The Pathfinder: March 14th, 2024
Palm Sunday: The Drama Begins
The Book of Common Prayer indicates that one of the synoptic (Matthew, Mark, Luke) accounts of Jesus’ Passion is to be read on Palm Sunday. For years I’ve always wrestled with the “whiplash” of shouting and singing ‘Hosanna!’ as we wave our palms, only to be instantly smacked with a collect and readings about Jesus’ crucifixion. I’ve sometimes hinted that I thought the BCP got it wrong with this approach.
In the late 1990s, when I was liturgist at St. Mark’s Cathedral in Seattle, I worked on changing the rhythm and pace of the given BCP service, to include more of the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. As a result, I moved the Passion reading to the end of the liturgy, and it changed everything.
Last year here at All Souls we used this approach, and so many people remarked positively about this different entry into Holy Week. We used a compendium of scenes from the 3 synoptic accounts. This year will mark a difference: we will use only Mark’s account, beginning with Pilate questioning Jesus about his kingship. It’s a little more streamlined, and packs a punch.
Four readers will lead the text, and congregation will take the parts of the crowd. The other key “players” in the drama are the percussionists. The timpani rolls low to set the opening scene, and will occasionally punctuate with sharp, short passages…a bit like creating a new camera angle. Additional percussion breaks in to intensify the drama.
As the Passion draws to its close, there is silence, except for the ringing of a triangle. People depart in silence to contemplate how we’ve begun our observance of Holy Week, and are invited deeper into the Mystery as the week unfolds.
– Dent Davidson
Living the Mystery: Holy Week for Kids
When I recall the Holy Weeks of my childhood, the memories come through all five senses: sight, smell, touch, taste, and sound. I recall the cross, shrouded in purple (my favorite color), keeping watch over a solemn Lenten church. I remember the smooth chill of water on my feet during Maundy Thursday. I can still almost smell the spicy incense wafting from the thurible (and I remember learning that strange, delightful word). I remember the readings from the Vigil service– the way story after story from the Hebrew Bible washed over me like poetry, dramatic and mysterious.
And I remember joining with other voices to sing, so loud that it both scared and thrilled me, “Christ has risen from the dead, trampling down death by death!!” I didn’t fully understand what we were celebrating and proclaiming, but the volume and strength and feeling in our voices made me feel certain it was something deeply important. After the Vigil service, we feasted in the Parish Hall through the wee hours of the morning, dancing and singing until the pale dawn of sunrise.
There are certain kinds of truths that you can’t fully grasp through words or explanations. These truths are so big, so mysterious, that you can only approach them through participation– by re-enacting scenes and inhabiting the stories with all of your senses, with your whole being. Holy Week is one of those. The mystery we are preparing for– the emergence of death out of life in Christ’s resurrection– is so significant that we have to approach it step-wise, service by service, act by act. And so we do. Through Palm Sunday and Maundy Thursday and Good Friday and the Vigil, we touch, taste, listen, smell, see, and see our way into a state of openness and imagination that prepares us to receive the promise of Easter.
Which is why Holy Week is so important and wonderful for children. Children think and live in story. Consider what we do during Holy Week. We play-act as though we’re disciples, washing one another’s feet. We animate the Passion narrative, assigning characters and voices. We light bonfires and light candles, arrested by the age-old drama of light-out-of-darkness. For one week, all of us enter the imaginative world that children spend most of their lives inhabiting.
At All Souls, we hope that children will take part in all aspects of Holy Week. Below, you’ll find a list of the many services and gatherings we offer. In particular, I want to invite young kids and families to come to our Holy Week for Kids service on Good Friday, March 29th. At 4pm, we’ll gather in the church. We’ll sing together, hear the Godly Play story of the Passion, and take turns at prayer stations: foot-washing, watercolors, Stations of the Cross. We’ll see artwork that our older kids have been working on during Sunday School for all of Lent.
I hope that you’ll join us as we enter these mysteries together.
