Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Welcome to "Low" Sunday

The Sunday after Easter is known by some people as “Low Sunday.” It is meant to be a joke. On the one hand, often (in the old days) the Sunday after Easter would be a Morning Prayer service, after all the pomp and pageantry of Easter it would seem “low” in comparison to the previous Sunday. On the other hand, the Sunday following a major Sunday like Easter often has “low” attendance.


Congratulations! If you are here, we are bucking the trend on both counts, it is a Eucharist that we are celebrating and we are here. Alleluia!

As you know, Easter is not just a one day thing. The season last for fifty days, right up and until the Day of Pentecost.

Because of the nature of Lent we drop the “Alleluia’s” from our worship. So too in Easter we drop the Confession and Absolution. The reason for this is that the Easter season is, above all other times of the year, a time for celebration. That doesn’t mean that we cease from asking for our sins to be forgiven, just that we remove that act from our corporate worship.

In so doing we hope to drive home the point that we believe that the Passion of Jesus Christ was not in vein. That he suffered purposefully and that the resurrection has a real and lasting effect on us. It seems inappropriate to act as if we still need to take part in this corporate act of confession when the remembrance of the crucifixion and resurrection are so fresh in our memory.

As I said in the Easter sermon, during Easter Season we would not normally leave a cross bear. This is for the same reason that we drop the Confession and Absolution; the memory of the cross of Jesus Christ is too fresh in our minds. The crosses we see this time of year would normally have flowers or cloth covering them. The brass cross over the altar is not bear; it has decorative elements etched into it.

So, if it seems as though I am running out of things to write about, send me questions, article ideas, poems, your own articles or anything else.

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