The provincial Eucharist will be live-streamed at 11am (and available thereafter) on YouTube and Facebook.
Here is a Service of the Word Suitable for use at Home. You will need a candle to light during the service, and a small bowl of water.
May our gift of love in worship be offered in the name of the God whose best name is Love, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Let us keep silence.
***
The Greeting
Rise up and live!
Life springing forth from death is offered to the world.
Thanks be to you, O Christ.
Christ is risen, alive in overflowing grace.
Thanks be to you, O Christ.
Christ is risen, alive in the determined survival of good.
Thanks be to you, O Christ. Death is overcome for ever.
Lord Jesus Christ passed from death to life.
Throughout the world Christians celebrate the awesome power of God.
As we hear his word and proclaim all that God has done,
we can be confident that we shall share his victory over death
and live with him for ever.
Light your candle.
May the light of Christ, rising in glory, banish all darkness from our hearts and minds. The light of Christ.
Thanks be to God!
The Exsultet. (Proclamation of Easter)
The Collects
Lord of life and power, through the mighty resurrection of your Son you have overcome the old order of sin and death and have made all things new in him. May we, being dead to sin and alive to you in Jesus Christ, reign with him in glory, who with you and the Holy Spirit is alive, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Enlivening Presence, penetrating the sleeping cells of our bodies, call us again to wake up, to rise from the dead, that the life may shine forth from within us.We pray this in the Spirit of the Universal Christ, the Resurrection and the Life. Amen.
Lord God almighty, come and dispel the darkness from our hearts, that in the radiance of your brightness we may know you, the only unfading light, glorious in all eternity. Amen.
Liturgy of the Word
The First Reading: Jeremiah 31.1-6
At that time, says the Lord, I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people.
Thus says the Lord:
The people who survived the sword
found grace in the wilderness;
when Israel sought for rest,
the Lord appeared to him from far away.
I have loved you with an everlasting love;
therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.
Again I will build you, and you shall be built,
O virgin Israel!
Again you shall take your tambourines,
and go forth in the dance of the merrymakers.
Again you shall plant vineyards
on the mountains of Samaria;
the planters shall plant,
and shall enjoy the fruit.
For there shall be a day when sentinels will call
in the hill country of Ephraim:
‘Come, let us go up to Zion,
to the Lord our God.’
For the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
An unfolding of Psalm 118
A reading from the Acts of the Apostles: 10:34-43
Then Peter began to speak to them: ‘I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ—he is Lord of all. That message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead. All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.’
For the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
Christ is risen!
Do not be afraid.
A reading from the Gospel according to John.
Glory to Christ our Saviour.
Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, ‘They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.’ Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went towards the tomb. The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed;
Give thanks for the glorious gospel of the Lord.
Praise to Christ our Lord.
Profession of Faith
Brothers and sisters, I ask you to profess the faith of the Church. Do you believe and trust in God the Father?
I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.
Do you believe and trust in his Son Jesus Christ?
I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again; he ascended into heaven, he is seated at the right hand of the Father, and he will come to judge the living and the dead.
Do you believe and trust in the Holy Spirit?
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.
As a sign of your baptism, you may wish to dip your finger into the water and draw a cross on your forehead with it.
Prayers of Intercession
Gracious God, on this day of all days we give thanks for your goodness and mercy, which endure for ever. Let us dance with one another, evangelical and anglo-catholic, charismatic and pentecostal, as well as those who fit no label beyond that of follower of Christ. May gratitude fill the heart of each and every one. Open for us the gates of the city, the city of harmony and peace. Then together, restored to unity, we shall enter them singing our songs of thanksgiving and praise.
Lord of life, you hold the gate open to us:
in your mercy, hear our prayer.
Loving God, we thank you for the cycle of creation, death and rebirth. In the midst of global pandemic, we thank you for the return of spring. We thank you for the example of your son, who fulfilled his destiny despite the bitterness of the cup, and rose from the dead and ascended into heaven. Now the green blade rises from the buried grain, wheat that in the dark earth many years has lain; love is come again, like wheat that springs up green.
Lord of life, you hold the gate open to us:
in your mercy, hear our prayer
God who exists in community, because He is risen we are together seeking your communion. Because He is risen, we find in your presence forgiveness, wellspring of a new beginning, and source of energy for the journey. Though we long to hold fast only to you, teach us to draw strength and offer our own efforts to the people we live amongst: our communities and our niegbours, for they have need of us as we have need of them.
Lord of life, you hold the gate open to us:
in your mercy, hear our prayer.
Creating God, you make the day dawn with promise. We pray for those who suffer in body, mind or spirit. When our hearts are saddened, grieving or in pain, by your touch you revive us and give us new hope. Be with us in our travails, and may we, too, see the green shoots of renewal.
Lord of life, you hold the gate open to us:
in your mercy, hear our prayer
Lord, through the resurrection of your son light triumphs over darkness and life triumphs over death. In giving you thanks and praise, we bring before you those whom we love who have departed this life that,
free from sorrow and pain, they may be one with you in your kingdom.
Merciful Father, accept these prayers
for the sake of your Son,
our Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Reflection – by Jan Richardson.
I never fail to be dazzled by this moment when Jesus calls out the name of the woman whom he finds weeping by his tomb. Mary. At the sound of her name, the Magdalene finally sees and knows who has found her there. It is a stunning moment of recognition.
Yet as I spiral back around this passage this week, what draws my attention is not only the way that Mary Magdalene sees Christ when he calls her name. What tugs at me this time is how, in that moment of hearing her name, Mary Magdalene must see herself.
With an inflection that only Christ could have given to it, his speaking of her name conveys everything: all their history, all that passed between them in their friendship, all that he knows of this woman whom he healed and who, along with other women, traveled with him and sustained him from her own resources. He knows her. He sees her. And now he asks her to see herself as he does.
Mary.
In that moment, and in the call and commissioning that will soon come, the risen Christ gives Mary Magdalene to herself. Not, of course, as if he owns or controls her but because, as ever, he knows her and wants to free her from what would hinder her from the life that God desires for her. Long ago, Jesus had released the Magdalene from the septet of demons that haunted her (“A demon for every day of the week,” writes Kathleen Norris; “how practical; how womanly.”) Now he releases her again, this time from clinging to him, from becoming entangled with him. Where holding onto him might seem holy, Christ sees—and enables Mary Magdalene to see—that her path and her life lie elsewhere. Beyond this moment, beyond this garden, beyond what she has known. In going, Mary affirms that she has seen what she needed to see: not just Christ in the glory of his resurrection, but also herself, graced with the glory that he sees in her.
In the centuries to come, Mary Magdalene will become layered over with other visions that people have of her: other titles, other depictions, other names. Sinner, prostitute, penitent, bride: the stories and legends of who the Magdalene was and what she became will both fascinate us and frustrate our ability to know her. But on this day, the Magdalene we meet in the garden is simply one who has learned to see, and who goes forth to proclaim what she has seen.
This day, what will we allow ourselves to see: of Christ, of ourselves? How would it be to know ourselves as he does, to see ourselves as he sees us, to know that the risen Christ speaks our name, too, and releases us to tell what we have seen? What will you proclaim as you leave the empty tomb this day?
The Dismissal
With the risen life of Christ within you,
go in the peace of Christ. Alleluia, alleluia.
Thanks be to God. Alleluia, alleluia!
St Ternans Banchory 