Lenten Practices In Your Church

[crazyheart]

Do you light or de-light Lenten candles.

or

Do you move lit candles to empty candle holders on other side

Do you use purple or blue candles?

Do you have Lenten banners?

Do you not sing the Hallelujas during Lent?

Do you have families of all kinds light and de-light the candles?

Do you have Maundy Thursday Supper. ( I have heard that because this is a Jewish Passover supper

we should not use this unless a Rabbi is present) Thoughts?

Do you light the palms from last year and use the ashes for the making of the cross on ASH Wednesday?

What do you do on Good Friday - remove all of the ritual (banners, candles etc.?

Tell me about your Holy Saturday. What do you do?

 

[revjohn]

Do you light or de-light Lenten candles.

We only have the Christ candle. During Advent we have an Advent Wreath. No additional candles during the season of Lent unless we decide on a Tennebrae service and then the additional candles are only for that service.

The Christ Candle will be extinguished on Good Friday during the liturgy and re-lit for the Easter Sunday service.

Do you have Lenten banners?

We don't have any banners. We are very spartan in our sanctuary. We do have a large cross which we drape with the liturgically appropriate colours. Purple now. That will be stripped during Good Friday liturgy, the cross will be removed from the sanctuary and the altar and pulpit will be shrouded in black.

Do you not sing the Hallelujas during Lent?

Hallelujahs are not part of our regular liturgy. When we celebrate Communion they are included no matter what the season.

Do you have Maundy Thursday Supper. ( I have heard that because this is a Jewish Passover supper

we should not use this unless a Rabbi is present) Thoughts?

We would not pretend to have a Passover Seder unless a local Rabbi was leading it for educational purposes. No meal planned for Maunday Thursday however it might be something to explore.

Our Maunday Thursday service tends to be a series of Five dramatic readings from a drama called "Where You There/" The readings offer perspectives on Good Friday from the perspective of Mary, Mother of Jesus, Mary Magdalene, Peter, Judas and Pilate.

Do you light the palms from last year and use the ashes for the making of the cross on ASH Wednesday?

Yup. From what I have heard the palms were reluctant to burn this year. The parishioner who usually takes responsibility for doing this before hand had quite the ordeal.

What do you do on Good Friday - remove all of the ritual (banners, candles etc.?)

Whatever we can't shroud gets removed.

Tell me about your Holy Saturday. What do you do?

Nothing liturgical here. I haven't served a congregation that showed any interest in a vigil. I'm usually recovering from Good Friday Swell in London. No idea what they will be asking me to do this year. Did a lot of screaming for Christmas Swell.

 

[crazyheart]

Thanks @ RevJohn.

 

[crazyheart]

No interest, anyone

 

[Mendalla]

Not much to say. I don't even remember any special Lenten practices in my old family church, to be honest. Maybe we did and I didn't get involved so it didn't leave a mark. In UU'ism, some choose to observe the season in various ways, but it's very much an individual thing. Church-wise, the ministers we've had have usually themed the Easter Sunday sermon around ideas like rebirth and life coming from death but even that depends on the congregation and minister. There certainly hasn't been any special observances of Lent like there are in Christian churches. We had a seder many years ago (the minister of the time was born and raised Jewish and became UU in her teens or adulthood, I forget which) but that was geared to Passover, not Easter.

 

[Lastpointe]

We do a pot luck dinner on Maundy Thursday

Use the palm ashes

Give out palm crosses on palm sunday

Next week we do "week of guided prayer" for people who wish to participate

We do a good friday cross walk at 7, followed by a service at 11

We have banners that are put up.

Sunday service we hand out the music to the Halleluia chorus and led by the choir, we all sing it

 

[Seeler]

I have done all of the above at one time or another, probably not all on the ssame year.
We used to do a Mardi Gras celebration in conjunction with a pancake supper at my previous church - the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday. We would celebrate with colours, costumes, quizzes about lenten symbols, music. One year I remember after the meal we held a little ceremony where we boxed up our Hallalujiah banners, using tape to hold them in until they were released and hung around the church on Easter morning.

I revised this church for pancakes last Tuesday. Alas it was simply a friendly meal, no educational or celebratory elements.

I have taken part in Maundy Thursday meals, and the observance of the last supper Jesus ate with his desciples. Sometimes we have had footwashing for those who wished to participate. One year our minister lead us in a typical seder meal such as Jesus might have eaten that night. It was very meaningful and not in any way meant to make light of their traditions. I wouldn't do it now without first checking with the local Jewish community.

Although I foound lent observances meaningful when I taught Sunday School and practiced them with my own family, I seem to have let them slide by the wayside.

We do extinguish a purple candle and read a litany each Sunday at church during this season of the church year.

 

[KayTheCurler]

I am not aware of any special Lenten things at local churches, though some congregations may talk about 'giving something up' for the duration. I noticed that there was a Good Friday walk a few years ago - but only a very few of the local Christians attended. There isn't anything in my memory relating to Lent from my church attending childhood either. No recollections of purple candles or anything like that.

I happened to be in a city on Ash Wednesday and spotted a very expensively clothed woman with ashes on her forehead. I guessed she might be Anglican or RC but didn't ask. Does anyone know whether the imposition of ashes is only followed in the older, ritualistic denominations?

 

[You just never know]

On Ash Wednesday our minister put on his robes (which he never wears on Sunday's) and went and stood on a street corner offering ashes to passers by. Also every year the minister uses the Sunday's of Lent to preach a sermon on the academy award nominated movies and how the secular message of the movies applies to the spiritual journey. Hillhurst is an interesting place to worship in to be sure.

