Palm Sunday – 13 April 2025

Weekly Message

Blessings to the St. George’s community,
As we enter into Holy Week, we experience some of the most beautiful and moving parts of the church year and of our Christian story. There are many opportunities to come together to pray this week. In the words of one of our Holy Week Prayers “may we, walking in the way of the cross, find it is for us the way of Life.”Please read the material below carefully so that you know what to expect.

Palm (or Procession) Sunday

Archbishop John Stephens will join our 9:30 worship and bless symbols of our ministry together. Sometime before the service please check out this little video and practice singing our “Hosannas.”

The service begins in the Hall, not the church with the Liturgy of the Branches -we will celebrate the liturgy of the passion on Good Friday. There will be native plants in the hall for our procession, but before Sunday ask yourself, “If Jesus came down my street today, what are the plants that I would gather up and wave in celebration? W9/hat is in leaf or blossom now? And perhaps you want to bring one of those branches or fronds or flowers from your neighbourhood to carry in our procession into the church.
After the service please plan to stay for a meal to get to know our Archbishop and help him to get to know us.

Tuesday Book and Bible Study

Our Lenten Study has really met a need. At the in-person gathering, parishoners have used it as an opportunity for faith sharing, grappling with questions about what we believe, and how we share the parts of our tradition that we love with future generations. In the evening online sessions, local Salal + Cedar members, long-distance Salal + Cedar supporters from Washington State, Wisconsin and Ontario, and folks from St. George’s have shared across generations with a particular focus on how we try to seek justice in the world. Between the two groups there have been more than 40 participants! As we enter into Holy Week there will be no in-person study group on Tuesday April 15 as Rev. Laurel will be at the Diocesan Chrism Mass, where the Archbishop blesses holy oils that the Salal + Cedar community has wildcrafted from native plants and Palestinian Olive Oil. Everyone is welcome to join the online study group at 6 PM https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87615545132. Next month a group in North Vancouver will be reading Rabbi Laura’s book Mouth of the Donkey, if you would like to pass on your used copy you can drop them off in the hall or in the office.

Maundy Thursday

If you plan to attend and have not already done so, please sign up in the hall. On Thursday evening at 6PM we will gather in the hall for a humble meal where we remember the powerful events of the night before Jesus’ arrest. We hear scripture, sing, and members of the leadership team offer to wash members’ feet. This is a very powerful gift of service and caring that Jesus modeled for us. If you plan to say yes to this offering, you may want to consider socks and shoes that are easy to remove and put back on. During the meal we will bless bread and wine remembering Jesus’ last meal with his friends. After the meal we will move quietly to the church for the stripping of the altar, taking away all the beautiful extras that are a part of our sacrament and making visible the work of the Altar Guild that cares for them. At the end of the evening when the altar is bare, we go out from the church in silence into the bleakest time in the Christian year. Please do not get drawn into business and chatter, do not come back into the hall but let the designated clean-up crew quietly complete their work.

Good Friday

At 10 AM Friday the 18th beginning in front of the Community Hall our ecumenical neighbours are offering a community Stations of the Cross walk. You can find the guide here.
Stations of the Cross Guide

At 2PM we will hold our Good Friday Liturgy of the Passion, in this service we read the lengthy gospel account of the suffering and death of Jesus according to Luke. Although it is traditional, we will not be reading the gospel of John aloud in parts. This is something we have been asked to do by Jewish friends and colleagues because of the way that it contributes to Christian anti-Judaism. The reading of the passion is followed by a time of prayer and contemplation on the cross.
Rev. Laurel