We used this format on Palm Sunday in 2016. Because many of our congregation don’t tend to come to services between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday and were in the strange position of jumping straight from the triumphal entry to the resurrection we wanted to do something that enabled people to engage with some of the important parts of Holy Week.
After two or three years of attempting to do this in different ways and with not as much success as we’d like we finally hit on a format that we feel really worked and that the congregation really engaged with. The order of service is shared in pretty much the order that we did it (with a couple of tweaks to improve it) in the resources below and hopefully you’ll find it as helpful as we did.
We scrapped our usual service structure and, instead, fitted our gathering, confession and intercession activities as well as our sung worship in at points during the service where they made sense with the readings (you can download all of the readings by clicking here). The service is inspired by the stations of the cross but as we’re covering the whole of Holy Week we’ve called this service Stations of Holy Week.
We’ve included the songs that we used in case they are helpful to you. Do feel free to change them but it really adds to the service if the themes/words of the song fit well with the part of the service that you are up to. If you’re going to include communion in the service then it would fit well after 2. The Last Supper.
Order Of Service:
Welcome & Notices
Activities at Tables
- The Triumphal Entry
- The Last Supper
Song: Remembrance (Matt Redman)
- The Garden Of Gethsemane
Intercessions:
- Judas Betrays Jesus
Confession:
- Jesus Is Condemned To Death
Song: You Chose The Cross
- The Crucifixion
- Jesus Dies
Song: How Deep The Father’s love
Closing prayer
Stations Of Holy Week
Welcome and Notices:
Activity – Creating The Stations Of Holy Week.
Resources Needed:
- Two or three printed copies of the readings (listed above)
- One A3 sheet of paper per table
- Pens/Felt Tips etc
- Powerpoint Slides with the numbers and titles of the readings in the order listed above (If you don’t have access to PowerPoint you could simply print an order of service for the tables – enough so that everyone can see one).
Instructions:
During today’s service we’re going to do things a little differently. Rather than a talk and then some activities we’re going to use seven different readings from the week between Palm Sunday and Good Friday to walk through the story of Holy Week together. We’re going to start that journey with our activity.
Each table will be given one of the readings and then you’ll have some time to answer the following questions about what you’ve read:
- What is the main theme of the passage?
- What is the most striking image in the passage?
Next you’ll create one image at your table that sums up your passage. It should be a fairly simple image (as you won’t have lots of time to create it) that fills as much of the sheet as possible. It shouldn’t need to be explained or have any words on it. (See the bottom of the page for examples from our service.)
Finally, as we continue with the service, you’ll need to keep an eye on the screen and when your passage appears we’ll need two people from your table to come up to the front, one to hold up your image for everyone to see and another to read out your passage.
NOTE: Try to encourage people to come up unprompted when they see their number and passage on the screen rather than wait to be called up as we found this really helped the service to flow. It is also worth emphasising that images shouldn’t need any explanation as if people start to explain or describe their images before doing the reading you could easily double the length of your service – encourage people to keep it simple!
- The Triumphal Entry
- The Last Supper
Song: Remembrance (Matt Redman)
- The Garden Of Gethsemane
Intercessions:
Resources Needed:
- None
Instructions:
In the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus prayed to his Father. When you think about it that is an incredible thing: Jesus, God in human form, prays to his Father. If anyone didn’t need to pray then surely it was Jesus, but here he is praying, encouraging the disciples to pray and setting an example for our prayers.
So, following his example, lets pray together to our Father!
Around your tables take a minute to talk about the things that you’d like to pray for this morning, perhaps things that you’ve seen in the news or situations that are affecting you and those that you love.
—
Now we’re going to pray for those things like Jesus did, by asking for God’s will to be done. When you’re ready simply say out loud, in one sentence, what you’d like to pray for and the rest of us will respond by saying “Your kingdom come, your will be done”.
Close by saying the Lord’s prayer together.
- Judas Betrays Jesus
Confession:
Resources Needed:
- None
In the garden Jesus’ disciples struggle to simply stay awake to pray with Jesus. Then he is finally betrayed not by a stranger or by the authorities but by Judas, someone who knew him well and who had followed him for years. As we reflect on the failings of Judas and the disciples we think too about our own failings.
Prayer:
Heavenly Father, we bring to you the times when we, like the disciples who fell asleep in the garden, have failed to live up to your standards. The times when we, through our own lack of action, have let you down. We also bring to you the times when we, like Judas, have betrayed you through the things that we have done, when the choices that we’ve made have hurt you and we ask for your forgiveness.
Thank you that when we confess the things we have done wrong you are ready to forgive us, forgetting what is past and offering us a fresh start with you.
Amen.
- Jesus Is Condemned To Death
Song: You Chose The Cross
- The Crucifixion
- Jesus Dies
Song: How Deep The Father’s love
Closing prayer
