GOOD FRIDAY
14 April 2006
12 – 3 pm

STATIONS OF THE CROSS; WORSHIP; INTERCESSION; COMMUNION

Processional Hymn            432          The Servant King

First Reading                     Lamentations 5.15-22
15The joy of our hearts has ceased; our dancing has been turned to mourning. 16The crown has fallen from our head; woe to us, for we have sinned! 17Because of this our hearts are sick, because of these things our eyes have grown dim: 18because of Mount Zion, which lies desolate; jackals prowl over it.  19But you, O LORD, reign for ever; your throne endures to all generations. 20Why have you forgotten us completely? Why have you forsaken us these many days? 21Restore us to yourself, O LORD, that we may be restored; renew our days as of old – 22unless you have utterly rejected us, and are angry with us beyond measure.

Hymn                  O Lord, your tenderness                         (Graham Kendrick)

                           O Lord, your tenderness,
                           Melting all my bitterness
                           O Lord, I receive your love.
                           O Lord, your loveliness,
                           Changing all my ugliness,
                           O Lord, I receive your love.
                           O Lord, I receive your love.
                           O Lord, I receive your love.
                                                                                      Repeat
STATIONS OF THE CROSS
Congregation please remain in their places – young people are invited to read the meditation at each station of the cross.
Each meditation is followed by this response:
Far be it from me to glory, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world is crucified to me and I to the world.

After the last station, this response, from a prayer of St Alphonsus, is said by all
O Jesus Christ, my Lord, with what great love you travelled the painful road which led to your death and how often have I abandoned you.  But now I love you with my whole soul, and because I love you, I am sincerely sorry for having offended you.  My Jesus, pardon me, and permit me to accompany you on this journey.  You died for love of me, and it is my wish, O my dearest Redeemer, to be willing to die for love of you.  O my beloved Jesus, in your love I wish to live, and in your love I wish to die. Amen.

Hymn                           108       Glory be to Jesus

Reading                             Hebrews 10.16-25                                      (p.171)
The Holy Spirit testifies to us, for after saying,  16‘This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds’, 17he also adds, ‘I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.’ 18Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin. 19Therefore, my friends, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, 20by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain (that is, through his flesh), 21and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22let us approach with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 23Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful. 24And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, 25not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Hymn                           112       My song is love unknown

GOOD FRIDAY WORSHIP                                                       Approx 1.30 pm

Hymn                           582       Take up thy cross, the Saviour said

Collect for Good Friday
Almighty Father, look with mercy on this your family for which our Lord Jesus Christ was content to be betrayed and given up into the hands of sinners and to suffer death upon the cross; who is alive and glorified with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.   Amen.

Reading                             Isaiah 52.13-53.12                                     (p.167)
13See, my servant shall prosper; he shall be exalted and lifted up, and shall be very high. 14Just as there were many who were astonished at him – so marred was his appearance, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of mortals –  15so he shall startle many nations; kings shall shut their mouths because of him; for that which had not been told them they shall see, and that which they had not heard they shall contemplate. 1Who has believed what we have heard?  And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? 2For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. 3He was despised and rejected by others; a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity; and as one from whom others hide their faces he was despised, and we held him of no account.  4Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases; yet we accounted him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. 5But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed. 6All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way, and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.  7He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. 8By a perversion of justice he was taken away. Who could have imagined his future? For he was cut off from the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people. 9They made his grave with the wicked and his tomb with the rich, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. 10Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him with pain. When you make his life an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring, and shall prolong his days; through him the will of the LORD shall prosper. 11Out of his anguish he shall see light; he shall find satisfaction through his knowledge. The righteous one, my servant, shall make many righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. 12Therefore I will allot him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he poured out himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

Psalm 22
Response:  My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Hymn                           126       Were you there?

THE PASSION according to St Mark 15.1-15 (see supplement)

HOMILY

THE REPROACHES

Response: Holy God, Holy and strong, Holy and immortal, have mercy upon us

THE LITANY
Response: Good Lord, deliver us                                             Silence is kept

INTERCESSION AND HOLY COMMUNION                               Approx 2.30 pm

Hymn                           127       When I survey the wondrous cross

Collect for Good Friday
Almighty Father, look with mercy on this your family for which our Lord Jesus Christ was content to be betrayed and given up into the hands of sinners and to suffer death upon the cross; who is alive and glorified with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.   Amen.

Continuation of THE PASSION according to St Mark 15.16-39 (see supplement)

HOMILY

Hymn                           565       Rock of Ages                           Silence is kept

INTERCESSION                  Lord hear us: Lord graciously hear us

Hymn                           375       Amazing Grace

THE COMMUNION

All say: Our Father in heaven …

All say:  Lamb of God …

All say:  We do not presume to come to this your table, merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in your manifold and great mercies. We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under your table. But you are the same Lord whose nature is always to have mercy. Grant us therefore, gracious Lord, so to eat the flesh of your dear Son Jesus Christ and to drink his blood, that our sinful bodies may be made clean by his body and our souls washed through his most precious blood, and that we may evermore dwell in him and he in us.    Amen.

DISTRIBUTION OF THE SACRAMENT

Post Communion Prayer
Most merciful God, who by the death and resurrection of your Son, Jesus Christ, delivered and saved us all; grant that by faith in him who suffered on the cross, we may triumph in the power of his victory, through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

All say: Almighty God, we thank you for feeding us with the body and blood of your Son Jesus Christ. Through him we offer you our souls and bodies to be a living sacrifice. Send us out in the power of your Spirit to live and work to your praise and glory. Amen.                                   Depart in silence

Some material included in this service is copyright: ©  1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ, USA. Some material included in this service is copyright: ©  The Archbishops' Council 2000 Collect (Good Friday) ©  The Crown/Cambridge University Press: The Book of Common Prayer (1662)