Our Savior Lutheran Church
Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod

Our Savior Holy Week Newsletter

Services

4/17 Maundy Thursday 7pm

4/18 Good Friday

            Service of the Cross of Christ 3pm

            Tenebrae Service 7pm

4/20 Festival of the Resurrection of Our Lord 9am

Easter Brunch

            We will have Easter Brunch following the service potluck style. If you are able, please consider bringing a dish to pass! A ham will be provided.

Good Friday Services

            This year we will have two different Good Friday Services. The 3pm service is the Service of the Cross of Christ. The focus of the service is on the suffering which Christ suffered for the sins of the whole world on the cross. A feature of the service are the Reproaches. These reproaches are a strong call to repentance at the foot of the cross. The minister chants paraphrases of Bible verses. The First Reproach alludes to Psalm 107 and Psalm 142. The Second Reproach alludes to the deliverance from Egypt and God providing Manna and water from a rock in the wilderness wandering of Israel. The Third Reproach alludes to Isaiah 5, the song about God’s Vineyard. In the reproaches we consider our own responsibility for Christ’s death due to our own sin.

            The 7pm service is the Tenebrae Service. “Tenebrae” means “darkness”. It includes readings from Lamentations, which are appropriate for the sense of sorrow over the death of Jesus Christ. Darkness increases over the course of the service until at last the final candle is extinguished. A loud noise indicating the shutting of Christ’s tomb is made. Finally, a candle returns to the sanctuary, indicating the Christ’s death and burial is not the end of our hope, but the beginning of the hope for Resurrection.