Good Friday

Good Friday

Holy Week and Easter Worship – 2023

March 19, 2023 by St. George's Leave a Comment

We are pleased to announce our worship schedule for Holy Week and Easter and we joyfully look forward to celebrate this holy time in our church life with you! Our worship services will be in-person and those livestreamed are noted below.

Palm Sunday – April 2

Our Palm Sunday worship includes the Liturgy of the Palms and the Passion.
Services are at 7:45 am, 10 am (also livestreamed on YouTube Live), 5:30 pm Celtic and 8 pm Compline (also livestreamed on Facebook Live).
Note we have a combined worship service at 10 am that will include a Palm Sunday Procession (with the Presbyterian Church) from Hurkamp Park to St. George’s.

Taize Worship – Tuesday, April 4 7 pm

Open your heart for Holy Week with our meditative Taize service at 7 pm in the Nave (also livestreamed on Facebook Live). Service Leaflet

Maundy Thursday – April 6 at 7 pm

We enter into the experience of the disciples stunned by Jesus’ insistence that he would take on the role of a servant and wash the feet of the others. Anyone who wishes will be able to have their feet washed – and wash the feet of others. The service will continue with Eucharist followed by the stripping of the altar. Service Leaflet

Good Friday – April 7 at 12 pm and 7 pm

12 pm: We gather in a church that is so bare it even sounds different. We read the account of the Crucifixion, following the traditional Prayer Book Good Friday service (also livestreamed on YouTube Live). Service Leaflet

2 pm: Ecumenical Stations of the Cross: Micah Ministries churches will gather in front of the Micah Hospitality Center and then walk through downtown Fredericksburg, pausing at various points to remember Jesus’ last moments.

7 pm: Our choir sings the Passion and the chanted words wash over us sitting in the bare nave (also livestreamed on YouTube Live). This service debut’s a new Passion composed by John H. Vreeland, Director of Music Ministries at St. George’s. Service Leaflet

Holy Saturday – April 8 at 8:30 am, 5 pm, 8 pm

8:30 am: Morning Prayer in our Nave (also livestreamed on Facebook Live) Service Leaflet

5 pm: Liturgy of the Light in Sydnor Hall – a special worship service for children, ages 3 and up. The Liturgy of the Light is a children’s Easter Vigil service, and adults are welcome as well. Each child receives their own “light of Christ,” and we conclude with a simple Eucharist prepared by the children. We will celebrate the Liturgy of the Light in Sydnor Hall. Service Leaflet

8 pm: The Great Easter Vigil in the Nave. Experience the wonder of darkness-into-light, dramatic presentations of our Salvation History, and the joy of Easter, with Holy Eucharist. Service Leaflet

Easter Sunday, April 9

Micah Churches Ecumenical Sunrise Service at 6:30 am:
NOTE: Location Change!
Shiloh Baptist Old Site (801 Sophia Street)

Joyful Easter Eucharist at 7:45 am (service leaflet), 9 am (also on YouTube Live – service leaflet), 11:15 am (service leaflet), and 5:30 pm (service leaflet).

10:15 am: Our Easter Egg Hunt returns! Locations TBA.

What are we holding back from God?

April 4, 2015 by Leave a Comment

The Good Friday Sermon from the Rev. Joe Hensley, rector, St. George’s Episcopal Church
Fredericksburg, VA | April 3, 2015

Passion V - Deposition from the Cross: stained glass detail by Kempe from Little St Mary's church in Cambridge, UK. By Flickr user paullew. — Passion V – Deposition from the Cross: stained glass detail by Kempe from Little St Mary’s church in Cambridge, UK. By Flickr user paullew.

The collect prayer for Good Friday, which we prayed earlier, included these words: “Almighty God, we pray you graciously to behold this your family, for whom our Lord Jesus Christ was willing to be betrayed, and given into the hands of sinners, and to suffer death upon the cross.” Jesus was willing to be betrayed. Jesus gave himself into the hands of sinners. Jesus suffered death upon the cross. We call this a “good” Friday, because Jesus was willing to surrender, suffer, and die, and he reveals the awesome and mysterious generosity of God’s love. God’s love is so abundant and forgiving that it can absorb our worst behavior and still have more to give. On Good Friday, Jesus made a sacrifice. On this Good Friday, we are invited to make a sacrifice as well. We are invited to offer all that we are, our best and our worst, to the crucified Christ and hold nothing back.

What do I mean by this? Sometimes in our relationships with God and in our relationships with one another, we have a tendency to hold back. We do not say everything we are thinking or feeling. We do not express our whole selves. In our relationships with one another, this is very appropriate. If we said everything on our minds and hearts…if we held nothing back, it would likely hurt feelings and cause a lot of unnecessary trouble. TMI! Too much information. I don’t need or want to hear everything that you are thinking or feeling. But in our relationship with God, we get into trouble when we do not share everything. When we hold back from God, we suffer. We suffer, because we tend to hold back the things we’re not proud of, the things that most need healing: our shame, our fear, our anger. We somehow got it into our heads and hearts that God only wants to see shiny happy Christians. God expects us to dress up for church and look our best and pray with pure and strong hearts. No! God knows us. God knows that underneath our Sunday best, we carry around some heavy and messy stuff. We do not have to hide that from God, but we try to. We try to, because we think we can handle it. We think we can figure it out on our own. [Read more…]