Holy Week Round Up

My first Holy Week as a "solo" priest had both highs and lows. Highs: Our services were well attended for such a small parish with most of the student members missing; we used incense, bells, and torches at some of the services; the weather was perfect - it was just somber enough to make it feel like Holy Week; and we had a primo ad in the local college paper that we got for a song. Low: (there weren't "Lows", just one "low") no choir. You cannot do anything at a small parish - or even a relatively large one - without a good organist and choir! The books (like Ritual Notes) regarding how to celebrate services such as Maundy Thursday and Good Friday in "small parishes" usually just say, "The priest reads the parts that are normally sung." But - as anyone who has actually tried to do this, and has even an ounce of common sense knows - you can't sit up there and recite millions of prayers and read millions of lessons for hours on end! It just doesn't work. It ends up being a big, long, boring joke. Trust me, I have been to services where there is nonstop mindless "recitation" and it totally makes you want to slit your wrists it's so boring. Boredom doe snot help one meditate on the texts... but beauty - good music and singing - does. So what I did this year was very minimal, almost straight Prayer Book, low church (except the incense and bells). That worked fine for us, but it would have been nice to do a bit more. But I will only do more as we grow and get a choir.