Greetings all,

We hope that you are well as we continue to abide by ‘physical distancing’.  We have had a week away from the phone and will be returning to our calls next week.  We look forward to speaking with you and remind you that you are always welcome to call us at home.

MAUNDY THURSDAY  (ZOOM)
Thursday April 9 at 7 pm
https://us04web.zoom.us/j/587350921
(Please have something suitable for communion – a bit of bread or cracker and some sort of juice or drink)

GOOD FRIDAY SERVICE
The Good Friday service is below. You are welcome to worship using this resource at 10:00 am when we would usually gather, or at another time.

MESSY EASTER (ZOOM)
Friday April 10 at 1 pm
https://us04web.zoom.us/j/595081942

• Special Easter Offering 
  For those who would like to make a special Easter offering- or a regular offering, your support is always appreciated.  Thank you to those who are already on PAR – you can be in touch with the office if you want to sign on to that program for automated giving.  Mail is received at the church each weekday for those using cheques.   Canada Helps provides an online giving platform that is easily accessible.  Here is the link: CANADA HELPS  https://www.canadahelps.org/en/dn/14890

Worship for Good Friday, April 10, 2020

Greetings.

The peace of Christ be with you.

Streets, theatres, gathering places throughout the world have been silent, quiet, hushed during the past weeks. COVID-19 has created an emptiness in places that used to be filled with bustling life.

Good Friday worship is a time when we hear of a crucifixion that creates an emptiness in our hearts, in our world – we hear the story of the execution and death of Jesus – God’s beloved, the world’s saviour, our hope for a more compassionate world.

As you proceed through the following worship service, we invite you to pause for moments of silence, of prayer, of reflection, of quiet and emptiness.

Throughout this worship you will be invited to click on links to readings and music and thoughts.

We begin with Jesus having been arrested

Jesus is arrested. Jesus. Jesus is verbally abused. Jesus is physically tortured. Jesus is executed.

“My God, why have you forsaken me?’  Jesus gasps these words as he hangs on the cross, in pain. He feels isolated…from his friends, from his family, from his God.  We do not need to analyze or to put an optimistic spin on these words.  There came a time when Jesus felt forsaken, isolated from God.  There are times when we feel alone, isolated, distanced from family, friends, and perhaps even from God.

In our silent, quiet, hushed, self-isolating world this Good Friday, so much of the world as we have known it, appears to have ended…

Why have you forsaken me God?

The only reason we still tell this story, is because we know that Jesus was not God-forsaken, that we are not God-forsaken, that creation is not God-forsaken…

In the silent, quiet, hush of our days,.. despite any feelings or appearances to the contrary,  we are not alone….and in a few days it will be the silence, the quiet and the hush of an empty tomb, that will resurrect our hope.

Let us pray:
God, be with us in this time of stillness in our world,
Be with us in this time of physical distancing,
Be with us in this time of remembering the cross of Jesus.

We pray, God, for all to know your love and your grace
We pray for those who are grieving,
Those who are ill
Those who are afraid,
Those who feel betrayed or abandoned.

We pray for all who offer healing, reconciliation, and compassion.

We pray for people, for concerns we hold in our hearts…
(please add your prayers)

Give us faith and hope and courage and love
As we continue to be companions of the Christ
On our way to the day of resurrection.

We offer our prayers in the name and spirit of Jesus the Christ
And we continue to pray together using the words of the prayer he taught his disciples:

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, and the power, and the glory,
Forever, and ever,

Amen.

Matthew 27: 57-61

When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who was also a disciple of Jesus. He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus; then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. So Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn in the rock. He then rolled a great stone to the door of the tomb and went away. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there, sitting opposite the tomb.

And so we wait, and so we wait, and so we wait.
With hope, with love, with God.

Be in the peace of Christ.  Amen.

We keep you in our prayers,
Jeff and Carol