03/24/2026
What is Holy Week at Epiphany?
There is a lot that happens between Palm Sunday and Easter. We can more fully live out the Paschal mystery - the journey through Christ's suffering, death, and resurrection - by participating in services throughout the week.
Monday in Holy week focuses on the beginning of Jesus’ final week, commemorating his anointing at Bethany. Each evening of this week, until his arrest, Jesus retreats from his days in Jerusalem two miles to the home of his friends Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. Service at 5:30pm.
The Tenebrae service on Wednesday is a somber candlelight service with the gradual extinguishing of candles to symbolize the darkening world and abandonment of Jesus during his Passion. Latin for "shadows," this contemplative service uses psalms and readings from Lamentations to move from light to darkness. Service at 7pm.
Maundy Thursday is the first day of the Paschal Triduum, the three-day liturgical celebration of the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Triduum is the summit of the Christian liturgical year. We celebrate the institution of the eucharist, followed by a ceremony of the washing of feet. At the conclusion of the service, the altar is stripped of all decorative furnishings to represent the abandonment and vulnerability of Christ. There is no celebration of eucharist until the Vigil. Service at 5:30pm.
Good Friday is the day the church commemorates the crucifixion of Jesus. We will hear John’s account of the passion and death of Christ and have a period of time for the veneration of the cross. The suffering, grief, and brutality of the day are not “good,” but Episcopal theology resists isolating Good Friday from the whole Paschal mystery, so the entire context is what it looks like for death to become victory, not by force, but love. Service at noon and Stations of the Cross from a woman's perspective at 5:30.
Holy Saturday’s morning service recalls the day when the crucified Christ visited among the dead while his body lay in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea. We will pray a simple liturgy of the word. The funeral anthem “In the midst of life” is also read. In the ancient church, those preparing for baptism continued the fast they began on Good Friday. Holy Saturday ends at sunset with the Easter Vigil, which begins the celebration of Easter. Holy Saturday service at 9am.
The Easter Vigil is the primary celebration of Easter in the Episcopal Church! The service begins after sunset on Holy Saturday with the lighting of the new fire, representing Christ’s resurrection. The beautiful Exsultet is chanted, we recall God’s saving deeds in history through beautiful readings, renew our baptismal vows, and have the first Eucharist of Easter. This was once a night-long service in the ancient church, concluding at first light on Easter. Vigil begins at 7pm.
