SPECIAL SERVICES

There are several special services during the year.

ADVENT is the season of getting ready to celebrate the birth of our Lord. It's a visible reflection of our need to be continually preparing, by God's grace, to greet the Lord when he returns in majesty at the end of time to judge the living and the dead. For this reason, Advent is a penitential, as well as a celebratory, season of preparation.

CHRISTMAS
At the first service of Christmas, at 7:30 pm on Christmas Eve, we bless the Creche (the nativity scene), enlisting the help of the children to gather all the characters and critters into the stable, saying the prayer and lighting the votive candles. Then we move into the proclamation of the Word of God, the sermon, and the celebration of the Christ Mass, the Holy Eucharist for Christmas, aka the Mass of the Nativity.
On Christmas morning, we again celebrate the Christ Mass at 9.30am. It's a more intimate celebration with a smaller congregation and a sermon, but no music.

EPIPHANY, January 6th, is the day we celebrate "God in man made manifest" - the revealing of the Christ child, God in human flesh to the Gentiles, the non-Jewish population of the world as represented by the Wise Men from the east. On the Sundays that follow we celebrate the ways Jesus manifested his divinity, beginning at his baptism, on the first Sunday after Epiphany, and culminating in his Transfiguration on the Sunday before Lent begins. 

LENT begins with ASH WEDNESDAY
The penitential liturgy of the day, with Imposition of Ashes and the Holy Eucharist, is held at noon and 7pm on Ash Wednesday.
HOLY WEEK begins with the Liturgy of the of Palms, when we process into the church with palms, hear the story of Christ's arrival in Jerusalem, and conclude with the solemn reading of the Passion and the Holy Eucharist.
On MAUNDY THURSDAY evening, our service begins in the hall with a potluck Middle Eastern meal, and then we move to the church for the Eucharist and stripping of the altar.
On GOOD FRIDAY, the worship is centered around the trial and crucifixion of Jesus, after which we pray the Solemn Collects of Good Friday, venerate the Cross, and receive Holy Communion from the Reserved Sacrament.
EASTER is the Feast of feasts, and the Queen of the seasons of the Church year, because it's when we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead. The first celebration of Easter is the Vigil service, on Easter Eve, a wonderful service when we welcome the light of Christ, are reminded of our baptism, and celebrate the Holy Eucharist.
At the end of the Easter season, we celebrate Christ's ASCENSION into heaven, followed ten days later by the day of 
PENTECOST when we celebrate his sending of the Holy Spirit to sanctify the Church, to bring it to life, to fill it with the knowledge and love of God, and to energize it for its mission to carry the Good News of Christ crucified, risen and ascended to the ends of the earth. 
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TRINITY SUNDAY wraps up the (roughly) first half of the Church year as we celebrate what is perhaps the greatest revelation of who God is - three Persons in one God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.