A Different Kind of Holy Week

In the past it has been very meaningful to take the journey of Holy Week, from Palm Sunday through the celebration of Easter, with the same community.  Some years I've been in church every day of the week.  Other years it's just the major remembrances, Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter, with or without the Vigil.  Before I was ordained I sometimes had to pick and choose because of my work schedule.  What I really enjoyed was attending (or leading) the services with the same group of people.  Usually those who observe all of Holy Week form a small community that grows a little with some services and shrinks with others.  But you look around and see the same core group, taking the journey together, remembering those last days of Jesus' life.

In addition to the services I always try to simplify during Holy Week, spending time in prayer and journaling, trying to schedule few things that would distract me from my primary goal of spending time with God.  It usually doesn't work out as planned, but that is the goal.

This year is very different for me.  Instead of spending Holy Week with one community, I will be spending it with many communities.  This past weekend the Canterbury students from ODU and CNU and their chaplains gathered for a retreat in a house on the York River owned by Grace Church, Yorktown.  We attended Palm Sunday services at Grace and enjoyed hearing a homily before the reading of Luke's Passion narrative that invited us to find a particular moment in the story this year that really captured us and invited us in.  Afterwards at lunch in the Yorktown Pub we shared those moments.

Today is my day off, a time of some rest before the rich, full week ahead.  On Tuesday, a regular workday, I will join with the SpiritWorks community members for Bible study where we will most likely read and discuss Luke's Passion.

On Wednesday I will attend the Chrism Mass and Renewal of Ordination Vows with my fellow clergy and my bishop in the morning.  In the evening we will meet with our Moms in Recovery group at SpiritWorks.  We intend to explain Maundy Thursday and to wash the feet of the women in the program and anoint their feet with healing oils from Thistle Farms. 

On Thursday, I will participate in the Agape Meal, Maundy Thursday Eucharist, foot washing and stripping of the altar at St. Stephen's in Newport News.  It's possible that a few of my students will also attend before they head home to be with their families for Easter weekend.

I have not yet decided where I will observe Good Friday.  Perhaps at Bruton Parish where I attend when I'm not working and where we hold our Recovery Service.  Perhaps I will go down and walk the labyrinth at Grace Yorktown before their noon service.  I'll listen for where the Spirit is calling.

Then, on Holy Saturday evening, I will be the "stage minister" for the joint Easter Vigil by the York River with Grace, Abingdon Church, and St. George's.  The bishop will be there, and I'm thrilled to be baptizing a member of the SpiritWorks community that evening.  Many communities coming together to celebrate.  At 6 a.m. on Sunday I will be back at St. Stephen's for their sunrise Easter Vigil with ALL the lessons to preach and preside at the Eucharist.  Another celebration of Easter at 10:30 before I collapse in a post-liturgical nap of lengthy proportion!

At first I thought it was weird to have such a disjointed Holy Week.  But as I see it all written down, it seems quite appropriate.  Many of my communities are represented.  There is flow.  Sometimes I'm leading, sometimes I'm participating in a supportive role, sometimes I get to just show up.  It fits in well with my multi-faceted ministry.

Thanks, God, for calling me to be a weaver, for sending me out into the world and back again into your church, for making the boundaries more permeable, for teaching me in such a concrete way that your kingdom is everywhere, and that I can observe Holy Week wherever I am with every community I'm part of.  Thanks especially for the gift of your son and for this most holy week in which we remember.  Please be with all the people and communities this week and reminding us again of your love for us all.