The Importance of Holy Week

My dear parishioners and friends of St. Paul’s,

Within the first week or so of April, we see the most important and potent days of the Christian Year. They will have absolute priority in our corporate life together, and I urge you all from the bottom of my heart to make them a priority in your own lives. So it is with Holy Week that this letter properly begins.

Palm Sunday
Palm Sunday commemorates the entry of the Lord into Jerusalem. The palm procession with which the liturgy begins enacts that entry into Jerusalem by the Lord, where those standing by waved palms and shouted “Hosanna!” The liturgy of the palms rightly begins at a place apart from the church itself, and we will make our way up to the church in our procession from Washington Circle. As we enter the doors of the church, we make that place our Jerusalem for the coming week.

The liturgy of the palms is always slightly chaotic – I’m sure the first one was – and breathes a certain excitement. The hymns are spirited and uplifting, and we have the advantage of brass players to cheer things along and keep us singing as we process. The Mass that immediately follows the liturgy of the palms is of a very different character. It is a Mass of the Passion, and so it prepares us for the events that we shall be commemorating in the days ahead. Please check the schedule elsewhere for Holy Week and please note the starting times and places! (See page 8.)

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday offer three Masses each day at 7 AM, noon, and 6 PM, and these too are by way of preparation for the great Triduum Sacrum, or “three Holy Days,” of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday – days that are at the heart of the Paschal Mystery. On Wednesday evening the ancient office of Tenebrae (“shadows”) is sung to plainsong and melody, punctuated by the singing of lessons and the dimming of candles. Following the singing of the unearthly Miserere with its high Cs, there is a great crash and the emergence of a solitary light foreshadowing Jesus’ death and resurrection.

Maundy Thursday
The principal liturgy of Maundy Thursday is in the evening at 6:30 PM. The word “maundy” comes from the Latin mandatum, meaning“commandment” – “a new commandment I give unto you that you love one another.” The Mass is celebrated in white vestments and begins with all the customary glory of a Solemn Mass, including the Gloria, during which bells are rung. The Mass setting will once more this year be the extraordinary Messe Solenelle by Langlais, so rich and yet so deeply poignant.

Following the liturgy of the word, 12 people will gather in the choir on chairs, and they will remove their socks and shoes so that the celebrant may wash their feet. This obviously recalls one of the central actions of the last supper – in John’s Gospel the central action – of Jesus’ girding himself with a towel, taking on the role of the, and washing the disciples’ feet. As he put the new commandment into action, so we do the same. These rites in these days prove to be no mere commemorations, but means in fact of our very participation in these saving and defining events.

As the Mass continues, the “tone” is lowered gradually. The Eucharistic Prayer commemorates the institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper, but obviously does so in the shadow of the looming passion and death of the Lord. (Thus our full-fledged, joyous commemoration occurs on the Feast of Corpus Christi on the Thursday or Sunday following Trinity Sunday.) By the end of the Mass, things are quite somber and quiet. There is no blessing given – interestingly there will be no dismissal until the end of the first Mass of Easter at the Great Vigil on Holy Saturday, underscoring the continuous nature of the liturgies on these three days.

A Procession of the Blessed Sacrament moves slowly and quietly to the ancient words and tune of the Pange Lingua (Hymn 329), through the nave to the Angel Chapel. As the church has become our Jerusalem, our upper room on this night, so the chapel will become the garden of Gethsemane where the Blessed Sacrament reposes all night on an altar surrounded with candles and flowers and trees and plants. There the faithful will come throughout the night to “Watch one hour” with the Lord before his passion. The liturgy ends with the rather shocking stripping of the altars as the choir sings the penitential Psalm 22, and the church itself is readied for the events of the Lord’s passion and death the next day.

Good Friday
Good Friday commemorates the passion and crucifixion of the Lord. In previous and more clearly Christian times and cultures, these commemorations would take place at midday, mirroring the historic events themselves. In our contemporary culture it is not easy to escape the workplace and the schedule of the city makes no allowance for religious observances during the day. Thus at noon we shall have very simply the Stations of the Cross, as, appropriately, we walk the Way of the Cross with the Lord at the hour of his passion and death.

