All Hallows Evening Prayer for Sunday (April 17, 2022)
One or more candles may be lit.
Christ is risen!!
The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!!
EVENING HYMN
Open this link in a new tab to hear John L. Bell and Graham Maule’s “Jesus Calls Us Here to Meet Him.”
Jesus calls us here to meet him
as, through word and song and prayer,
we affirm God‘s promised presence
where his people live and care.
Praise the God who keeps his promise;
praise the Son who calls us friends;
praise the Spirit who, among us,
to our hopes and fears attends.
Jesus calls us to confess him
Word of Life and Lord of All,
sharer of our flesh and frailness
saving all who fail or fall.
Tell his holy human story;
tell his tales that all may hear;
tell the world that Christ in glory
came to earth to meet us here.
Jesus calls us to each other,
vastly different though we are;
creed and colour, class and gender
Neither limit nor debar.
Join the hand of friend and stranger;
join the hands of age and youth;
join the faithful and the doubter
in their common search for truth.
Jesus calls us to his table
rooted firm in time and space,
where the Church in earth and heaven
finds a common meeting place.
Share the bread and wine, his body;
share the love of which we sing;
share the feast for saints and sinners
hosted by our Lord and King.
PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right to give our thanks and praise.
We praise and thank you, O God our Father,
through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Through him you have enlightened us
by revealing the light that never fades,
for dark death has been destroyed
and radiant life is everywhere restored.
What was promised is fulfilled:
we have been joined to God,
through renewed life in the Spirit of the risen Lord.
Glory and praise to you, our Father,
through Jesus your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Spirit,
in the kingdom of light eternal,
for ever and ever. Amen.
HYMN OF THE DAY
Open this link in a new tab to hear Brian Wren’s “Christ Is Risen, Shout Hosanna!”
Give us power to reveal Christ in word and action.
We pray for the world:
(Particular intercessions/thanksgivings may be offered.)
Creator of all,
lead us and every people into ways of justice and peace.
Teach us to care creatively for its resources.
We pray for the community:
(Particular intercessions/thanksgivings may be offered.)
God of truth, inspire with your wisdom
those whose decisions affect the lives of others
that all may act with integrity and courage.
Give grace to all whose lives are linked with ours.
May we serve Christ in one another, and love as he loves us.
We pray for those in need:
(Particular intercessions/thanksgivings may be offered.)
God of hope, comfort and restore
all who suffer in body, mind or spirit.
May they know the power of your healing love.
Make us willing agents of your compassion.
Strengthen us as we share in making people whole.
We remember those who have died and those who mourn:
(Particular intercessions/thanksgivings may be offered.)
We remember with thanksgiving those who have died in the faith
of Christ, and those whose faith is known to you alone.
Father, into your hands we commend them.
Give comfort to those who mourn.
Bring them peace in their time of loss.
We praise you for (N and) all your saints
who have entered your eternal glory.
May their example inspire and encourage us.
We pray for ourselves and our ministries:
(Particular intercessions/thanksgivings may be offered and the prayers
conclude with the following.)
Lord, you have called us to serve you.
Grant that we may walk in your presence:
your love in our hearts,
your truth in our minds,
your strength in our wills;
until, at the end of our journey,
we know the joy of our homecoming
and the welcome of your embrace,
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
The Collect
Jesus Christ our Saviour,
you have delivered us from sin and death.
You have brought with the dawn
a new beginning and an empty tomb;
grant us strength and humility
to enter into life.
Hear this prayer for your love’s sake.
Amen.
RESPONSE
Open this link in a new tab to hear Les Petites Soers de Jésus and L'Arche Community’s “Lord Jesus, You Shall Be My Song as I Journey.”
1 Lord Jesus, you shall be my song as I journey;
I'll tell everybody about you wherever I go:
you alone are our life and our peace and our love.
Lord Jesus, you shall be my song as I journey.
2 Lord Jesus, I'll praise you as long as I journey;
May all of my joy be a faithful reflection of you.
May the earth and the sea and the sky join my song.
Lord Jesus, I'll praise you as long as I journey.
3 As long as I live, Jesus, make me your servant,
to carry your cross and to share all your burdens and tears.
For you saved me by giving your body and blood.
As long as I live, Jesus, make me your servant.
4 I fear in the dark and the doubt of my journey;
but courage will come with the sound of your steps by my side.
And will all of the family you saved by your love,
we'll sing to your dawn at the end of our journey.
THE LORD’S PRAYER
And now, as our Saviour has taught us,
we are bold to say,
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name;
thy kingdom come;
thy will be done;
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation;
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
the power, and the glory
for ever and ever.
Amen.
BLESSING
May Christ who out of defeat brings new hope and new alternatives, bring us new life
and the blessing of God our Creator, Redeemer and Giver of life be with us always. Amen
Open this link in a new tab to hear Brian Wren’s “Christ Is Risen, Shout Hosanna!”
Christ is risen! Shout hosanna!
Celebrate this day of days!
Christ is risen! Hush in wonder:
all creation is amazed.
In the desert all-surrounding,
see, a spreading tree has grown.
Healing leaves of grace abounding
bring a taste of love unknown.
Christ is risen! Raise your spirits
from the caverns of despair.
Walk with gladness in the morning.
See what love can do and dare.
Drink the wine of resurrection,
not a servant, but a friend.
Jesus is our strong companion.
Joy and peace shall never end.
Christ is risen! Earth and heaven
nevermore shall be the same.
Break the bread of new creation
where the world is still in pain.
Tell its grim, demonic chorus:
"Christ is risen! Get you gone!"
God the First and Last is with us.
Sing Hosanna everyone!
