Easter Services

Good Friday

For the 11:00 a.m. service on Friday, the Rev. Dr. G. Malcolm Sinclair is calling his sermon “The Perpetual Pattern to Eternal Life.” “Some of the church's finest writers created the story Jesus. They wrote their faith into a pattern of words: interesting, compelling, and memorable. They took that pattern from themes in the Old Testament. Isaiah 53, the Fourth Servant Song, tells how God brought life out of death for the despised but ever faithful servant. Jesus models that servant as the writers craft his story.”

For the prelude, Dr. Patricia Wright will play settings of O Sacred Head, Sore Wounded by Johannes Brahms and J. S. Bach, and O Man, Bewail Your Grievous Fall by Bach. In addition, also by Bach, violinist Jennifer Martyn will play the “Sarabanda” from the Partita in D Minor. For the postlude, Dr. Wright will play Reverie by William Grant Still. The Metropolitan Choir will sing Were You There arranged by Crawford Thoburn, In Manus Tuas (Into Your Hands) by Juan Pujol, and Drop, Drop Slow Tears by Orlando Gibbons. The hymns are No.133 (Go to Dark Gethsemane), No.145 (O Sacred Head), and No.149 (When I Survey the Wondrous Cross).

The Bible readings are excerpts from Isaiah 53 and John 18 and 19.

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Easter Sunday

For the 11:00 a.m. service on Sunday, the Rev. Dr. G. Malcolm Sinclair is calling his sermon “Room beyond the Tomb.” “The ‘empty tomb’ is a literary creation of the Gospel writers. St. Paul, writing his letters earlier, never mentions it. He has other ways of expressing his certainty about Christ’s resurrection and its meaning. This Easter rising leads us away from the dead-end of death in all its forms, and opens rooms of meaning for us in which we can happily and purposefully live.”

This Easter Sunday, the Metropolitan Silver Band will play Variations on Laudate Dominum by Edward Gregson and Fire in the Blood by Paul Lovatt-Cooper for the Prelude, and Nimrod by Elgar, arranged by Rieks van der Velde, for the Offertory. The Postlude will be Amazing Grace arranged by William Gordon. The Metropolitan Choir will sing An Easter Hallelujah by Melchior Vulpius, Awake, the Trumpet's Lofty Sound by G. F. Handel, and Magdalen, Cease From Sobs and Sighs by Eleanor Daley. At the Communion, the Band will play A Quiet Moment by Darrol Barry (dedicated to the memory of Band Member Sam Caruana), and the Metropolitan Choir will sing the plainsong Christians, To the Paschal Victim and several Easter carols. The hymns are No.155 (Jesus Christ Is Risen Today), No.169 (Good Christians All, Rejoice and Sing), and No.164 (The Day of Resurrection).

The last piece in the carillon prelude will be “Toccata Festevole” from Suite No.1, by John Courter (1941-2009). The carillon postlude will begin with Fantasia on the Easter chant “Ite, Missa Est Alleluia” by Piet Van den Broeck (1916-2008).

The Bible readings are Isaiah 25:6-9 (the banquet on the mountain), 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 (the Resurrection of Christ), and Mark 16:1-8 (the Resurrection of Jesus).