Passiontide and Easter 2025
Holy Week and Easter at All Saints
We have prepared a short guide to getting the most out of Holy Week. Please feel free to share with others.
There's also a short Easter Trail in our 6 acre wildlife haven. Watch Rev Simon's introduction.
Passiontide
It is still uncertain when Christians first began to make an annual (as opposed to a weekly) memorial of the death and resurrection of Christ. This Pascha (a word derived indirectly from pesach, Hebrew ‘Passover’) was at first a night-long vigil, followed by the celebration of the Eucharist at cock-crow, and all the great themes of redemption were included within it: incarnation, suffering, death, resurrection, glorification. Over time, the Pascha developed into the articulated structure of Holy Week and Easter.
Through participation in the whole sequence of services, the Christian shares in Christ’s own journey, from the triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday to the empty tomb on Easter morning. The procession with palms, which was already observed in Jerusalem in the fourth century, is accompanied by the reading or singing of the Passion Narrative, in which the whole story of the week is anticipated. Maundy Thursday (from mandatum, ‘commandment’) contains a rich complex of themes: humble Christian service expressed through Christ’s washing of his disciples’ feet, the institution of the Eucharist, the perfection of Christ’s loving obedience through the agony of Gethsemane.
After keeping vigil (‘Could you not watch with me one hour?’) Thursday passes into Good Friday with its two characteristic episodes. The veneration of the Cross is older; the sequence of meditations and music known as the Three Hours’ Devotion was introduced into the Church of England in the nineteenth century. The first is now sometimes incorporated into the structure of the second: the church remains stripped of all decoration. It continues bare and empty through the following day, which is a day without a liturgy: there can be no adequate way of recalling the being dead of the Son of God, other than silence and desolation. But within the silence there grows a sense of peace and completion, and then rising excitement as the joy of the Resurrection draws near.
Services at All Saints
We hope you can join us in the final week of our journey to Easter.
- Palm Sunday 13th April
- 10.00 am Parish Communion with Gospel of the Palms and Passion reading
- 6.30 pm Meditation in words and Music for Palm Sunday
- Holy Monday 14th April
- 8.00 am Morning Prayer.
- Church open for private prayer
- 5.00 pm Evening Prayer
- 8.00 pm Sung Compline
- Holy Tuesday 15th April
- 8.00 am Morning Prayer
- Church open for private prayer
- 5.00 pm Evening Prayer
- 8.00 pm Sung Compline
- Holy Wednesday 16th April
- 8.00 am Morning Prayer
- Church open for private prayer
- 5.00 pm Evening Prayer
- 8.00 pm Sung Compline
- Maundy Thursday 17th April
- 8.00 am Morning Prayer
- Church open for private prayer
- 5.00 pm Evening Prayer
- 8.00 pm Choral Communion with Stripping of the Altars
- 9.15 pm (approx) Church open for Watch until Midnight
- Good Friday 18th April
- 8.00 am Morning Prayer
- Church open for private prayer
- 10.00 am Walk of Witness starting from All Saints 10.00 am for 10.15
- 2.00 pm An Hour at the Foot of the Cross
- Saturday 19th April
- Church (like our Lord's tomb) closed
- Easter Day 20th April
- 10.00 am Service of Light and Parish Communion.
- 6.30 pm Evensong (said)
- Easter Monday 21st April
- 1.30 pm Gather in the orchard at St Albans Cathedral
- 2.30 for 3.00 pm Process into Cathedral for Pilgrimage Eucharist
Lenten Prayer
As we pilgrim through Lent this year, please join me in praying the Lenten Prayer of Ephrem the Syrian* which is vital to an Orthodox keeping of Lent:
Take from me an ability to be overly curious of others,
to be lazy, to love power, and to idly chatter and gossip.
But make your servant wholehearted:
through a spirit of humility, patience, and love.
Yes, O Lord and King, grant me to see my own sins
and not to judge my sister or brother.
For You are blessed for ever and ever. Amen.
Simon
*my transliteration
How to find us
Information for Hirers
Our Hall may have just the slot you need. For further information and/or to make a booking visit the dedicated website at https://www.stjohnshallhertford.org/.
To book the church contact the Parish Adminstrator: office@allsaintshertford.org
Can't find something?
Please email us office@allsaintshertford.org (office hours are 14-16 Thurs and Sat) or contact our Vicar vicar@allsaintshertford.org.