– Emily+
A Flame of Hope: This Year’s Paschal Candle
For many years at All Souls, we have kept the tradition of making our own Paschal Candle from the used altar candles of the past year. We then create and paint the new candle, which always includes the cross, the present year, and the alpha and omega. This year we’ve chosen “Hope” as our theme.
Hope is the ground of our being and the wellspring of our faith, and flowers are the symbol of renewal and spiritual growth.
In this weary, war-torn world, we carry the hope found only in Christ. We are an Easter People, the people of the Resurrection, the sons and daughters of mystical hope. Spring is a sign of new hope, and flowers are the proof of new life.
In this Paschal Candle one can see the national flowers of the lands for whom we pray for today. The state flower of Gaza is the iris; Israel’s national flower is the calanit anemone; Ukraine’s is the sunflower and Russia has the chamomile. You can also see the national flower of both Sudan and Haiti, which is the hibiscus. Our own national flower is the red rose.
We urgently pray for hope and peace in all regions of the globe, and that God’s hope will spread and grow and be found in our universal love for each other.
– Diane Haavik
The Waters of Baptism: A Personal Reflection
At All Souls, we often perform baptisms as part of our Great Vigil of Easter liturgy. Below is the reflection of an All Soulsian, Kalonica McQuesten, who experienced a full immersion baptism in 2018. She shares her thoughts on the profound physical and spiritual dimensions of this experience and its lasting effect.
If you are considering being baptized at this year’s Vigil, it’s not too late. Please reach out to Emily HC, Emily B, or Phil.
“No, I didn’t catch pneumonia. Actually, I did not ever feel cold.
The water was the perfect temperature for a baptism. Like a California mountain creek, on a sunny day, in the summertime.
I wouldn’t have had it any other way.
What happened? How did it go?
First, there was me — the one who’d been properly catechized (new word!) just six days before. The one who had said yes to this prospect, and had simply shown up, and who was now standing in the church, wearing a strange white garment, feet on the ground, glasses on face.
Then, there were the helping hands and stepping up and over the edge.
Then there was water.
I don’t quite want to use words to tell you more.
My friends tell me that I have a propensity to use elaborate hand gestures when I’m trying to get something across, say I’d probably be amusing to watch doing a TEDTalk.
Perhaps you’ll notice this if I ever get a chance to try to really tell you what it felt like to give myself up to the sudden, cool, enlivening essence that we would point to and call “water.” Helen Keller’s first word. The one her teacher (Ann Bancroft) chose to teach her. The word that launched her already brilliant mind into a realm of language, so she could participate in ways she could not have fathomed.
Some of you have asked me how it was that I found myself in such a preposterous scenario, a scenario for which I had more or less prepared, but which was by no means practical or sensible. Some of you have asked if I felt different afterwards.
Whoever was me at the edge of the water knew that this was something I might do.
Whoever was me standing with baptismal candle and dripping wet, smiling and singing, knew that I had done.
Whoever was in the water only knew God.
Did I change? Yes. I did feel different.
On the third day of Easter, I had a chat with my sponsor, Dr. Dana Kramer-Rolls. I was sharing various thoughts and feelings. Finally, I told her that I was feeling like I had fallen in love. “Yes. That’s it,” she said. “That is your discernment tool. Use that. That feeling is how you’ll know you’re right about things.”
Perhaps I’ve learnt my first word.”
– Kalonica McQuesten
Holy Week 2024 Schedule
Holy Week is the week leading up to Easter Sunday, where we follow the path of Christians who for centuries upon centuries have been gathering together to retrace these last steps of the Christ. While the week’s services are meant to be experienced as one service spread out over several days, please join for any or all that you are able.
Here is the schedule for the week. Live-streamed services are indicated with *.
Maundy Thursday
6p Agape Meal - RSVP here.
