Holy Week and intensity

Until this year I had thought that the intensity of Holy Week came from the business involved, but this year has made we wonder in a positive way.

For the first time in 10 years I have not accepted any external commitments during Holy Week - no supervision sessions or retreats etc, and I had assumed that this would make the week lighter or less exhausting.

I have also been unusually well prepared in advance this year.

So far I feel very little different than previous years - which perhaps indicates that the intensity comes from the experience rather than the work-load.

Which is a very positive thought from an excellent Maundy Thursday service at Bradford Cathedral for clergy and licensed lay-workers.

Comments

[steve]

appreciate the insight. makes sense of my regular easter tiredness, no matter what the shape of the easter services/workload.

steve
www.emergentkiwi.org.nz

[Tom]

Hi Steve
Thanks for your comment - A very happy Easter to you and yours!

The good old C of E has a long tradition of insisting that parish clergy have the Sunday and week after Easter as a statutory holiday. I guess our predecessors realised the "toll" that Easter week takes.

He is Risen He is Risen Indeed

Tom

[steve]

yeah, i am aware of the sunday after easter being "low sunday." but that always seemed strange to me.

easter is the claim of life, embodied life, to the full, and then clergy have a week off? can't get my head around that one,

steve

[Tom Allen]

A quiet time and a time of rest (hence Low Sunday) and returning to normal (holidays and back to work) kind of mirrors the biblical record - the disciples didn't immediately kick into " We're Christians" mode - in fact they went back to ordinary life and did not seem to have any expectations about the significance of having seen the "Risen Lord" - the fisherman seem to have gone back to work. Only gradually did it emerge that Jesus had a continuing agenda for them to be "The Church". I personally use this time till Pentecost to be more reflecting and low key - though this year it will be about setting up for the move and new role!

[steve]

thanks tom. i thought the more ordinary, reflective stuff was actually the point of the "ordinary" sundays and was struck last year by resurrection as a "season" ie not a oncer, but an ongoing experience.

but hey, i'm just a baptist,

peace,
steve

[Tom Allen]

In contemporary Anglican liturgical thinking (Common Worship etc in the Church of England)then Eastertide is an ongoing season which is a time to explore the various experiences of the "representative" disciples which are a rich source of faith reflection (Thomas who struggles for faith without physical proof, Emmaus where Christ is recognised in the breaking of bread etc.

I tend to think of the Eastertide season as a opportunity to explore the diverse ways that people can experience a relationship with Jesus.

This leads leads up to Pentecost which is the "equipping" event in the Church's year. As the Bishop of Salisbury (probably the lead English Bishop on contemporary liturgy) say the problem with Pentecost is that churches tend to celebrate it as an "internal jamboree" rather than as a commissioning to go out and live the faith in the wider community.

What delights me is how the liturgical year is becoming something explored and celebrated by many denominations who would previously have not "used' any pattern other than the ministers - which opens up a common framework which we can explore together.

In the UK with Methodists and the United Reformed Church this has a particularly missional slant - which is reflected in some individual Baptist Churches - so being a Baptist is a huge plus in my view.

I am currently researching/writing some material on " missional" developments in the Catholic Church in the UK - they are perceived (unfairly?) by the predominately Protestant Missional/Emerging movements to be slow to come to the table. In fact as recent elections and appointments to senior Catholic roles in the UK illustrate there is a big institutional change going on - not least in the appointment of Wilfred McGreal as Prior Provincial of the Carmelite Order in the UK.

[steve]

thanks Tom. At Opawa we often use pentecost to explore the spirit in the world, not the church. this year (southern hemisphere note) we are looking to do some walking of our community - looking for signs of Spirit.

and i like to think of it not being pentecost day, but a season, just like eastertide,

be fascinated to read what you find re catholics. i have experienced some aspects of anglo-catholic alt.worship in UK in 2001,

steve

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