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Monday
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Looking Ahead
Everyone is invited to a celebration in Guild Hall following the Great Easter Vigil, 8 p.m., Saturday April 7. Please bring a sweet or savory finger food to share.
Contact Chere Gibson at ccgibson@wisc.edu
or (608) 824-0303 if you are available to help with set-up and clean-up.
Holy Week
Evening Eucharist
6:15 p.m., Chapel
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Tuesday
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Prayer Group
12:10 - 12:30 p.m., Chapel A few members of Grace Church meet for bilingual Noonday Prayer every Tuesday. Everyone is welcome. Please enter from the courtyard. For more information, contact Mary Ray Worley
Holy Week
Evening Eucharist
6:15 p.m., Chapel
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Wednesday
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Mid-day Eucharist
12:10 p.m., Nave
Holy Week
Evening Eucharist
6:15 p.m., Chapel
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Thursday
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The Liturgy of
Maundy Thursday
with Foot Washing
6:15 p.m., Nave
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Friday
| The Liturgy
of Good Friday
Noon, Nave
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Saturday
| Food Pantry Open
10 a.m. - 2 p.m.
Liturgy of the Day 9 a.m., Courtyard
(weather permitting)
The Great Easter Vigil 8 p.m., Nave
(with incense)
Followed by a champagne reception in the Guild Hall.
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Sunday
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 Rejoice!
He has risen!
It is Easter morning.
8 a.m.
Holy Eucharist, Rite I
(Confirmation Classes and Adult Forum resume again on April 15.)
9:15 a.m.
Children and parents gather in the Guild Hall for an Easter Egg Hunt.
10 a.m.
Godly Play
(Ages 4-10)
10 a.m.
Holy Eucharist, Rite II
Special thanks to musicians and donors sharing their gifts to enhance today's celebration: Grace Chancel Choir; Greg Upward, organist; Megan Elizabeth Aley, Trumpet; John Aley, Trumpet; Eli Brauner,
Trombone; Matthew Wilber, Trombone; Lori Knoener, Tuba; Rachel Eve
Holmes, soprano; The anonymous donor supporting both scores and
instrumentalists; Ann Simandl supporting instrumentalists and Ken Stancer, Organist and Music Director at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church Madison, for loan of scores.
11:15 a.m.
Coffee Hour Fellowship hosted by Corrie and Jonathan
Noon
Worship (In Spanish)
(There will not be a
5 p.m. St. Francis
House service today.)
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"...the emperor...convened a council of 318 bishops...in the city of Nicea...They passed certain ecclesiastical canons at the council besides, and at the same time decreed in regard to the Passover that there must be one unanimous concord on the celebration of God's holy and supremely excellent day. For it was variously observed by people...." - Epiphanius of Salamis
After decades of happily going along blissfully not pondering why the date we celebrate Easter sometimes comes early and sometimes comes later, I had the pleasure of meeting up with Grace member Stan Henning, one of those delightful souls put on the face of the Earth whose mission it is to patiently go about fixing ignorance.
With the "a-ha" from Stan I discovered, according to the holy fount of Wikipedia, that "Easter is a moveable feast, meaning it is not fixed in relation to the civil calendar. The First Council of Nicaea (325) established the date of Easter as the first Sunday after the full moon (the Paschal Full Moon) following the northern hemisphere's vernal equinox.
Ecclesiastically, the equinox is reckoned to be on March 21 (even though the equinox occurs, astronomically speaking, on March 20 in most years), and the 'Full Moon' is not necessarily the astronomically correct date. The date of Easter therefore varies between March 22 and April 25."I should have known the moon would have something to do with this.
The moon, with its constant, calming presence appearing in various forms throughout the night sky, reminds me metaphorically of a God who originates those same traits.
This week we have the tremendous opportunity to see God's plan unfold right before our very eyes in the uncomfortable awkwardness of Maundy Thursday, the cries of agony of Good Friday, the dark waiting of the Great Easter Vigil, and the light of Easter morning.
During this Holy Week, as we prepare to retrace Jesus' path to the cross, we are once again reminded that even though our own faith may wax and wane, our Creator's constant presence, in its many forms around us, never does.
The greatest of all illuminations begins with a people who aren't afraid to admit they are a little lost in the dark.
- Jody |
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