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Good Friday at Trinity Lime Rock, 2003

Some Trinity parishioners attend "Three hours on the Cross" services from noon to 3 p.m. at other local churches, but at Trinity we observe the Liturgy of Good Friday, one of the oldest in Christendom, on Good Friday night.  

To place things a chronological context, the service that preceded this one here at Trinity was that of Maundy Thursday, the previous evening.  That service, of course, commemorated Jesus' last meal with his disciples, his Last Supper.  Please view a page about the Maundy Thursday service if you wish.  

You will recall that we left the church that evening with the Sacrament removed from the Aumbrey, the Sanctus Lamp extinguished, and the Altar stripped.

The rubrics call for the service to begin in silence, and for the Celebrant to precede the Good Friday Collect with the words "Blessed be our God" and the People to respond "For ever and ever.  Amen."

The Solemn Collects, some of the oldest prayers in Christendom, follow the Gospel.

Following the Lord's Prayer, the service concludes with the following prayer (BCP page 282):

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, we pray you to set your passion, cross, and death between your judgment and our souls, now and in the hour of our death.  Give mercy and grace to the living; pardon and rest to the dead; to your holy Church peace and concord; and to us sinners everlasting life and glory; for with the Father and Holy Spirit you live and reign, one God, now and for ever.  Amen.

Priests, acolytes and congregation depart silently; as the rubrics require, there is no hymn or postlude.

The Great Vigil of Easter is the next service at Trinity.  

See our page about Holy Week 2009