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Holy Week First-Timer's Guide

  

Dear Ones,


With Holy Week around the corner, it’s come to mind that for many, the bits between Palm Sunday and Easter are a bit hazy and maybe seem a bit like insider baseball: you gotta be in the know to really know…you know?


Those who know me know I love Holy Week—they call it my Super Bowl: the time I look forward to every year! Here’s a tiny primer on why Holy Week can be so meaningful—and an invitation to join in if your life allows it.


Palm Sunday is the technical start of Holy Week—it’s both in Lent and set apart from Lent from being part of Holy Week. It’s a dual purpose service that day: covering Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem being hailed as King, all the way to his death on the cross. If the day has felt like a roller coaster to you in the past: you’re normal. It’s a lot. But for those who cannot engage the full week, it does set the stage for the following Sunday: Easter.


But mid-week, the story gets told more in-depth. We’ll do some lead-up in the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday 6pm services in the chapel, all of which quietly set the stage for the crucifixion and resurrection.


Thursday at 7pm, we go even deeper with our celebration of Maundy Thursday (Maundy from Mandatum: commandment). Here we wash one another’s feet, we celebrate our last Eucharist together until the resurrection, and we strip the altar to signify Jesus’ absence from the world on the next day: Good Friday.


On Good Friday (noon & 7pm), we use the Gospel of John’s narrative of the end of Jesus’ life. The betrayal, the arrest, the scourging, the grief, the loss. John’s detailed story-telling invites us to truly ‘go there’ in the story. We hear the story, we honor the cross, we pray for the world. We receive communion, but do not celebrate the Eucharist. It is the day when Jesus is absent and we stand in his place in a particular and poignant way.


On Saturday night, we observe the Great Vigil of Easter at 7pm. The time is for convenience, but would be more properly done overnight into Sunday morning (thereby making the 3 days until he rose again more accurately depicted through the Friday/Saturday/Sunday). Nonetheless, this is the transition point service that changes everything. We start out in the dark of the tomb, and recall who God has been to us and for us throughout time. We remember the salvation history we exist within. Then we emerge from the empty tomb, realizing that he has been raised—the lights turn on, and we are in the first Easter celebration! At that time, we celebrate baptisms of those who’ve been preparing for this resurrection moment, and celebrate the Holy Eucharist together: the first feast together in our new life of faith.


These wonderful liturgies are a 3-day intensive and if we decide to go down deep within them, within ourselves, they will teach us in ways we couldn’t have anticipated. Each one has been designed to lead us toward Jesus’ shining love for us, so that we are freed from the oppressive constraints of the world, and able to find ourselves fully embraced by Love.


It is a mystical time and I invite you to consider whether Holy Week might indeed feed your faith this year. All are welcome.


Faithfully,

Mother Erika


The Rev. Canon Erika von Haaren

Interim Rector

Christ Church of the Ascension

Merry Christmas!

By The Rev. Fr. Rod Hurst+ • January 4, 2024
Merry Christmas! Today, this Eleventh Day of Christmas (for us who begin counting on December 25th), I’d like to share some wisdom from the pen of Michael Ramsey, the 100th Archbishop of Canterbury. As Bishop of Durham, he was part of the episcopal entourage and inner circle of bishops surrounding Queen Elizabeth II at her Westminster Abbey Coronation in 1953 and, later, Archbishop of York before his elevation to Canterbury in 1961. In the 1980’s, after his retirement from Canterbury, Ramsey was a regular presence at my seminary in Wisconsin where I first learned about him years later. The following is an excerpt from one of Bishop Ramsey’s annual letters to his diocesan clergy on New Year’s Day. This is also good advice for all the people of God and us at Christ Church of the Ascension as we go into 2024 expectant of what lies ahead and grateful for all our many blessings, past, present and future. Here are The Baron Arthur Michael Ramsey’s five tips for the new year. 1. Thank God. Often and always. Thank him carefully and wonderingly for your continuing privileges and for every experience of his goodness. Thankfulness is a soil in which pride does not easily grow. 2. Take care about confession of your sins. As time passes the habit of being critical about people and things grows more than each of us realize. [He then gently commends the practice of sacramental confession.] 3. Be ready to accept humiliations. They can hurt terribly but they can help to keep you humble. [Whether trivial or big, accept them he says.] All these can be so many chances to be a little nearer to our Lord. There is nothing to fear, if you are near to the Lord and in his hands. 4. Do not worry about status. There is only one status that Our Lord bids us be concerned with, and that is our proximity to Him. “If a man serve me, let him follow me, and where I am there also shall my servant be” (John 12:26). That is our status; to be near our Lord wherever He may ask us to go with him. 5. Use your sense of humor. Laugh at things, laugh at the absurdities of life, laugh at yourself. Through the year people will thank God for you. And let the reason for their thankfulness be not just that you were a person whom they liked or loved but because you made God real to them. *** Amen! and Happy New Year !!  Grace & peace, Fr. Rod+

Rector's Note for 12/21/23

By The Rev. Fr. Rod Hurst • December 21, 2023
Rector's Note for 12/21/23 As we enter this season of giving in celebration of the Incarnation of our Lord, I want to thank you for your generosity to Christ Church of the Ascension during 2023 in your gifts of time, talent and treasure. I want to say a special thank you also to those who have pledged for 2024! As our 2024 Stewardship Campaign continues, if you haven’t yet completed your pledge card or pledged online, I encourage you to do so as an act of spiritual worship and tangible prayer for the future of the Church in thanksgiving for all of God’s many blessings these past 60 years. Please join me in giving from the heart for the building up of this community of faith to inspire hope and love through worship and service in the Church and in the world. Make Christ Church of the Ascension part of your daily spiritual practice as you prayerfully discern what God is calling you to give in 2024 starting now. PLEDGE HERE Grace and peace, Father Rod+

A Note for Thanksgiving

By The Rev. Fr. Rod Hurst • November 16, 2023
A Note for Thanksgiving My series on the Collects of Thomas Cranmer will continue at a later date; but today I’d like to share with you one of my favorite stories by pastoral care pioneer Howard Clinebell. It speaks to us about the fact that the Church, our church, is not only a house of worship and prayer but a hospital for the broken, where Christ welcomes each person, where they are and for who they are. As Christ's hands and voice we then bring the healing arts of spiritual friendship and Christ-like love to all Christ brings our way. If we were all Christ-like all the time we would have no need for Christ and his Church; but everyday experiences tell us all that we have need of Christ each and every day of our lives—the healed and the healers alike. This charming and cautionary tale tells us what we are meant to be, and what we could become if we lose sight of our mission; but it is a reminder of our potential when we retain and, as necessary, reclaim our Christ-centered focus. Thus we give thanks! Please touch or click the link below to read the story. Lifesaving Station Grace and peace, Fr. Rod+
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