7:30p Eucharist, with the Washing of Feet, Stripping of the Altar, and Procession to the Altar of Repose*
Good Friday
12-3 Contemplative Service (with poetry, silence, song, and prayers)
4-5p Holy Week for Kids (interactive service with prayer stations)
7:30p Eucharist with reserve sacrament, reading of the Passion Gospel, and Veneration of the Cross*
Holy Saturday
9:30a Holy Saturday liturgy
8p The Great Vigil of Easter, with lighting of the New Fire, and the First Eucharist of Easter* (don’t forget to bring your bells!)
Holy Week Needs:
Help us fold and assemble Triduum booklets on Mon/Tues March 25 & 26th. Email diana@allsoulsparish.org if you have a window of time to come to the office to help.
Help set-up for the 6p Agape Meal––show up sometime between 4-6p in the Parish Hall.
Cook a dish for the Agape Meal— email Emily Hansen Curran.
Sign-up to hold vigil and pray through the night after the Maundy Thursday service (sign-up here)
Bring food/drinks to share for the reception following the Easter Vigil on Saturday!
Show up a little early on Saturday night to help set-up for the Vigil (arrive between 6-8p)
Take home Easter eggs to fill for the children’s egg hunt! Pick up empty eggs this week or next, and return them by Palm Sunday or anytime during Holy Week.
– The All Souls Staff
Announcements & Events
Happening This Week
Worship This Sunday
8:00am, Holy Eucharist in Chapel
10:30am, sung Eucharist (click here to access the live stream)
Wednesday 9am Service. Join the Zoom call here, or join us in person in the Nave. Password: 520218.
Reading Between the Lines Bible Study, Sunday @ 7:00a. Click here to join by Zoom, or join them in-person in the Common Room.
Youth Group is happening this Sunday, March 17th, 7-8:30p. This week, we’ll be exploring experiences of the sacred using the five senses, especially music/sound. Next week, we’ll make Palm Crosses and prepare for Holy Week. To be added to the Youth Program mailing list, email Emily B.
Palm Sunday: BYOP!
Next week, Sunday the 24th, bring your own “palms”: branches, fronds, other leafy things! Bring some to share if you have extra. (There will be also be some available at church).
Easter Schedule
In order to accommodate the higher numbers of folks on Easter Sunday, we are moving our worship schedule to a 9a and 11:15a service. Both services will be held upstairs in the church and there will be no early morning service in the Chapel that day.
A children’s Easter egg hunt will be held in the courtyard at 10:15, between the services.
(See our fully Holy Week schedule above)
Adult Formation
Holy Week Introduction: Q&A
All are welcome to join in this informational session about Holy Week during the Adult Formation hour on March 17th. The Revs. Phil and Emily Boring will lead us in a Q&A style class on the origins, meanings, and practices of Holy Week leading up to Easter Sunday. Parish Hall, 9:15a.
Children & Family
Nursery The downstairs nursery is open and available to you for your use whenever you’re at All Souls. This is not a staffed nursery, so an adult must be there with your child, but if you need a quiet place to take a time out, change a diaper, let your child play or take a rest, the nursery is open for you to do all of those things. If there is a service going on that’s being livestreamed, you will be able to watch the livestream on the computer in the nursery as well.
Children’s Ministry Sunday School continues each week during the 10:30 a.m. service for children from pre-K through 5th grade. Children head downstairs at the start of the service, then return after the “Peace.” See an usher if you need directions.
All ages attend a shared Godly Play “Storytime.” Then, our youngest kids (pre-K to 1st grade) remain in the Godly Play classroom for “wondering” and “work” time, while our older kids (grades 2-5) split off for deeper investigation and exploration.
Note to Parents: We encourage all kids to return to the sanctuary after Sunday School and save outdoor playground time for later. In the Godly Play curriculum, we view the Eucharist as an important extension of Sunday School; the sacred space that we create downstairs continues and expands as we join the whole congregation upstairs. We appreciate your help reinforcing this norm!
Read more about our Sunday School program here.
