Easter Vigil 2015

Thinking about Holy Week.

Here is a wonderful page full of helpful links from St. Phillip Church, Victoria, British Columbia.


Chants for Holy Week:

Be More Quiet Now by David Crowder
The River is Flowing—unknown author, folksong
What Wondrous Love by Ann Strickland


Here are some ideas for the Easter Vigil as created by and with liturgist, musician, writer, priest Jim Friedrich. 


Fire, story, drama, song and prayer.

Some music we'll do for the vigil:

Row On Row On

Roll Away the Waters by Bob Franke

Story of Isaac by Leonard Cohen (additional lyrics below by Jim Friedrich)

I offered no resistance

My hands were bound in silence

I waited for the end.

As I lay upon that altar

my father’s hand was trembling

when he slowly raised his knife.

The sun stood still above us

the desert air was soundless

no one shouted no.

A terrible purgation

with nothing left to save us

nor anything held back.

But if the child dies,

the child who is the promise

how can the story live?

Who’s really being tested:

is it Abraham or Isaac

or maybe even God?

Just when the shadow deepens

when life betrays its future

the sacrifice defers:

the knife becomes an angel

the lamb cries from the thicket

the hand of God provides.

Was it all about surrender

the pain of dispossession

the test of what we love?

Can we lay it on the altar

our ego and attachment

and live in naked trust?

Or is the price too high:

to burn our dreams to ashes

and let the laughter die?

Must we always pass this way

the valley of the shadow

the awful time of trial?

Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen with supplemental lyrics by Scott Lawrence

I so love Rufus Wainwright. Have seen him in live performance several times. He does not disappoint. Ah. For this service two high school singers will sing the verses and the congregation will sing the chorus.

When night stands still, its stony dark holds entombed your longing heart,

And peace is just in pieces all around you.

You remember time undone, when love and light were always one,

Before you lost that precious hallelujah.

Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah.

By night they stole your love away, forever lost to yesterday,

They hung the world upside down around you.

Then surprised you saw your lover’s eyes return, you recognized

The sweet enfolding, shining, hallelujah.

Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah.

Now instead of fear you feel a love that time cannot steal.

No darkness can conceal the light within you.

This loving grace, this love divine, seeking all that’s lost will find

The ever-living, singing, hallelujah.

Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah

All Shall Be Well  by Cynthia Bourgeault

Well, check this out—have not heard this one before and NOT the one we are using, but, well, kind of great.

Pete Townshend—come on.

Healing River of the Spirit by Ruth Duck sung to CHARTRES

Rise by Eddie Vedder with additional lyrics by Scott Lawrence

A Grace Easter standard.

Such is the way of the world, can never know

Just where to put all your faith, and how will it grow.

Gonna rise up, burning black holes in dark memories.

Gonna rise up, turning mistakes into gold.

Such is the passage of time, too fast to fold.

Suddenly swallowed by signs, lo and behold.

Gonna rise up and find my direction magnetically.

Gonna rise up and throw down my ace in the hole.

Such are the stories we bring, telling the toll.

Laughter and tears full the sky, echo below.

Gonna rise up and stand in the light that I cannot see.

Gonna rise up and live all the stories I know.

Such are the songs that we sing, fears to unfold.

Music, like water, wells up, unbending our soul.

Gonna rise up and fly from the tomb that’s been holding me.

Gonna rise up and sing myself a new home.

AND Song After Communion: Imagine by John Lennon