St. Paul’s Anglican Church Liturgy for Good Friday April 2020

We gather at the Altar of Repose in the church garden. The Sacrament was placed here last night and is the ‘pre-sanctified’ bread for today’s Holy Communion.

The Clergy and people enter the church  in silence, the deacon carrying the Sacrament of the ’pre-sanctified’ and placing it on the far altar.

Priest: Almighty Father, look with mercy on this your family for which our Lord  Jesus Christ was content to be betrayed and given up into the hands of wicked men and to suffer death upon the cross: who is alive and glorified with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen

 

First Reading: (please sit)   Isaiah 52, 13- 53, 12

See, my servant shall prosper; he shall be exalted and lifted up, and shall be very high. Just as there were many who were astonished at him—so marred was his appearance, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of mortals—so he shall startle many nations; kings shall shut their mouths because of him; for that which had not been told them they shall see, and that which they had not heard they shall contemplate.  Who has believed what we have heard? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by others; a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity; and as one from whom others hide their faces he was despised, and we held him of no account. Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases; yet we accounted him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. By a perversion of justice he was taken away. Who could have imagined his future? For he was cut off from the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people. They made his grave with the wicked and his tomb with the rich, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him with pain. When you make his life an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring, and shall prolong his days; through him the will of the Lord shall prosper. Out of his anguish he shall see light; he shall find satisfaction through his knowledge. The righteous one, my servant, shall make many righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will allot him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he poured out himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

Reader: This is the word of the Lord

All:         Thanks be to God

Hymn:      62   Ah, holy Jesu, how hast thou offended

Second Reading: (please sit)  Hebrews 10, 16-25

“This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord:
I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds,” he also adds, “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.” Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin. Therefore, my friends,since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain (that is, through his flesh), and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us approach with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful. And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Reader: This is the word of the Lord

All:         Thanks be to God.

Hymn:      90   (omit *)  O sacred head, sore wounded

Passion Gospel:     St. John, 18 & 19 (stand or sit as you are able)

                                 After the gospel is read there is a short period of silence

• Reflection on the Cross of Christ

Veneration of the Cross

The deacon processes a cross to the front of the church, stopping three times to say:

Deacon: This is the wood of the cross on which our Redeemer hung. Come, come ,

let us adore; come , come, let us adore, the Saviour of the world.

All:          This is the wood of the cross on which our Redeemer hung. Come, come, let us adore; come, come, let                     us adore the Saviour of the world.

All are now invited to come forward to venerate the cross. You may kneel, kiss the cross, touch it or stand and pray before it.

During the Veneration the Reproaches will be sung by Fr. Leonard

 

Intercessions:   Lord hear us.    Response: Lord graciously hear us.

 

Hymn:   92    There is a green hill far away

During this hymn the deacon places the Sacrament from Maundy Thursday on the centre altar.

 

Lord’s Prayer

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name: thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.

Priest:  Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Happy are those who are called to his supper.

All:       Lord, I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word, and I shall be healed.

All may now come forward to receive Holy Communion. By tradition, only the Eucharistic bread from the Maundy Thursday Liturgy (The ‘pre-sanctified’) is distributed.

Hymn during communion:  82  Drop, drop slow tears

Priest:  Most merciful God, who by the death and resurrection of your Son,

Jesus Christ delivered and saved mankind: grant that by faith in him

who suffered on the cross we may triumph in the power of his victory,

through Jesus Christ our Lord.   Amen.

 

Chorus: (sung twice) And I will raise him up, and I will raise him up,

                                      And  I will raise him up on the last day.

We depart from the church without ceremony and in silence. If you have to talk please do so away from the church.