Sunday, April 04, 2010

Easter Vigil

Last night I went to the most intense, beautifully dramatic, ancient feeling, creative, awe-inspiring Easter Vigil at Church of the Redeemer in downtown Toronto. My breath was taken away.


When I arrived the historic parish was in partial darkness, and I was given a candle and a bell, and stumbled down the center aisle to sit with my friends, who thankfully were looking for me too, or else I would have been stumbling in the dark for quite a while. As I sat down I took in my surroundings: dark, ancient feeling stain glass windows, the high medieval arches, the cold, cobblestone walls contrasted with the rich, robust, mahogany beams.

Within a few minutes the Reverend appeared, our friend Andrew Asbil who has presided at Wine Before Breakfast, and he was dressed in pure white,almost glowing priestly vestments. He slowly walked into the center spotlight, looked solemnly over the congregation, and said,

"It all starts with a cry."

He was talking about a newborn, who enters this world almost intuitively feeling the weight of the misery that is to come, and echoes it all with a cry. He went on to talk about his own children (this is an Anglican priest, remember), and how often they have cried out to him in the night many, and how tonight, WE are those children, crying out, "Aaaabaaa! Where are you? Why did you leave?" For in the darkness between Good Friday and Easter, Jesus had died, and we were left here, and it was almost as if God himself had left.

The lights went down and he left the stage, and a procession of the candle-bearers, deacons, cross-bearer (i don't know if that's their real titles but it works for now), dressed all in white robes, came down the aisle, and the candle-bearer, Amy Fisher's friend, who was the cutest little 36 year old I'd ever met, raised her tall candle high, and chanted eerily: "The li-ght of Chriiiist" and the congregation responded, "Tha-anks be to Gauuuuud" and this happened three times during there walk down the aisle. We all had to turn towards the cross as it was coming down, so our backs would not be towards it. Then the deacons who were holding smaller candles lit the candles of those sitting on the end of the pews, which so happened to be me, and then we solemnly passed the light down the pews.

What followed was the telling of the entire sweeping epic of the Scriptures, from beginning to end, through chant, scripture readings of creation, the exodus, captivity and exile, and the coming of the Liberator, the Christ, all accompanied with the most incredible choir that made the stories come alive with their sound effects (wind, rushing water, dissonant sounds and awe-filled wondrous sounds), plus exotic instruments, steal drums, instruments i don't know their names. Then there were incredible old familiar gospel songs like "Dry Bones" "I went down to the River to pray" that were quite peppy and we all sang along. It was incredibly moving, and i felt like i was part of a world renowned dramatic performance.

Then came the renewal of our baptismal covenant. We had to affirm again our belief that as God liberated the Israelites from Egypt, and as Ezekiel say the resurrection of the dry bones, so we buried with Christ in his death, are risen with him in newness of life, liberated from the curse of sin and alivened with the Spirit. Then the entire congregation was sprinkled with water using these fir tree branches that were dipped in water. As the choir sang, the priest walked solemnly around the whole church, dipping and sprinkling us all. My heart pounded and then soared, pounded and soared. I was loving this.

The dramatic climax was equally as incredible: The priest declared that "He is Risen!!" and the congregation all rung their bells loudly and shouted, "He is Risen indeed! Alleluia! Alleluia!" speaking "Alleluia" for the first time since Ash Wednesday. We kept ringing them as the choir sang a bright and glorious chorus, as the lights all came on and as the altar, which had been stripped bare on Good Friday, was redressed with bright tapestries, and flowers were brought up to adorn the altar from all sides, and our priest friend Andrew was adorned in golden and blue stitched priestly vestments. Stunning! And how fun to ring those bells, with 500 others, for like 10 minutes!!

Then was our first Eucharist celebration of Easter, and then the priest completed his homily which he had started in the beginning: Christ is here, he is alive, our cries have been answered in him, there is hope.

We sang more, the choir sang more, we finished with some historic, rich prayers, and then the party began! Live music, wine, good food, and great new friends to meet! I love this church!

And so I came home, inspired, and having to write the prayers for our Easter celebration today, I wrote this:


Easter Sunday Prayer Litany
'River'service at St. Anne's Anglican Church
April 4, 2010


One:
Glorious Risen One, today we rejoice that you did not leave this world in darkness, but you came to awaken it to new life with the eternal light of your presence,that you showed us the way to everlasting harmony with You, with all of our sisters and brothers, and with all of creation. We rejoice that though you entered into the darkness of good Friday, and though you allowed for the full wrath of the powers of this world to be unleashed upon you, that was not the end of the story. Because you arose from the grave, we can say together:

All:
Light is stronger than darkness
Love is stronger than hate
For we know that our Redeemer lives
And we’ll stand with him on that day


One:
Living Savior, indeed we do rejoice that you did not remain in that cold, dark cave,
forever to be forgotten in the dusty pages of history. But as you rose you defeated the very power of death, and with it, you loosened the grip of sin that had held all of creation. We pray, Lord, that all those experiencing today the lingering effects of that curse, those suffering from isolation, oppression, persecution, and infinite sadness, that they may find fresh strength in the good news that this need not be the end of their story. For we remember together:

All:
Light is stronger than darkness
Love is stronger than hate
For we know that our Redeemer lives
And we’ll stand with him on that day


One:
For those who lack food, work, or a home, for those who seem to have lost their way, for those who are sick, in pain, or are grieving, for those who fear the future, for those who fear the present, or are paralyzed by fears from their past, may you comfort and strengthen them, and may we remind them, in word and deed, that because of this day, Death is swallowed up in victory. Where, Oh death is your victory? Where, Oh death is your sting? Thanks be to you, oh God, who has given us the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord. For it is true what we proclaim together:

All:
Light is stronger than darkness
Love is stronger than hate
For we know that our Redeemer lives
And we’ll stand with him on that day


One:
But in the meantime, Lord, before that day, we remain in a world that seems to be overcome with darkness and hate. We hear of wars, of earthquakes, of famine, of disease. We pray for your healing presence Lord, to rush through the nations, for peace to become more than a distant dream. We pray for your wisdom to flood through the minds of our nations’ leaders, that they may advocate for the weak, the poor, for those in distress, and for the crying earth. And let us find comfort that this is not the end of the story, but we await the final act of the drama that is yet to come, when Christ will come again to restore Your Reign of Peace forever upon this earth. Until then, we pray that we may always be reminded, that because You have risen today:

All:
Light is stronger than darkness
Love is stronger than hate
For we know that our Redeemer lives
And we’ll stand with him on that day



One:
All this we pray in the name of the Father our Creator, the Son our Redeemer, and the Holy Spirit our Sustainer.

All: Amen.

2 comments:

Sharolyn said...

Hi Jen, I found this linked from your other blog. This service sounds amazing. Am looking forward to Holy Week at Grandview too.

Jen Galicinski said...

Thanks Sharolyn! Yeah Anglicans do it right. I'm thinking I might go to a traditional Easter Vigil at St. James in the downtown eastside this year. Not sure if Grandview is doing one this year...