The principal liturgy then is strangely yet conveniently in the evening, which does not tie in with the details of the story! Nonetheless we all should make every effort to seize the opportunity of the convenient hour and make it a priority to be with the local Christian community of which we are part, as together we commemorate the mighty acts by which we are saved. The Good Friday liturgy is unique in the course of the year. It is the only liturgy that begins with the sacred ministers prostrating themselves on the floor of the sanctuary. There is no use of incense, and words and gestures are kept to a potent minimum. At the heart of the liturgy of the word is the solemn chanting the ancient tones of the passion according to St. John; the preacher expounds on this in “preaching the Cross” before each of us is invited to draw near to a cross that has been presented to us along the nave by a deacon at three stations: “behold the wood of the Cross whereon was hung the world’s salvation.”

It is interesting to note that on the following day, at the Vigil, the Paschal Candle will be presented at the very same stations – when life has come in the place of death. To the extraordinarily moving words of the reproaches, the congregation comes forward one by one to kneel at the foot of the cross and to venerate. See how these liturgies call for us to use our bodies, our hearts, our whole selves as the events of our redemption are addressed to us.

Holy Communion is received in the form of the bread only from the Sacrament reserved overnight at the altar of repose, and the rite ends in a stark silence and unceremonial departure. Much of the music is unique to Good Friday, including the tones of the solemn collects where we draw the needs of the church and the world into the work of the Cross. Take note of the dates of the authorship and composition of the hymns that are sung. For 1,500 years, Christians have used such words and tunes to proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes!

Easter
The liturgy of the year is the Great Vigil of Easter on the Night of Holy Saturday. It could be said that all other liturgies find their seed in this one liturgy. It is the Christian Passover – the saving and defining event for the Christian community. And it is certainly the most spine-chillingly dramatic service of the year.

The Vigil begins in the silence and darkness of the tomb. A new fire is lit, from which is lit the Paschal Candle. As the darkness of the church is dispelled by this one true light, the deacon three times proclaims “The Light of Christ” – to which we respond, “Thanks be to God.” The new light and life of the Resurrection has come. The magnificent Exsultet is then sung – a hymn of praise to the candle, the symbol of God’s saving power. Here we hear words and tones that are among the most ancient in the life of the church. And then we go back to the start of the story, to creation, as readers read a series of readings from the Old Testament that pave the way for the revelation of the saving event of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We wait and listen carefully in silence and darkness as the amazing story of God’s gracious patience unfolds.

The climax of the story telling becomes the rite of Baptism when those who have been preparing will be baptized, and we shall all renew our own Baptismal covenant. In Baptism, we believe we participate in Jesus’ death and resurrection as an eternal reality available in our time and space; and never is this more powerful than on this night, when we in fact keep the Lord’s Passover and the Paschal Mystery once more enters our time and space. On the way to the font, the whole Christian Church – militant, expectant, and triumphant – is invoked in prayer for those being baptized, and we all put flesh on that reality by our own presence and prayers.

As if things could not get more exciting, there then follows that pregnant and silent pause, redolent of excitement and anticipation, as the altar candles are lit by the servers in preparation for the first Mass of Easter, which will suddenly burst forth in light and sound at the proclamation of “Alleluia! Christ is risen,” and the transformation of the rite and of the church I pray become signs of the transformation and renewal in the resurrection of Christ in our own souls and lives corporately and individually.

There is no more thrilling and powerful hours in the whole course of the liturgical year. To miss this is to miss the celebration that is the heart of everything else we do and are in this place. I would go so far as to say that if we have not experienced the Great Vigil of Easter, we shall never fully grasp what we are involved in the rest of the year. It is, in other words imperative, and I know you will all make it so. And so the principal Mass of Easter is the first Mass of Easter at the  Great Vigil. Everything that follows on Easter Day is icing on that cake. Three Masses follow that morning(!), the Low Mass – surely there can be no such thing as “Low” on the Queen of Feasts – processions and all the bells and whistles at 9 AM and 11.15 AM, and this year at Solemn Evensong and Benediction at 6 PM also.

All Excuses Set Aside

These descriptions give but a hint of the power and the majesty of what is offered and what is blessed in this place in these days. To absent yourselves from this for other than urgent reason and necessity is madness – as the invitations to the coronations of the British sovereign subtly yet markedly proclaim “all excuses set aside” – so those words may be applied wisely here! These liturgies are the divinely appointed means of not just contemplating upon those mighty acts by which we are saved, but of our very participation in them.

