Friday Five: Holy Week!!

as seen at RevGalBlogPals....Friday Five: Holy Week, Batman!

Well, the Clergy Superbowl is almost upon us, and so, I offer up this Friday Five (with apologies for the irreverent title):

1. Will this Sunday be Palms only, Passion only, or hyphenated?
Palms, palms, more palms, and some rocks.... (a la Luke 19.40). We have Thursday and Friday services that are pretty well attended, so this year no Passion story on Sunday. (we did have it the last two years, apparently...and we probably will again next year....)

2. Maundy Thursday Footwashing: Discuss.
Cool if people can get into it. It doesn't necessarily translate into our culture, though....I've mainly done it with youth, not in "regular" worship.

3. Share a particularly meaningful Good Friday worship experience.
hmmm....my first ever Good Friday worship service was the evening choral service at Fourth Church in 1999. the choir presented the Poulenc Stabat Mater. It was beautiful, and I kept going back to that church. In fact, I was just there on Wednesday too....

4. Easter Sunrise Services--choose one:
a) "Resurrection tradition par excellence!"
b) "Eh. As long as it's sunrise with coffee, I can live with it."
c) "[Yawn] Can't Jesus stay in the tomb just five more minutes, Mom?!?"
umm, somewhere between a and b, but only once a year, people! (there was a tongue-in-cheek suggestion that we make the early-worshippers happy by having weekly sunrise services led by the Associate Pastor. hahahahah!!!) I admit that when I lived in the city, I loved going to the sunrise service on Oak Street Beach. standing on the beach having communion is really cool. But I stopped at Starbucks on my way to said beach every year.

5. Complete this sentence: It just isn't Easter without...
Jesus Christ is Risen Today, to Llanfair, hymn 123 in the Presbyterian Hymnal.

Bonus: Any Easter Vigil aficionados out there? Please share.
My favorite Easter Vigil experience was at Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago. The Cardinal was presiding. I LOVE the telling of all of salvation history from "in the beginning." I just think it's dramatic and also really allows you to see the metanarrative.