Clergy from left, The Rev. Mary Ann Hill, Rector, Trinity on the Hill, Pastor Nicolé Ferry, Deacon Cynthia Biddlecomb, retired; Associate Priest Lynn Finnegan and Pastor Deb Church. Photo by Nate Limback/ladailypost.com
By Deacon Cynthia Biddlecomb, M.Div.
ELCA
As a child, growing up in the Episcopal Church, I learned early on the significance of the week before Easter. My public school took a break that week, and my family would attend church more often than usual. After waving palm fronds and processing into the sanctuary on Palm Sunday, I could expect several more worship services later that Holy Week, before we got to the fun of Easter morning.
Years after I joined the Lutheran tradition in college, I learned the ancient term for those special services: the Latin name Triduum, which literally means the “three days”. These three holiest days of the Church Year are commonly known as Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday. After low-church worship experiments in the Nineteen-Sixties, the Seventies brought a new interest in ancient Christian traditions, bringing back rituals that more dramatically remind us of what Jesus went through to prove God’s love for us.
Now begins Holy Week 2024 for the Western Church—the Eastern, or Orthodox Churches will celebrate Easter Sunday on May 5th this year. I’m getting excited to experience again the spiritual depth of Triduum services, deeply meaningful liturgies—candles, occasionally incense… all the “smells and bells”. As we worship together in these specially designed spiritual settings, we find they address a deep need in us for meaning and authenticity.
To experience the most dramatic of these services, one could try an Episcopal, Lutheran or Catholic church. The evening service on Maundy Thursday remembers Jesus washing his disciples’ feet, his last supper with them, his praying in the garden, and his arrest by the temple guard. That service may end with the altar being stripped of all the candles, vessels, linens and drapery, the lighting dimmed, and silence maintained as we leave.
The next morning, at Good Friday services, we meet in a barren and darkened chancel. The setting adds a poignancy to our vigil, remembering Jesus’ crucifixion and tortuous death. Late the next day, on Holy Saturday, some churches hold the Great Vigil of Easter (potentially three hours long), or a shorter one-hour version of the Eater Vigil, where light enters and slowly increases in the worship space, Bible stories of God’s saving grace are told, baptisms and communion are held. This is the highest liturgy of the year, offering increasing joyfulness as the night goes on, and transforming our view of eternal life.
If any of this sounds up your alley, I highly recommend experiencing these Triduum services before you attend the Easter Sunrise or Eater Festival services on Sunday. In Los Alamos County, you can find many of the services I have described offered among the six congregations who just shared the Season of Lent together—Bethlehem Lutheran (BELC); First United Methodist (FUMC); Trinity on the Hill Episcopal (TOTH); The United Church (UC); White Rock Methodist (WRUMC); and White Rock Presbyterian (WRPC).
Editor’s note: ‘All Shall Be Well’ is a column written by local women clergy including ELCA Deacon Cynthia Biddlecomb, M.Div., retired (czoebidd@gmail.com); Pastor Nicolé Ferry, Bethlehem Evangelical Lutheran Church (pastornicole@bethluth.com); Associate Priest Lynn Finnegan, The Episcopal Church of the Holy Faith, Santa Fe (rev.lynn@holyfaithchurchsf.org); Pastor Deb Church, White Rock Presbyterian Church (pastor@wrpchurch.com) and The Rev. Mary Ann Hill, Rector, Trinity on the Hill Episcopal Church (momaryannhill@gmail.com).