Please note that nursery care is provided, of course, on Easter Day and Palm Sunday, but also on the evenings of Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. Please also be reassured that we hire a security guard to be in the church for the all night Vigil on Maundy Thursday to Good Friday.

Looking Ahead
Eastertide continues through April until Ascension Day, Thursday, May 20, and then on to Pentecost on Sunday, May 30. That day will see the Right Rev'd James W. Montgomery with us at 11.15 AM, with the permission of Bishop John Chane, to celebrate, preach, and administer the Sacrament of Confirmation and receive the reaffirmation of Baptismal vows. This will represent the climax of our nine-month-long catechumenate process. And how wonderful to have a successor of the Apostles in our parish church on the day that commemorate the birth of the Church itself.

I am delighted that my first rector, Fr. Darwin Kirby, will once again be with us here at St. Paul’s on Maundy Thursday through Easter Monday. I know you will give him a warm welcome, as you always do. I also hope that you will invite your friends, neighbors, and colleagues to join you for these liturgies. I also hope that you will go out of your way to thank all those, paid and volunteer, who work so hard behind the scenes and “up front” to make all this happen. It is by no means easy, but it is worth it all!

If I might look ahead to June, I am amazed to be celebrating the Silver Jubilee of my ordination to the priesthood this year on Tuesday, June 8. I am honored that the Bishop of Washington has agreed to preside at that Mass and that my old friend Fr. David Houlding from London has agreed to preach. Please do mark that date down in your calendars. There will be many visitors from far and wide here, but it is a celebration that takes place in the context of this particular and wonderful community, which I hope can gather with me on that day. Weldon Walker has kindly agreed to coordinate this event, so if you have any ideas, questions, or offers of help please contact him.

Fr. Barnett will be taking some of his post-Easter break during Easter Week when the schools are on vacation. I shall be taking vacation time and a week of my annual leave from April 22 until May 6 and will be in England.

I’ll end where I began: The focus of this letter has been the events of Holy Week, and rightly so. I urge each and every one of you to participate fully in these life-changing opportunities.

With love and anticipation in the crucified and risen Lord,

Andrew L. Sloane+
 

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Parenting Group Offers Support and Advice
 

The daughter needs a new bathing suit for a planned trip and is insistent she has found the perfect one online. But the mom thinks it is too revealing and inappropriate for her daughter’s young age.
 

A feud ensues. What to do?
 

In steps the St. Paul’s parenting group to the rescue, to give advice and counsel. Their tips: Be calm and firm, tell her you value her too much to let her wear it, tell her she is too pretty for such attire, confront her with what men will think, speak to her in love, send her an explanatory e-mail when she won’t listen…
 

St. Paul’s parents of all ages have been meeting for the past year to learn from speakers and each other, and to offer support and counsel in issues ranging from the mundane to the overarching, as they strive to raise good Christian children in a sometimes crazy world.

The group – which includes at least a dozen parents of children from infancy to teenagers – has been meeting on the fourth Sunday of every month to discuss different parenting issues. The casual meetings have inspired friendship and support. And guest speakers have included a family counselor and clinical social worker.
 

Suzanne Cox started the group in 2001, after an interview with Fr. Sloane at the end of her time in Pilgrims in Christ. When asked what new involvement she would like in the church, she didn’t know. Fr. Sloane suggested a parenting guild.
 

The group recently ramped up its meetings, convening every Sunday in Lent to consider the book The Blessing of a Skinned Knee. The book’s topics have served as a springboard for conversations that generally meander from the actual text and focus more on specific questions from different parents – like what to do in the bathing suit disagreement, how to address toddlers’ “why?” stage or pre-teens’ demands for R-rated movies, and where to draw the line on messy rooms.
 

“I’m learning the world doesn’t turn upside down because their rooms are messy,” one parent laughed.

“I used to think we would have cute little tea parties when they were 4 years old,” another sighed. “But that would be like going somewhere with tigers on a leash.”

Suzanne said she chose the book in part because of its focus on children in their very young years, since the group focused on adolescence much of last fall.

