Services start at 7:45am & 10:00am

The 7:45am service is a contemplative service without music. The 10:00am service has music and is "kid friendly".
Adult Bible study and Children's Sunday School start at 9am in the parish hall next to the church.

The nursery is available during the Adult Bible study and Children's Sunday School as well as the 10:00am service.

Everyone is welcome to gather in the parish hall, next to the church, for refreshments after each service.

Holy Week at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church

Experience the Drama that Will Draw You to a More Meaningful Easter!

 

Palm Sunday Sunday March 28  at  7:45am  & 10:00am

Maundy Thursday  Thursday April 1  at  7:00pm

Good Friday  Friday April 2   at 12:30pm

Great Vigil of Easter Saturday April 3  at 7:00pm

Easter Sunday April 4   7:45am & 10:00am

St. Alban’s Annual Easter Egg Hunt after 10:00am Worship  All Are Welcome!

 

The week prior to Easter Sunday is one of the most important of times for Christians across the world and across time.  For centuries Christians have had special worship experiences that only occur during the week before Easter; these worship experiences were and are designed to help us go deeper and fuller into our faith, to get closer to the mystery of what happened and still happens.  Such a journey is not easy in the world we live in, and it never has been, which is why these special worship experiences came into being, and have stayed with us for centuries.

If you want to have an Easter Sunday that is more than “just another Sunday”, if you yearn for an Easter that is more than the brunch after church, if you long to get closer to what it the awe of the empty tomb, then come to as many of these special worship experiences as you can, and see for yourself why this week is called Holy Week.

 

 

Palm Sunday

This is a mixed up feeling day!  It begins with joy and triumph, with the blessing of palm branches, walking into the church building with the excitement of that day Jesus came into Jerusalem.  But we don’t stay there very long, just as the week quickly changed for Jesus, so too that day changes from triumphant entry to betrayal, trial, and finally, death on the cross.   We leave with a sense of sadness, but also hope, for we know the way this will turn out, so we also leave with the invitation to come back and walk a little closer to the events of the past.

 

Maundy Thursday

One of the most touching worship experiences you can encounter.  It starts with honoring what it is to be a servant, a follower of Christ by a washing of feet.  The Rector washes the feet of those who come forward as a reminder to all that a priest is one who serves, and yet those who’s feet are washed as given the charge that they should do to others as has been done to them; thus servant hood is an ongoing process.  Then the night progresses to the scene in the Garden, where Jesus will be betrayed, where he asks his disciples to stay awake, and they cannot, where one of his friends will betray him, and where he will be taken away.  To signify this, the altar will be stripped: all the finery will be removed, and it will be washed with water and bitter herbs.  A Watch will be kept, for those who will stay awake, who will give up and receive an hour or more of time to pray, reflect, and be with Christ in the church building.

A simple Agape Meal follows the worship, people are asked to leave in silence to the meal where traditional foods are served in hushed candlelight as both comfort and reminder as we move into the next day.

 

Good Friday

A very old worship experience where those of us who still follow Jesus journey all the way to the foot of the cross, to look on the terrible things humanity will do.  It wasn’t God who crucified Jesus, it was people, people who were afraid of losing their power, people who were afraid to know God in a new way, and people who are afraid sometimes do terrible things.  Yet we are followers of Jesus, and we can face this day because we know that this day is not the end, that God can take the most terrible thing and transform it into something beyond amazing.  To know that amazing thing, though, we sometimes have to go back to the cross.

 

Great Vigil of Easter

This is the oldest recorded worship experience of the Christian Church.  Before there was what we call the Roman Catholic Church, there was the Great Vigil of Easter.  While Paul was still writing his letters, there was the Great Vigil of Easter.  When Rome persecuted the fledgling group of people who followed Jesus, these Jesus followers were participating in the Great Vigil of Easter.  It is something we just can’t and shouldn’t give up!  It is an experience of drama, true liberation, and a glimpse of New Life in Christ.  It begins in darkness, the darkness of death and the tomb.  Suddenly, light appears as the New Fire is lit, and this warm light makes its way to those who are seated in the church.  It is by this light that we listen to the story of our salvation, beginning with when the world was made.  Then the church is flooded with light as bells ring out and we cry out with bold joy and gladness Alleluia Christ is Risen!  And we can celebrate in joy once again.  Historically, this was the worship service where people were baptized, because it was symbolic of their new life in Christ, and their official entry into the Body of Christ.  While we won’t have a baptism at St. Alban’s this year, we can still enter this amazing worship experience and share our life in Christ.

 

When you come, bring a bell to ring!

 

If you are able to participate in all these worship experiences, when the sun rises on Easter Sunday, you already know the tomb is empty, that something quite wild is a foot, but there is no need to be afraid, because it turns out life is far more than we’d ever thought, that death no longer has the final say, and we can take one more step toward living the Resurrection this year.  Thank be God, Alleluia, Alleluia!