Portrait of Georg Friedrich Händel Deutsch: Georg Friedrich Händel (1733) Español: Georg Friedrich Händel en 1733 Français : Georg Friedrich Haendel en 1733 Nederlands: Georg Friedrich Händel Polski: G. F. Händel w 1733 roku Русский: Георг Фридрих Гендель (1733) Svenska: Georg Friedrich Händel (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The Pender UMC Sanctuary Choir and Brass on Easter Sunday. They conclude each service with Handel’s Messiah.
Good Friday is observed on the Friday before Easter Sunday. On this day Christians commemorate the passion, or suffering, and death on the cross of the Lord, Jesus Christ.
Many Christians spend this day in fasting, prayer, repentance, and meditation on the agony and suffering of Christ on the cross. (For a more detailed explanation about Christ’s death, listen to the Palm Sunday sermon Why Did Jesus Have to Die?)
The biblical account of Jesus’ death on the cross, or crucifixion, his burial and his resurrection, or raising from the dead, can be found in the following passages of Scripture:
The Good Friday service at Pender UMC will focus on the “Wondrous Love” of Christ and how that love manifested itself in His sacrifice on the cross. The service will include special music from the Sanctuary Choir.
Maundy Thursday, also called Holy Thursday, is a service to commemorate Jesus’ Last Supper and the beginning of our sacrament, the Lord’s Supper.
The word Maundy comes from the Latin mandatum, which means “commandment.” At the Last Supper, Jesus gave the disciples a new commandment to love one another as he had loved them (John 13:34).
Holy Thursday is the first of the three days of solemn remembrance of the events leading up to and immediately following the crucifixion of Jesus.
Prior to breaking the bread with the disciples, Jesus washed their feet. Maundy Thursday worship services include Holy Communion and sometimes foot washing as well. While John’s gospel does not record the institution of the Lord’s Supper among the events of this night, the other gospels do. Christians therefore keep this night with celebrations both at the basin (footwashing) and at the Lord’s Table (Holy Communion).
The word “tenebrae” comes from the Latin meaning “darkness.” The Tenebrae is an ancient Christian Good Friday service that makes use of gradually diminishing light through the extinguishing of candles to symbolize the events of that week from the triumphant Palm Sunday entry through Jesus’ burial.
This increasing darkness symbolizes the approaching darkness of Jesus’ death and of hopelessness in the world without God. The service concludes in darkness, sometimes with a final candle, the Christ candle, carried out of the sanctuary, symbolizing the death of Jesus. A loud noise may also sound symbolizing the closing of Jesus’ tomb. The worshipers then leave in silence to ponder the impact of Christ’s death and await the coming Resurrection.
From http://www.umc.org/what-we-believe/what-is-a-tenebrae-service
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