Invitation to Easter

Brendan Murphy on April 15, 2022

Dear Ones,

This Sunday is Easter! If you haven’t been to church in a while, I’d like to invite you to join us this weekend. The services will be awesome – beautiful music and a message celebrating Easter, Christ’s resurrection, and the triumph of love over hate, hope over despair, light over darkness, and life over death.
A recent survey of Americans found that, even as COVID concerns recede, fresh anxiety over the war in Ukraine and inflationary concerns here at home leave us searching for hope and a reminder that, come what may, the worst thing is never the last thing.

St. Columba’s has five opportunities to celebrate Easter together –
  • The Great Vigil of Easter is at 7:00 pm on Saturday night
  • Wee Worship at 9:15 am on Sunday morning will be outside in the Courtyard (enter from Albemarle or Butterworth Streets)
  • Easter Sunday services in the church nave with music, sermon, and Holy Eucharist are at 8:00 am, 9:30 am, and 11:15 am (this service also livestreamed).

Out of consideration and caution in light of the rising case numbers of Covid, we’ll invite all who worship inside to wear a mask; we’ve set up overflow seating so we can spread out, and we’ll open wide the windows for fresh air.
WHO WILL YOU SHARE EASTER WITH THIS YEAR?
The majority of people who visit church for the first time do so because someone invited them. And the two days when people are most likely to come to church are Christmas Eve and Easter. If you have a friend who isn’t involved in church, I encourage you to invite them to join you for worship this Easter.

Before we get to Easter, join us for

  • Maundy Thursday service – 7pm Thursday in the Nave This is the service of the Last Supper, wherein Jesus commanded his disciples to follow a new commandment: Love one another. The service ends in darkness as the altar is stripped, anticipating the coming crucifixion of Jesus.

  • Good Friday service – 7pm Friday in the Nave Jesus’ first followers did not know – although they had been told – that there would be a resurrection. When he was crucified, died and buried, the disciples and the women who followed Jesus thought that Jesus’ ministry had ended and that their relationship with him was now over. Good Friday allows us to enter into the experience of apparent abandonment by God as Jesus expressed it in his cry from the cross, and as some of his followers must surely have felt during the interim between his crucifixion and resurrection.

  • Great Vigil of Easter service – 7pm Saturday in the Nave The Great Vigil of Easter is the most joyous and beautiful liturgy of the Church year. This most ancient of holy days is rich in symbolism, saturated with the word of God, and is the principal celebration of the resurrection of our Lord. Throughout the ages, it has been in this service that countless saints have proclaimed, “Alleluia, Christ is risen!”
At St. Columba’s, we’re ready and eager to celebrate the hope and new life that Easter brings. Invite your friends and family to join us as we celebrate Easter at St. Columba’s!

Excited to celebrate Easter with you!

Peace!