Good Friday services are normally quite well attended. Maybe this is because as human beings, we are well acquainted with pain and suffering and so it's possible to experience a profound connection with Jesus on this day. Easter is, at least in my experience, a more difficult stretch. How can we, given our experience of life in the here and now relate with resurrection. Resurrection is something that breaks all the Newtonian Laws within which our lives are constrained. But you will have to come to Easter Day services to hear me speak more about that.

On Holy Saturday evening, we celebrate one of the least familiar, yet most ancient of our Christian liturgies - the Great Vigil of Easter. In the early Church this was the Easter celebration! It is full of primal imagery. The service begins with the lighting of the New Fire of Easter. The New Light of Christ, lit from the New Fire is then solemnly processed into the darkened church. Then follows the recalling of our long relationship with God through history, followed by the renewal of baptismal promises. Everything up to this point has been in semi-darkness when suddenly the church is illuminated as the Easter greeting Christ is Risen- He is risen indeed, Alleluia rings repeatedly and is joined by organ sounding, and hand bells clanging. We have now arrived at the first exuberant Eucharist of Easter.  Following this we continue in party mode, in the Great Hall.

This first celebration of the Resurrection is a family celebration. At the main services on Easter Day we will have the pleasure of welcoming many old friends whom we see each year at this time. We will also have the pleasure of welcoming new friends to our Easter Day celebrations, which are full of light, and amplified by beautiful music. In contrast, the Vigil is our community time together. Intimate family get-togethers are times at which the members of the family rehearse their stories of origin. At the Vigil, we rehearse the beginning and progress over time as the people of God, with highlighted snapshots of significant points along our journey with God spanning past, present, and future. At such times family members reinforce their commitment to one another. As the community that gathers at St Martin's, we likewise recommit ourselves to our baptismal promises. These bind us together and make us present to the wider world. St Martin's is a microcosm of a wider family of Episcopal Christians in Rhode Island. This year we welcome the representative of our wider family, Bishop Nicholas and his wife Karen. The Bishop will be the principle celebrant at our Great Vigil of Easter.

At St Martin's we are in the springtime of new beginnings. Are you ready to try something new, this Easter? If so, see you at the Great Vigil of Easter!

Mark+