Friday, April 19, 2019

Good Friday  

For the 11:00 a.m. service on Friday, The Rev. Karen Bowles is calling her sermon “For Whom the Cock Crows (with apologies to John Donne).”  “We will hear the old story and we will consider it from the eyes of such as Peter and of Pilate. We will move into this time of terror and of loss, confessing the uniquely Christian understanding of a God who suffers. Walking together through Good Friday before Easter is vital to the formation of our faith.”  

For the organ prelude, the Wayne C. Vance Organ Scholar Michael Oldaker will play “Crucifixion” from the Symphonie Passion by Marcel Dupré. Dr. Patricia Wright will finish the prelude with O Man, Bewail Your Grievous Fall by J. S. Bach. The organ postlude played by Dr. Wright will be My Heart Is Filled with Longing by Johannes Brahms. The Metropolitan Choir will sing O Sorrow Deep by David Hurd and Drop, Drop Slow Tears by Orlando Gibbons. The hymns will be No.133 (Go to Dark Gethsamane), No.145 (O Sacred Head), and No.149 (When I Survey the Wondrous Cross).  

The Bible readings are excerpts from Isaiah 52 and 53 (Let Zion rejoice), and John 18: 1-40 (the betrayal and arrest of Jesus) and 19:1- 42 (Jesus before Pilate and His crucifixion).

Following at 7:30 p.m. is ‘Pieta: Poetry and Music for Good Friday’. A variety of music from the Baroque era and the 20th century-from works based on the German Lutheran chorale to music from the Russian Orthodox tradition. Interspersed with choral and audience singing are the moving poems of Patricia Orr. Tickets are available online or on the door.