but no longer am paid to do. So, here is my liturgy for tomorrow night:

Pre-service: People arrive quietly with images of the cross on the overhead. They are given a stone. Music includes selections from Peter Gabriel's soundtrack to the Last Temptation of Christ, M83's Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts, Max Richter's The Blue Notebook and At The Foot of The Cross.

Reading: “I find that Holy Week is draining; no matter how many times I have lived through his crucifixion, my anxiety about his resurrection is undiminished- I am terrified that, this year, it won’t happen; that, that year, it didn’t. Anyone can be sentimental about Nativity; any fool can feel like a Christian at Christmas. But Easter is the main event; if you don’t believe the resurrection you’re not a believer.”

John Irving in A Prayer for Owen Meany

Prayer: Christ's Cross, A Celtic Prayer
Multimedia presentation: Aslan's Sacrifice from Chronicles of Narnia
Reading: Jesus' Unanswered Appeal by C.S. Lewis (from Letters to Malcom)
Congregational Song: Beautiful Scandalous Night
Invitation to Confessions
Confessions of Congregation (Lord, have mercy)
Old Testament Reading Isaiah 52:13 - 53:12
New Testament Reading Hebrews 4:14-16 and 5.7:9
Congregational Songs: Wonderful Cross
Alas, Did My Savior Bleed
Passion reading: John 18:1- 19:42
Multimedia presentation of Stations of the Cross (if music does nto work, I will beusing another selection from Gabriel's soundtrack)
Silent reflection
Congregational Prayer (Celtic)
Benediction (Celtic)
leave room in silence (I may use a piece by Gregor Samsa as we leave)

If you are interested in the details of the readings, etc. let me know. I will email them to you.

Other readings I considered, but used at our small group on Palm Sunday instead include a wonderful reading from Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry and another by John Stott.


sorry but blogger is doing weird things with the fonts today.