Wendy Mogul, a psychiatrist, wrote The Blessing of a Skinned Knee after realizing in her practice that many of the children’s problems she saw were not due to mental disorders but character problems. Dr. Mogul, who is Jewish, turned to rabbis, the Torah, the Talmud, and important Jewish teachings for advice.

The result is a book that draws on core spiritual values relevant to families of all faiths, giving spiritual and practical advice on how to raise self-reliant children. The book includes: the blessing of longing, teaching gratitude; the blessing of work, finding “holy sparks” in chores; the blessing of time, valuing the present moment; and the blessing of food, bringing moderation, celebration, and sanctification to the table.

St. Paul’s population of tiny parishioners keeps growing, and the parenting group hopes it will continue to grow as well.  The parenting group invites all interested people – parents, grandparents, future parents, or others – to join them.

Feel free to sit in on one of the Lenten sessions, from 10:15 – 11:00 AM in the Guild Room, or join the group for its regular meeting the fourth Sunday of every month. You can come once or every time, and there is still much you can learn and contribute if you haven’t read the book … and even if you haven’t had children. [AF]

Special Parish Meeting April 18

There will be a special meeting of St. Paul's Parish on Sunday, April 18, at 10:15 AM, in the Pillsbury House Dining Hall. The purpose of the meeting will be to consider proposed amendments to the parish by-laws.

The proposed amendments would establish procedures to address vacancies on the Vestry. The amendments would provide that, if the Vestry fills a vacancy, the person appointed would serve only until the Vestry meeting after the next Annual Meeting. At the Annual Meeting, a successor to the person appointed by the Vestry would be elected.

If the Vestry does not fill a vacancy before the next Annual Meeting, the vacancy would be filled by an election at the Annual Meeting.

The proposed amendments were approved by the Vestry at its meeting on February 17. Under the parish by-laws, a two-thirds vote of the voters at the special parish meeting is required to adopt the amendments. A provisional voter list has been posted on the Vestry bulletin board in Pillsbury House; a final voter list will be posted on April 3.

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New Parishioner Profile – Gay Hanna

Gay Hanna recently moved to Washington to become executive director of the Society for the Arts in Healthcare – a national membership organization dedicated to the promotion of the arts as an integral part of healthcare. She came to St. Paul’s on her very first Sunday here and says that even though she visited many other parishes, she felt most welcome here.

 “The beauty of the chapel services and the friendliness of the people I met made my choice of joining St. Paul’s a simple one,” says Gay.

 Before coming to Washington, Gay lived in Tallahassee, Florida. She has a Ph.D. in arts education/ management, specializing in serving people with disabilities, as well as a Master of Fine Arts in sculpture. Gay has maintained a studio for many years making fountains and looks forward to finding studio space in or around D.C. to resume this interest.

On April 22, the Society for the Arts in Healthcare is presenting a Pilgrimage of Healing at the Washington National Cathedral in partnership with the Center for Prayer and Pilgrimage. After that, Gay looks forward to attending more activities at St. Paul’s. She is particularly interested in joining hospitality and arts-related committees, including gardening.

Please greet Gay Hanna at the 11:15 Mass. [EB]

 

April Treasurer’s Report

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Holy Week Schedule

Palm Sunday

Sunday, April 4

7:30 AM                   Low Mass

8:45 AM                   Procession from Washington Circle and Sung Mass with Incense

11:15 AM                 Procession from Washington Circle and Solemn Mass

6:00 PM                   Solemn Evensong and Benediction

 

Holy Monday

Monday, April 5

7:00 AM                   Low Mass

Noon                      Low Mass

5:30 PM                   Devotions at the Walsingham Shrine

6:00 PM                   Low Mass

 

Holy Tuesday

Tuesday, April 6

7:00 AM                   Low Mass

Noon                      Low Mass

5:30 PM                   Devotions at the Walsingham Shrine

6:00 PM                   Low Mass

 

Holy Wednesday

Wednesday, April 7

7:00 AM                   Low Mass

Noon                      Low Mass

5:00 PM                   Devotions at the Walsingham Shrine

6:00 PM                   Low Mass

8:00 PM                   Tenebrae

 

Maundy Thursday

Thursday, April 8

6:30 PM   Solemn Mass and Procession to the Altar of Repose

All Night Vigil

 

