Weekend: Palm Sunday Services Set
Episcopal News Service. March 16, 2005 [031605-3-A]
This Sunday, March 20, is Palm Sunday and the Sunday before Easter, when Jesus' final and triumphal entry into Jerusalem is observed. In many Episcopal congregations the passion narrative is also read. Real palm branches or crosses made from palms are usually distributed to the congregation. In some churches, Palm Sunday palms are saved and later burned to make the ashes for the next year's Ash Wednesday service.
Please check with your local Episcopal Church for details of services in your area. A full list of Episcopal Cathedrals, along with web links and contact details, is available online at: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/3577_51512_ENG_HTM.htm.
Coming up Friday, March 18, 2005...
NEW YORK - Marking the second anniversary of the invasion in Iraq, St. Mary's Episcopal Church, West Harlem, extends an invitation to come and chant the "Great Litany" at the Isaiah Wall (East 43rd + First Avenue) in front of the United Nations at 12 noon on Friday, March 18.
"The Great Litany is chanted in times of great emergency, and since we are at 'war' and now coming up on the two year anniversary of the U.S invasion of Iraq (March 19th), and the second year of occupation, the Church would like to voice its peaceful presence." Clergy are asked to come fully vested.
Further information: the Rev. Earl Kooperkamp, rector of St. Mary's, at 212.864.4013.
Coming up Saturday, March 19, 2005...
MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota - St. Mark's Cathedral Choir from Minneapolis, Minnesota, will perform J.S. Bach's St. John Passion at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 19, at the Cathedral.
Evangelist Dominick Rodriguez will be joined by Aaron Larson (Jesus) with soloists and orchestra; Raymond Johnston, canon musician, conducting. Tickets: $15 adults; $10 seniors/students.
St. Mark's Cathedral, 519 Oak Grove, Minneapolis. Tel: 612.870.7800. http://www.st-marks-cathedral.org.
PARK RIDGE, Illinois - St. Mary's Episcopal Church in Park Ridge, Illinois, will be holding a vigil for U.S. and Iraqi military and civilians who have died in the Iraq war from 5 til 7 p.m. on Saturday, March 19. Each U.S. and coalition forces fatality will be marked with a flag on the church's front lawn.
St. Mary's Episcopal Church, 306 S. Prospect Avenue, Park Ridge, Illinois 60068. Tel: 847.823.4126. http://www.stmarysparkridge.org.
Coming up Sunday, March 20, 2005...
BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP, Michigan - Nativity Episcopal Church in Bloomfield Township, Michigan, will present Ariel Dorfman's play "Speak Truth to Power: Voices from Beyond the Dark," on Sunday, March 20, at 10:30 a.m.
The play is based on the Amnesty International Project and the work of the RFK Center for Human Rights, lifting up contemporary defenders of human rights around the world. The voices of "Speak Truth to Power" are of today's men and women who have been betrayed, arrested, put on trial and imprisoned, and yet have found the courage to speak out knowing that the world does not have to be the way it is.
Further information, please call 248.646.4100 or visit: http://www.nativityepiscopalchurch.org.
FORT WASHINGTON, Pennsylvania - Fleming Rutledge, one of the first women to be ordained to the priesthood of the Episcopal Church, will preach on Palm Sunday, March 20, at St. Thomas' Church in Whitemarsh, Pennsylvania.
Rutledge spent twenty-two years in parish ministry and now has an international preaching vocation. She is widely recognized in all the mainline denominations and in Canada and the U.K. for her preaching and teaching. She served for fourteen years on the clergy staff at Grace Church on Lower Broadway at Tenth Street, New York City.
St. Thomas' Church, Bethlehem Pike and Camp Hill Road, Whitemarsh, Fort Washington, Pennsylvania. Tel: 215.233.3970. http://www.stthomaswhitemarsh.org.
LEXINGTON, Kentucky - The annual Liturgy of Healing and Wholeness and Blessing of Singularity will be held at St. Michael's Church in Lexington, Kentucky, on Palm Sunday afternoon at 4 p.m.
Bishop Stacy Sauls of Lexington will be the celebrant at this 18th annual celebration, which is open to men and women of any denomination in the geographic area of the Diocese of Lexington who have suffered or are suffering the "desert experience of broken relationship."
The service is scheduled annually on Palm Sunday afternoon to assist individuals in looking at their loss in the context of their spiritual journeys, and to come to Easter with a sense of the death and resurrection experiences in their own lives. The service is sponsored each year by Commission on Solo Flight Ministries with Single Adults of the Diocese of Lexington, which is chaired by Linda Wardle of St. John's, Versailles.
St. Michael's Church, Lexington, Kentucky 40503. Tel: 859.277.7511. http://www.saint-michaels.org.
ST. PAUL, Minneapolis - The Gregorian Singers, Monte Mason, founder and director, will perform a Concert Spirituel -- early music performed with choir, soloists, and period instruments -- at St. Paul's-On-The-Hill in St. Paul, Minnesota at 7 p.m. on Sunday, March 20.
Concerts Spirituel were first given in Europe during Lent. Opera houses were darkened, as more worldly musical entertainments were discouraged, and more thoughtful and spiritual music was performed.
The Gregorian Singers create a Minnesota Concert Spirituel, with choral and instrumental works by Guerrero, Charpentier, Hildegard von Bingen, di Lasso, Padilla, and Purcell. Period instruments include cornetto, lute, and a consort of sackbuts (early trombones). Tickets: $15 (General Admission) are available at the door, or by calling 612.827.3129.
St. Paul's-On-The-Hill, 1524 Summit Avenue, St. Paul (just east of Summit and Snelling), Minnesota 55105. Tel: 651.698.0371. http://www.stpaulsonthehillmn.org.
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Washington National Cathedral choirs will perform J. S. Bach's St. John Passion at 4 p.m. on Palm Sunday, March 20, at the Cathedral.
Soloists include Robert Petillo (Evangelist), James Shaffran (Christus), Rosa Lamoreaux (soprano), Roger Isaacs (countertenor), Tony Boutté (tenor), and Jon Bruno (bass) with the Washington National Cathedral Baroque Orchestra conducted by Michael McCarthy.
Tickets: $20–$60. Call: 202.537.5757 or order online at https://commerce.cathedral.org/exec/cathedral/tickets_0503.
State Day prayers this Sunday will remember Nevada in liturgies at Washington National Cathedral, Massachusetts and Wisconsin Avenues Northwest (Mount St. Alban), Washington, D.C., 20016; 202.537.6200; http://www.cathedral.org. The Very Rev. Samuel T. Lloyd III will be the preacher at the 8 a.m. and 11 a.m. services. Next Sunday, March 27: State Day prayers will remember Nebraska.
ANGLICAN COMMUNION - The Anglican Cycle of Prayer, this Sunday (Palm Sunday) offers the following prayer: ALMIGHTY AND EVERLIVING GOD, in your tender love for the human family you sent your Son our Savior Jesus Christ to take upon him our nature, and to suffer death upon the cross, giving us the example of his great humility: Mercifully grant that we may walk in the way of his suffering, and also share in his resurrection.
A message from the Editor: Our attention as Christians turns to Jerusalem during Holy Week. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem throughout the week and especially on Good Friday. Remember the Bishop, the Rt. Rev. Riah Abu El-Assal, and all the clergy and people of the diocese and its many agencies and institutions of education and care including St. George's Cathedral and College, known to many throughout the Anglican family who have come to the Holy City as pilgrims. The Anglican Cycle of Prayer can be accessed online at: http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acp/main.cfm.