Category: Uncategorized

Holy Week Services

Both/And

And so we enter the most sacred week in the Church calendar: Holy Week. We accompany Jesus in his Passion and celebrate his Resurrection. In large part, the entire Gospel hinges on these two days.

Our Good Friday and Easter Sunday services are meant to be complements; a pairing. The idea, as St. Paul puts it, is to encourage us to enter into (“fellowship” with) Jesus’ suffering and to know him in the power of Resurrection. Christian faith reminds us that we cannot have one without the other, and it is often the former that precedes the latter. We invite you to join us and, if possible, to join us in both services to experience their arc.

Good Friday

Good Friday is understandably sombre – we encourage everyone to wear black (or dark colours) and enter the service in silence. The service features a few pieces of music, listening to the Passion narrative (this year, from the Gospel of Mark), and several embodied actions and creative expressions as part of the liturgy (e.g. saluting at one point in the narrative where Jesus is saluted by the soldiers who mock him; light and shadow around a cross that is painted with various colours during the service etc.). Our hope is not only to “hear” the story but to experience it with Jesus. The service will end abruptly, seemingly without conclusion, and everyone leaves in silence just as they entered.

Easter Sunday

Easter Sunday is the opposite in tone and feel. We encourage everyone to wear white (or light colours), we will give ample time to singing together (with a full band!), hear an Easter homily, celebrate communion, and conclude with a catered lunch (and Easter chocolates!).

If you would like to attend, we would love to have you; if you don’t mind letting us know, that would help with food preparation. 🙂

Safeguarding

Our desire is to be a community which honours vulnerability and is free of any form of harm, abuse, or violence. We have implemented a procedure by which anyone may report concerns (including those relating to our leaders and including our lead pastor) to Vineyard Canada, the movement we are part of and to which we are accountable.

For more information: https://westendabbey.ca/safeguarding/

Summer Schedule

Summer rhythms are different – school is closed and given the warmer weather, people enjoy things like being outside, camping, travelling/vacationing, and generally moving at a more leisurely and recreational pace. Flexibility are freedom seem more important. Weekends are especially precious and, inevitably, weekend church services take on a different complexion.

This year, we’re trying something new to take these realities in stride and to honour people’s summer dynamics and preferences.

Over July and August, we won’t be meeting weekly on Sundays at the resource centre. Alongside some informal gatherings, we’ll gather intentionally four times at someone’s home on a Wednesday evening. We’ll begin with supper and then have some curated times of prayer, scripture, singing, communion, reflection, etc.

If you’d like to join any gathering, you’re welcome! Just message us and we’ll send you the address. 🙂

Holy Week Services

What a sacred mystery this next week is in the arc of the Gospel and the life of the Church! It was Jesus’ deep desire to have his friends be awake, attentive, and alongside him in his agonizing journey to the cross. This desire forms the bedrock of God’s invitation to us every Holy Week week, and we invite you to join us as we seek to companion Jesus from the upper room (his last supper), to Golgotha (the place of the skull, where he was crucified), to resurrection.

These events – known as the “Pascal/Easter/Holy Triduum” (the three days from Maundy Thursday to Easter Sunday) are the fulcrum of the entire Gospel, with immeasurable theological and spiritual significance. The Triduum not only represents a fullness of what God did in our story, but also provides an incomparable window into the stunning beauty of who God is. What kind of God is this – one who washes our feet, shares his body and blood, suffers and dies on a cross between thieves, and is resurrected? These are the sacred mysteries we desire to contemplate, embody, and experience this week – and we ask God for this grace.

Maundy Thursday (April 6)

  • Supper, communion, foot washing
  • Contact us for location

Good Friday (April 7)

  • Music, readings, contemplative prayer
  • Wear black
  • 6pm at 823 Ellice Ave
  • Doors open 5:40pm for silent prayer

Easter Sunday (April 9)

  • Partying, singing, sharing, communion
  • Wear white!
  • 10:30am at 823 Ellice Ave