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Service Times

Lent is a season with many special services. Here are the service times:

Ash Wednesday

12:00 PM at St. Stephen’s (spoken service, no music).
3:00 PM at the Ohio State Union (service held jointly with other churches in the Wonderfully Made Coalition).
7:00 PM at St. Stephen’s (sung service).

Sundays During Lent

8:00 AM Spoken service with no music. The service takes place on the labyrinth at the entrance to the Sanctuary.
10:30 AM Sung service.

Weekdays During Lent

Wednesdays at 12:15 PM, Noon Day Prayer in the Sanctuary.

Holy Week

Maundy Thursday, 7:00 PM, Service of Foot Washing and Holy Eucharist in the Sanctuary.
Good Friday, 7:00 PM, in the Sanctuary.

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Reflections on the Season

I find myself anticipating Lent, in the same way that I anticipate Christmas every year. This might seem strange, as Lent is the season of austerity, the season of giving things up, of fasting and simplifying and avoiding parties. It is also, of course, a season when people take on some act of charity or some new disciple, so it’s not all about surrender. But it is somber. So why look forward to it?

Knowing that it’s coming, I begin to reflect on my life. In what ways have I become, or am becoming, compulsive? What habits are hanging around even after I’ve stopped enjoying them or getting anything from them? What shallow places within my soul need to be deepened, what regions of petty neglect need to be investigated, which overcrowded places need to be swept out? I start making my plans for Lent weeks in advance, and as the season draws near I even start to enact some of my disciplines early, as the spirit moves me.

In past years, I’ve used a devotional during Lent, making time in each day to pray. One year I used Malcom Guite’s Word in the Wilderness, which introduced me to some wonderful new poets, whose works are accompanied by Guite’s written meditations. On other years I’ve used devotionals based on the insights of Julian of Norwich or St. Francis. They’re all good. The important thing is to find one that speaks to your soul and to pray with it every day.

I pray that you might have a deep and startling Lent.

Faithfully,

Karl+

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Our Worship During the Season of Lent

Note: We will be adding a midweek eucharist during Lent. It will take place on Thursday mornings at 10:30 in the sanctuary. We’ll be using the High Altar, which we rarely get to use. The thoughts below apply to both this service and our Sunday morning services.

During Lent, our service begins with the Penitential Order. Although we are created good, we all miss the mark sometimes when interacting with God, the world, each other and ourselves. Confession is an opportunity to reset, to be forgiven for our mistakes and to affirm our willingness to try again. Lent is a penitential season, and so we begin the service with penance.

Episcopal services always feature a hymn of praise at the beginning of our worship. During Lent we will say or sing the Kyrie. The words of the Kyrie are found in the psalms and the gospels – a simple phrase that says, only, “Lord, have mercy.” In scripture there is always a subject to this sentence. “Have mercy on me,” or “have mercy on us.” In the liturgy, the request is general, and evokes God’s general acts of mercy on behalf of all creation. This points to a truth, of course. Mercy is central to our understanding of God’s nature. But God’s mercy is specific as well as general. God has mercy on everything that is, but God also has mercy on me, caught as I am in my specific sins and failures. When I pray the Kyrie, I feel that both general mercy and the specific mercy that is directed at me are present in my plea and in God’s response.

During Lent, we chant the psalms, using the ancient plainsong that has echoed through western churches for thousands of years. We use the Gregorian form of plainchant, attributed to St. Gregory, the 6th century pope who sent St. Augustine to Britain to evangelize the Anglo-Saxons. Gregory probably didn’t create plainchant. Most traditions come from a variety of sources, and this is what gives them their power and import. We rely on each other’s gifts, play with each other’s ideas, and arrive at the new through much experimentation and editing. But Gregory was a great liturgical reformer, and much of our liturgy is do to his editing together of different sources and ideas.

We sing the Nicene Creed during Lent, using Calvin Hampton’s beautiful setting. Hampton was organist and choirmaster at Calvary Episcopal Church in New York City and one of the leading organists and sacred music composers of his day. He died during the AIDS epidemic in 1984.

During Lent we use Prayer 1 from Enriching Our Worship when celebrating the eucharist. The prayer speaks of sin and grace with these beautiful words:

You gave the world into our care that we might be your faithful stewards and show forth your bountiful grace. But we failed to honor your image in one another and in ourselves; we would not see your goodness in the world around us; and so we violated your creation, abused one another, and rejected your love. Yet you never ceased to care for us, and prepared the way of salvation for all people.

This part of the prayer begins with an ontological claim. What are human beings, and what is our purpose on earth? We are, essentially, stewards of creation and mirrors of divine grace. Sin is nothing less than our failure to care for the world and act with grace and love. The prayer goes on. We and everyone we encounter are bearers of God’s image. God’s goodness is known in creation. The act of looking for the divine in our encounters with the world is called “reading the book of nature.” The prayer points out that our failure to read this book can only be an act of purposeful defiance. God’s presence in human life and in creation is so obvious that we have to choose not to see it. Such a choice leads to violation and abuse. But God will not abandon us, even when we are at the height of our defiance. God will continue to care for us, and for everyone else.

After communion, we end the service with a “Solemn Collect” instead of a blessing. These solemn prayers change from week to week. The six collects are:

Lent 1
Grant, Almighty God, that your people may recognize their weakness and put their whole trust in your strength, so that they may rejoice for ever in the protection of your loving providence; through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Lent 2
Keep this your family, Lord, with your never-failing mercy, that relying solely on the help of your heavenly grace, they may be upheld by your divine protection; through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Lent 3
Look mercifully on this your family, Almighty God, that by your great goodness they may be governed and preserved evermore; through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Lent 4
Look down in mercy, Lord, on your people who kneel before you; and grant that those whom you have nourished by your Word and Sacraments may bring forth fruit worthy of repentance; through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Lent 5
Look with compassion, O Lord, upon this your people; that, rightly observing this holy season, they may learn to know you more fully, and to serve you with a more perfect will; through Christ our Lord. Amen.
From Palm Sunday through Maundy Thursday
Almighty God, we pray you graciously to behold this your family, for whom our Lord Jesus Christ was willing to be betrayed, and given into the hands of sinners, and to suffer death upon the cross; who lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen.

They could all be read as a single prayer, as they build on each other and deepen the sense of our Lenten practice from week to week. You might want to try praying them every day during Lent, as you consider your place within the human family and the need that we all have for God’s goodness and each other’s love.