Thoughts on Good Friday

Today is Good Friday, the day of Christ's crucifixion and death in the Christian religion.

Back when I used to go to church, Good Friday was perhaps the most moving day in the religious year for me. (I hesitate to call it "my favourite", which would make me a bit ghoulish I suppose.) There was something moving and powerful in the suffering and self-sacrifice that was being commemorated. These days, though, Good Friday does not have the same impact for me.

I must confess that I found Good Friday to be most powerful when the tenebrae service was being held. Tenebrae is a rather "high church" service that includes psalms, hymns, and Bible readings, but never Holy Communion. During the service, the lights are gradually extinguished until the church is left in total darkness, representing the death of Christ.

Throughout the service, altar cloths may be removed and crosses and crucifixes covered with plain cloths. Sometimes, the service begins with a full choir and organ and other instruments, which followed by the departure of the choir and then the musicians. After the Bible is slammed shut, the congregation and clergy leave the church without speaking. The service itself is not considered finished until everyone has left the church.

The minister at the last church I attended would not have felt comfortable officiating at such a service, because he is an evangelical -- even though he is nominally Anglican -- and therefore frequently expresses a bias against "extra-Biblical" practices. I think this is a real shame, though, because a God who ostensibly created the pageantry of northern lights or ocean sunsets surely would not oppose His followers engaging all their senses, including their senses of wonderment and drama, when seeking to connect with Him.