If you are on our e-newsletter list you are receiving material for shared Holy Week practices while we are in solitude, including for Good Friday and Holy Saturday. To make sure we are well prepared for Easter Morning I am posting the following information well ahead of time.
Below is a Sunrise Acclamation that you early birds can use from your rooftops, fire-escapes, windows, balconies or stoops; then please share your Easter sunrise pictures or video on our various social media.
At 9am we encourage you to join your voices with Christians all over NYC for Easter Song 2020.
At 10:30 we will conduct a live-streamed Easter service on YouTube.
We look forward to celebrating Christ's resurrection with you.
Pastor Jamison
EASTER SUNRISE ACCLAMATION
Alleluia! Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.
This is the good news—the grave is empty; Christ is risen. Hallelujah! This is the good news—the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never put it out. Hallelujah! This is the good news—once we were no people; now we are God’s people. Hallelujah! Christ is our peace, the indestructible peace we now share with each other. Hallelujah!
READING: Colossians 1:9-20
9 And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11 being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. 13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
PRAYER: Glorious Lord of life, by the mighty resurrection of your Son you overcame the old order of sin and death to make all things new in him. Grant that we who celebrate with joy Christ’s rising from the dead may be raised from the death of sin to the life of righteousness, through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
ACCLAMATION: Awake, O harp and lyre! We will awaken the dawn. We will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples, We will sing praises to you among the nations. For your steadfast love is as high as the heavens; your faithfulness extends to the clouds. Be exalted, O God, above the heavens. Let your glory be over all the earth.
DEPARTURE: As Christ burst forth from the tomb, may new life burst forth from us and show itself in acts of love and healing to a hurting world. And may that same Christ, who lives forever and is the source of our new life, keep our hearts rejoicing and grant us peace this day and always. Amen.