Confessions
Meet with a pastoral leader who will lead you through a brief liturgy. Anyone is welcome, including children accompanied by a parent.
Upstairs offices. No sign-up required.
11:00 am – 12:00 pm
Stations of the Cross
No livestream. Reflect on the last hours of Christ’s life through song and prayer as we travel to stations in our building and outside. All ages welcome; no childcare.
12:00 pm
1:30 pm
Good Friday
Our Good Friday service testifies to how Jesus’ sacrifice can free and heal us. Enter into events of the crucifixion with a dramatic reading of the Passion. Worship with our musicians as you wait to approach our large wooden cross, where you may kneel and/or pray. Childcare available for ages 0-5 at 3pm only.
Livestream: 7 pm only
Accessibility note: Designated spots for wheelchairs are located at the end of certain aisles in the sanctuary. To pray at the large wooden cross on the stage, you may use the ramp–enter through our Sacristy doors at the far right, front of the sanctuary. The ramp is immediately to the left.
3:00 pm
7:00 pm
Go Deeper
Good Friday is a solemn remembrance of Jesus’ sacrifice of his own life so that we might find forgiveness and reconciliation with God. This is not a somber recapitulation of Jesus’ death, but rather a thankful and reverently joyful recollection of his death that gave us life. This day and the next—Holy Saturday—are the only two days of the church calendar when there is no Eucharistic celebration. Traditionally, this service can be held at three o’clock in the afternoon or later to mark the hour of Jesus’ death according to the Gospels.
It is believed that the liturgy for this service is derived from the earliest days of Christianity. The service begins in silence and with prayer. The clergy process into the room silently, dressed in black. In some traditions, they prostrate themselves before the cross at this point. Our readings for the day are from Isaiah’s Suffering Servant poem (Isa. 52:13-–53:12) and from the sermon to the Hebrews in which the author explains Jesus’ role as our great High Priest and Mediator (Heb. 10:1-25). At this time, we return to the same Gospel reading that we read on Palm Sunday—the Passion (John 18:1–19:37). This service also includes the praying of the Solemn Collects in which we intercede for the church, our nation, and the world. Our Communion for this service consists of wafers that have already been blessed during the previous night’s Maundy Thursday Eucharist. Good Friday is not a Eucharist service because we are remembering that Christ’s body was in the grave, and we are waiting for his resurrected body to bring us new life.
Finally, we take time to venerate the cross. At Church of the Resurrection, we lay the cross down on the chancel stage, and all who are led take time to touch the cross and pray. It is a powerful time of connection with our sacrificial Savior.
In the pilgrimage of Holy Week, Good Friday brings us to a somber and contemplative halt. The activities of Good Friday invite us into a focused contemplation of Jesus’ death on the cross. Each scripture reading, prayer, and song points us to one man’s experience on an ancient instrument of torture. Why? Because we believe that the moment Jesus died on the cross was the moment the entire world was rescued from sin and death. That is why we spend so much time savoring the reality of the cross.
On Good Friday, we celebrate both the specific instant in history when Jesus redeemed us and the reality that it can meet us in our sinfulness today. We invite the Holy Spirit to give us the grace to acknowledge our personal sinfulness and and then to immediately find forgiveness available at the cross. It is a very personal opportunity to ask the Lord to highlight the sins keeping us from drawing close to him and then to set those sins down on the wood of the cross. Is there a sinful habit or pattern that the Lord may be asking you to give to him this Good Friday?