Good Friday

Friday, April 9

Noon                      Stations of the Cross with Meditations

6:30 PM                   Solemn Liturgy of the Day

 

Holy Saturday

Saturday, April 10

9:30 AM                   Liturgy of the Day

9:00 PM                   Great Vigil of Easter with the First Solemn Mass of the Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ

Reception following in the dining hall

 

Easter Day

Sunday, April 11

7:45 AM                   Low Mass

9:00 AM                   Procession and Sung Mass  with Incense

11:15 AM                 Procession and Solemn Mass

6:00 PM                   Solemn Evensong and Benediction

 

Confessions

Saturday, April 3

5:00 PM   Fr. Barnett

 

Maundy Thursday

5:00 PM   Fr. Barnett

 

Good Friday

12:30 PM Frs. Sloane and Radley

5:00 PM   Frs. Barnett and Lewis

 

Holy Saturday

5:00 PM   Fr. Sloane

 

Also in April

 

St. Mark the Evangelist

Monday, April 26

(transferred)

7:00 AM                   Low Mass

Noon                      Low Mass

5:30 PM                   Devotions at the Walsingham Shrine

6:00 PM                   Low Mass

Parish Notes

April Birthdays

1          Frederick Sherrer

3          Robert Berrien

4          Marie Barnes

5          Peter Laugesen; Lydia Bakke

6          Calvert Whitehurst, III; Richard Mason; Kyle Bruin

7          Michael Robinson

8          Kenwin Benn

9          Tracy Burnette; Olivia Berrien

10        Merlin Packard

12        Chika Okwesa

13        Douglas Colmery

14        James Melton; Sara Lee Menzer

16        Patrick Kalk

18        Walter Rhinehart, Jr.; Dylan Molineaux; Laura Dame

19        Brian Perry; R. Clarke Cooper

22        Bruce Lawrence

23        David Sheppard

24        Stephen Patrick

26        Paul Darmstadter

27        Dirk Heron

28        Elaine Kelley; Ellen Perry

29        James Kiefer; Lynne Walker
 

If you have an April birthday that was not included, or if there are any mistakes, please contact the parish office. [MW]
 

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Parish Statistics

Transfers in:Nicholas T. Goldsborough from St. Thomas, Los Angeles

Matthew Welch from St. Anselm of Canterbury, Norman, Okla.

Transfer Out:Jennifer Horn to Mount Calvary, Baltimore, Md.

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The Epistle
Editors  Christine Nevius, Alistair Nevius

Assistant Editor  Allison Freeman

Desktop Publisher  John Walker

Designer  David McGaw

Contributors  Elisabeth Braw, David McGaw, Polly Peckham, Andrew Sloane, Lynne Walker, Melva Willis

 

 

Submissions Invited

We welcome the submission of articles, comments, and suggestions. Manuscripts and correspondence can be dropped off at the church office or e-mailed to the editors at nevius@erols.com . Electronic manuscripts are preferred. Articles accepted for the Epistle are subject to editorial revision.

 

 

SAINT PAUL’S PARISH

2430 K Street, N.W.

Washington, D.C. 20037-1797

phone    202-337-2020

fax        202-337-7418

e-mail    info@StPauls-Kst.com

Web     www.StPauls-Kst.com

 

 

Parish Staff

The Rev’d Andrew Sloane, Rector

The Rev’d Edwin Barnett, Curate

Dr. Jeffrey Smith, Music Director

Charles Burks, Assistant Music Director

Melva Willis, Parish Administrator

Frederick Murdock, III, Maintenance Manager

 

 

The Vestry

The Rev’d Andrew Sloane, Rector

Larry Toombs, Senior Warden

Pay Byrd, Junior Warden

Gregory Capaldini, Secretary

Lynne Walker, Treasurer

Peter Agnew, Ed Loucks; Kenwin Benn, Larry Cook, David McGaw, Marcia Stanford; David Chase, Jeremiah deMichaelis, Cynthia Efird, Phil Schlatter

 

Our Mission

St. Paul’s Parish seeks to restore all people to God and to each other, through Sacramental Worship and Christlike lives.

 

© 2004 St. Paul’s Parish, K Street

Deadline for the next issue:

Monday, April 12