Holy Week for Kids Service, 4p on March 29th. Join us for a Godly Play Passion story, prayer practices, and Stations of the Cross.
Youth Program - Youth Group happens weekly on Sundays from 7-8:30 in the Parish Hall. If you are not receiving weekly Youth Program updates but would like to, please reach out to Emily B to be added to our mailing list.
Save the Date: the 3rd Annual Walking Pilgrimage to Grace Cathedral will take place on Sunday, April 28th, from 11a to 7p. We’ll join other youth from the Alameda Deanery as we travel by foot and ferry to Grace Cathedral for dinner, fellowship, and Vespers (and meet the incoming Bishop!). Open to middle school and up. RSVP here by April 12th to get a free t-shirt!
Justice & Peace
Interfaith Gaza Ceasefire Pilgrimage: Saturday, March 23rd
Our longtime partners at Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity have extended an invitation to an interfaith pilgrimage dedicated to calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. The 22-mile walk begins in Berkeley and is broken into five segments. You can join for the whole march, or just part, and they are also seeking volunteers to help run the event. Find more information and register here.
Ways to help with the Israel-Hamas War, from Episcopal Relief & Development
Since the start of the current Israel-Hamas war, Episcopal Relief & Development has been supporting long-time partners in the Holy Land including Al Ahli Hospital, a ministry of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, to provide emergency medical support in Gaza. Despite being hit by two explosions that damaged buildings and claimed hundreds of lives, the hospital is still serving those who are in need of care. Episcopal Relief & Development stands with the brave staff of Al Ahli Hospital as they risk their lives to help others.
Please pray for peace in the Holy Land and consider making a contribution to the Episcopal Relief & Development Middle East Fund to help meet the growing needs of all people in the region.
Stay informed about the Episcopal Relief & Development response at episcopalrelief.org.
Needs of the Community
Meal Train: Do you ever wonder how you can help out your fellow parishioners? Join the Meal Train team and provide meals for those parishioners in need. Or would you like meals for you and your family during a difficult time? You can have a Meal Train set up and have folks from ASP bring you meals. Email Emily B to be added to the list of Meal Train volunteers (or to confirm that you are already part of it!).
Weekly Sermon Haiku (new!)
Fun fact: We recently learned that Chat GPT can take the transcript of a sermon and generate a catchy haiku! Some are lovely, some are awful, some are worth a laugh. Check here every week to see the haiku from the previous Sunday’s sermon.
From The Rev. Emily B’s sermon, 4th Sunday of Lent:
Resurrected life,
Offers more than fleeting joy,
Eternal embrace.
(Watch the full sermon on our Youtube channel, or listen to it as a podcast here).
Everything Else
Help Us Fill Easter Eggs! In three easy steps…
Pick up some empty eggs in the narthex after church
Take them home and fill them with candy, stickers, or toys.
Drop off the filled eggs in the narthex on Palm Sunday or anytime during Holy Week.
(Bonus: Return any empty eggs you might have kept from last year!)
Contact Emily B with questions.
Cooking for Agape Meal Contact Emily HC to sign up to bring cook for our coordinated potluck at 6p on Maundy Thursday. Volunteers will be given a recipe and a specific dish to bring.
Regardless of whether you’re cooking: RSVP for the dinner here!
Maundy Thursday Prayer Vigil Sign up here for a one-hour slot (or more) on the night of Thursday, March 28th the Friday the 29th.
Summer 2024 Book Group Suggestions The Adult Formation committee welcomes your suggestions of books for our summer reading groups. Is there a book you’ve read that you would like to share? Please send any suggestions to Anne Yardley at ayardley@drew.edu.
Adult Formation 2024-2025 The Adult Formation committee has started planning our 2024-2025 season! The advisory panel will be meeting with the committee once in March and once in April to brainstorm ideas and get a rough outline in place. This is the time to reach out to the committee with any ideas and suggestions you have for classes for next year. We welcome your thoughts and ideas. Please send them to Anne Yardley at ayardley@drew.edu
