Averaged out, Episcopalians invite someone to join them at Church once every 32 years! This reminds me of the joke that: Episcopalians don't need to invite others to Church because everyone who should be Episcopalian already is. If you were to invite someone to Church, say a friend or neighbor then the time to do so would certainly be during the Great Three Days of Easter. These days are commemorated by our participation in the most dramatic and ancient of all our Christian liturgies.

Those of you who remember the 1928 Prayer Book will also remember that for Episcopalians, the pattern of worship at Easter was to attend all or part of the Three Hours Devotion on Good Friday and then nothing until Easter Morn. With the revision of the Prayer Book in 1979 the Episcopal Church returned to a more ancient pattern of observing Easter, rooted in the practice of the Early Church. The Roman Catholic Church and other liturgical churches did the same. Although in worship we commemorate events in the actual life of Jesus, the liturgical form this takes mostly dates from the inspiration of St. Cyril, Bishop of Jerusalem between 350 and 386.

It's taken nearly 20 years to catch-on but the common practice for most Episcopalians now is to keep the Great Three Days. On Maundy Thursday (Maundy means commandment) we commemorate the Last Supper and Foot Washing to remember Jesus' commandment: love one another as I have loved you! Between Maundy Thursday evening and Good Friday we keep the Watch. While the rest of the church is stripped of ornament the chapel remains adorned with flowers symbolizing the Garden of Gethsemane. Here, Jesus prayed through the night, often alone as his disciples kept falling asleep. Please sign-up for one hour from 9pm-12am or from 5-9am to keep watch in response to Jesus' request of his disciples: can you not keep awake one hour with me. On Good Friday, some of us will make the Good Friday Walk through central Providence, an ecumenical devotion in the morning. Our main observance will be in the evening with the ancient and beautiful Liturgy of Good Friday. On Saturday evening, as darkness falls, at the Great Vigil of Easter we will proclaim Christ as the light of the world, we will hear again the story of God's evolving relationship with us as a people, and we will then solemnly renew our Baptismal Covenant. This year we will also baptize young Jade. Then the lights suddenly blaze (well as much as our dim St Martin's lighting can at present be made to blaze), the bells ring-out, and we are in celebratory mood from here on in as Bishop Nicholas leads us in the first Eucharist of Easter.

I would like the Vigil to be our St Martin's family celebration, while on Easter Morn we welcome new and old friends. If you attend the Vigil, (except if you are in the choir), you can sleep-in on Easter Morn. Bishop Nicholas and his wife Karen will be with us on Palm Sunday as well as the Easter Vigil.

We are about to embark on a journey through the events that form the central core of our Christian Faith. Undertaking any journey requires climbing aboard a means of transportation. Therefore, I've used the metaphor of the train and taking a train journey and you can read more here.

For our Website details of Holy Week and Easter click: http://www.stmartinsprov.org/upcoming/

This year, let's all defy statistics and invite a friend, a neighbor, or several of each to celebrate Holy Week and Easter in the beautiful Gothic setting, and amidst the warm heartedness of our St Martin's Community!

Mark+ 

                                  
 Donations for Saint Martin's Thrifty Goose and The Cloak closet are always welcomed!  (And they are tax deductible).                                                                                                                 

               The CLOAK is looking for blue jeans for men/women/children.                                                         

The Thrifty Goose is in need of summer items: clothes for the family, all things for the beach, sun hats and umbrellas!                                                                                                                              

              Make your spring closet clean-out a win-win situation!!                         

Cloak volunteers contact Mary Gray at mary@whydata.com; Thrifty volunteers contact Karen Bracken at kwb429@msn.com.