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Join us at St Mary’s as we journey once more with Jesus through Holy Week, to the joyful dawn of Easter.

Opportunities for worship and community in Passiontide and Easter

  • Wednesday, Mar 25 at 12:00 noon: Music, Poetry and Art for Passiontide. Performers Marnie Setka-Mooney, soprano; Sara Partridge, mezzo-soprano; with Eric Partridge, present Mothers at the Cross: A Poetry and Art Presentation and 'Stabat Mater, P.77', by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi.
  • Sunday, Mar 29: Passion Sunday, with the Liturgy of the Palms
  • Thursday, April 2 at 7:00 pm: Maundy Thursday Eucharist—Prayers, Music, and Movement, reflecting on the nature of self-giving Love
  • Friday, April 3 at 11:00 am: The Good Friday Liturgy—Hear again the story of Love which walks the path of suffering in order to bring healing and Life
  • Saturday, April 4 at 8:00 pm: The Great Vigil of Easter—Fire, Candles, and Bells as we celebrate resurrection and Life.
  • Easter Sunday, Apr 20
    • 7:00 am Easter Sunrise Worship at Willows Beach, with Oak Bay United Church (hot cross buns and coffee for breakfast at St Mary's after)
    • 10:00am Easter Eucharist: Word, Music and the Table, open to all!

The glory of Easter is the heart of the ‘Good News’ for Christians. It is, quite literally, the centre of the Church’s faith and worship. Indeed, almost from the beginning days of the Church, the ‘season of Easter’ lasts for a full 50 days from Easter Sunday—seven weeks of celebrating what it means for us today that Christ is risen from dead. That’s some party!

But road to the joy runs through darkness—a darkness that we can recognise from our own experience. And so, as we enter the final two weeks of Lent, we walk with Jesus and his follower throughout the ages, through the events immediately preceding the Easter sunrise. We call these days Passiontide.

From the earliest days of the Church, Christians would recall the final meal Jesus had with his disciples and his institution of the sacrament of the eucharist. On the Friday they would commemorate Christ’s agony and death on the cross. On Saturday night they would gather for the reading of the scripture, for prayers, for the baptism of their new converts, and then, as the day of the resurrection dawned, for the joyful celebration of Easter. This week just before Easter became known as Holy Week.

Each year, this special time gives us another opportunity to discover what it means to be loved and companioned by God, even and especially through the dark shadows. Come, join us as we mark and celebrate the love of God in Jesus Christ.

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