 

[Mendalla]

On Ash Wednesday our minister put on his robes (which he never wears on Sunday's) and went and stood on a street corner offering ashes to passers by. Also every year the minister uses the Sunday's of Lent to preach a sermon on the academy award nominated movies and how the secular message of the movies applies to the spiritual journey. Hillhurst is an interesting place to worship in to be sure.

I think Gretta Vosper did that in the lead up to the Oscars, too. At least that's what it looked like from her FB. Popular culture can be both a goldmine and a minefield for preaching (says the guy who did a sermon on the spirituality of magic and fantasy fiction).

 

[Carolla]

My church has variably done many of the things mentioned by others. Last Sunday worship was cancelled - water pipe to our building was frozen. I didn't get to morning worship today, so I'm not sure what's being done this year, other than a book study during Lent. Marking Palm Sunday is pretty typical. Good Friday morning service; one service Easter morning with special musical guests etc.

What's happening at your church Crazyheart?

 

[crazyheart]

I have noticed that if your church, carolla, has an active Christian Education Ctte or an active

staff person who does education to the congregation and Church School, the church will follow the theme from Shrove

Tuesday until Easter Sunday. But leadership is the key.

 

[BetteTheRed]

We have a very active Lent season. Our banners and draperies in the sanctuary are purple. We have a series of purple candles that we light one more of each week. We have Lent Loot bags passed out the Sunday before Lent starts, encouraging people to put aside a little extra something (perhaps using a "giving up" theme); I'm not sure what charity the Outreach Team has identified for these funds this year. We subsidize copies of the Lent devotional resource purchased from ucph (Longing for Home). We have a Shrove Tuesday dinner (prepared, served and cleaned up by the men of the congregation), an Ash Wednesday service. During Holy week, we have a Maundy Thursday service where we strip the sanctuary and drape it in black, followed by a Seder dinner, which I'm really not sure about, but, it's something of a tradition here, and it's 'my' group that started it some years ago after a couple of years of enjoying the Seder at the local synagogue, and continues to host and organize it (I always roast a couple of legs of lamb, which are always very much enjoyed). Some years, we've done both: gone to the Am Shalom Seder as a table on the Tuesday, then had our own on Thursday. Good Friday service, then sunrise service at the lake (well, 7 a.m., which is a bit post-sunrise, lol) Easter Sunday hosted by all of the City's United Church ministers, followed by a regular Easter Sunday service at the church. This past year, we walked past a model of an open tomb, with 'stone' rolled back (we have a very talented congregation member who makes all manner of props for the worship team) into a dark sanctuary, ostensibly as we'd left it after the Friday service, and then the sanctuary brightened to reveal the bright Easter theme. This unaccustomed starting in the dark, though, proved something of a challenge for our autistic members, so we're rethinking that sort of thing to include, at least, warnings for them prior to the service. And our progressive Christianity group is working its way through the DVD of Spong's lecture "Jesus for the Non-Religious", which investigates the theme of resurrection and Messiah in some nice detail, so that ties in nicely with Lent this year. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't; last year, we looked at the Charter for Compassion for 4 weeks, which fit in nicely, as well, but other years, I've been in the middle of a long-ish series that I didn't interrupt.

 

[Jae]

We're trying something new this year. The senior pastor and I will take turns giving short 5-minute talks on subjects concerning Lent. This coming Sunday I'm to give the 2nd of such talks, which will be on the subject of humility.

 

[TwilightReader]

My minister blows out our candles every week.

Said candles are white.

Yes, we have 3 abstract Lenten banners, made by a member of the church.

No, we're not singing the Hallelujahs. I miss them!

We're not having a Maundy Thursday supper, but we are having a service.

I'm not sure where the ashes came from or what we do during Holy Week, I'm still in my first year with my church.

An addition: my minister's been wearing his blue "Advent" robe, rather than the ordinary time white.

 

[Jae]

This Sunday I will speaking in church on the subject of suffering. I will begin by talking about suffering in our world, move to talking about suffering in the Bible, move to speaking on God's grace in the midst of biblical suffering, and conclude with speaking on God's grace in the midst of our suffering. It should be quite the enjoyable talk.

 

[crazyheart]

Hi TwilightReader Good to have you here

 

[Mendalla]

This Sunday I will speaking in church on the subject of suffering. I will begin by talking about suffering in our world, move to talking about suffering in the Bible, move to speaking on God's grace in the midst of biblical suffering, and conclude with speaking on God's grace in the midst of our suffering. It should be quite the enjoyable talk.

I wouldn't mind hearing that sermon, Jae. Alas, your church is a bit far, especially on a Sunday when I'm leaving on a business trip at noon. Maybe you should follow the lead of some of our UCCan ministers (e.g. @revsdd ) and start blogging your sermons after you give them.

 

[Jae]

I wouldn't mind hearing that sermon, Jae. Alas, your church is a bit far, especially on a Sunday when I'm leaving on a business trip at noon. Maybe you should follow the lead of some of our UCCan ministers (e.g. @revsdd ) and start blogging your sermons after you give them.

Thank you for your kind words Mendalla. It would be great if you came to hear me preach some time. This speech isn't a sermon though. It will just be a 5 minute talk. Good idea * on blogging sermons. That would be a bit more work [=] for me than for others. In my faith tradition we tend to preach from notes rather than from manuscripts.

 

[revsdd]

Thank you for your kind words Mendalla. It would be great if you came to hear me preach some time. This speech isn't a sermon though. It will just be a 5 minute talk. Good idea * on blogging sermons. That would be a bit more work [=] for me than for others. In my faith tradition we tend to preach from notes rather than from manuscripts.

Always remember though that the sermon preached is never exactly the sermon written. Even a manuscript is more along the lines of lengthy notes.