SCRIPTURE
John 20: 1-18 The Resurrection
Early on Sunday morning, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. She ran and found Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved. She said, “They have taken the Lord’s body out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”
Peter and the other disciple started out for the tomb. They were both running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He stooped and looked in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he didn’t go in. Then Simon Peter arrived and went inside. He also noticed the linen wrappings lying there, while the cloth that had covered Jesus’ head was folded up and lying apart from the other wrappings. Then the disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in, and he saw and believed—for until then they still hadn’t understood the Scriptures that said Jesus must rise from the dead. Then they went home.
Mary was standing outside the tomb crying, and as she wept, she stooped and looked in. She saw two white-robed angels, one sitting at the head and the other at the foot of the place where the body of Jesus had been lying. “Dear woman, why are you crying?” the angels asked her.
“Because they have taken away my Lord,” she replied, “and I don’t know where they have put him.”
She turned to leave and saw someone standing there. It was Jesus, but she didn’t recognize him. “Dear woman, why are you crying?” Jesus asked her. “Who are you looking for?”
She thought he was the gardener. “Sir,” she said, “if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and get him.”
“Mary!” Jesus said.
She turned to him and cried out, “Rabboni!” (which is Hebrew for “Teacher”).
“Don’t cling to me,” Jesus said, “for I haven’t yet ascended to the Father. But go find my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”
Mary Magdalene found the disciples and told them, “I have seen the Lord!” Then she gave them his message.
Silence is kept.
May your word live in us
and bear much fruit to your glory
HOMILY
How many of us have been summoned to give testimony in court? When I was a social worker involved in child welfare work, I was required to testify as a witness in numerous cases in Juvenile Court and District Court, depending upon which court had jurisdiction over the case. Before I would testify the assistant district attorney in that court would qualify me as a witness in the case. This process would establish me as someone who was able to give testimony in the case that could be admitted as evidence in the case under the judicial rules governing the admission of evidence. I was allowed only to testify to the facts of the case as I knew them. I was generally not permitted to offer a personal opinion on the matter before the court.
What is interesting about John’s account of the resurrection in John 19: 1-18 is that the first person to discover that the tomb was empty was a woman, Mary Magdelene; the first person to see the risen Lord was a woman, Mary Magdalene; and first person to bring the good news of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead to the disciples was a woman, Mary Magdalene!
In Jewish courts and tribunals at that time women were not allowed to give testimony. Their testimony was considered inadmissible as evidence. Yet in John’s gospel the first witness to the risen Jesus is a woman! The first bearer of the good news is a woman! This is significant.
If John had been a part of a conspiracy to deceive people into believing that Jesus had risen from the dead, he would not have picked a woman to be the first witness to the risen Lord and to the bearer of the good news. He would have chosen someone who in the minds of his fellow Jews was a more credible witness.
John’s gospel much more than the Synoptic Gospels, the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, recognizes and affirms the role of women in Jesus’ life and ministry.
It was Martha, one of the little group of Jesus’ followers who lived in the village of Bethany near Jerusalem, who recognized Jesus as the Messiah.
It was Jesus' women followers who bankrolled his ministry.
It was his women followers who stayed to witness his crucifixion when most of his men disciples had gone into hiding from fear of arrest.
Woman played an important role in the transmission of the Christian faith in the early days of Christianity, a fact that is often lost in the hubbub over Paul’s prohibition of women speaking in gatherings of the local church, something that is related more to Paul’s notions of seemliness than it is to the ability of women to understand, interpret, and expound Scripture; to provide spiritual care to others; or to share their faith.
Women have an important role to play in the spread of the gospel and the teachings of Jesus in our day along with their brothers in Christ.
God chose a group of women to discover that the tomb in which Jesus' body was laid was empty. God chose a woman, Mary Magdalene, to be the first person to encounter Jesus risen from the dead. God chose a woman, the same Mary Magdalene, to bear the good news of Jesus’ resurrection to the eleven. These choices had a purpose.
God has chosen all followers of Jesus to be bearers of the good news to a suffering world, a world in need of hope, a world in need of love, a world in need of Jesus. Our gender, our age, the color of our skin, the condition of our health, our walk of life does not matter. We have been called out darkness into God’s marvelous light to be God’s messengers, to make known the goodness of God, the goodness that he has shown us in Jesus Christ.
Celebrate this day of days!
Christ is risen! Hush in wonder:
all creation is amazed.
In the desert all-surrounding,
see, a spreading tree has grown.
Healing leaves of grace abounding
bring a taste of love unknown.
Christ is risen! Raise your spirits
from the caverns of despair.
Walk with gladness in the morning.
See what love can do and dare.
Drink the wine of resurrection,
not a servant, but a friend.
Jesus is our strong companion.
Joy and peace shall never end.
Christ is risen! Earth and heaven
nevermore shall be the same.
Break the bread of new creation
where the world is still in pain.
Tell its grim, demonic chorus:
"Christ is risen! Get you gone!"
God the First and Last is with us.
Sing Hosanna everyone!
SCRIPTURE
John 20: 1-18 The Resurrection
Early on Sunday morning, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. She ran and found Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved. She said, “They have taken the Lord’s body out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”
Peter and the other disciple started out for the tomb. They were both running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He stooped and looked in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he didn’t go in. Then Simon Peter arrived and went inside. He also noticed the linen wrappings lying there, while the cloth that had covered Jesus’ head was folded up and lying apart from the other wrappings. Then the disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in, and he saw and believed—for until then they still hadn’t understood the Scriptures that said Jesus must rise from the dead. Then they went home.
Mary was standing outside the tomb crying, and as she wept, she stooped and looked in. She saw two white-robed angels, one sitting at the head and the other at the foot of the place where the body of Jesus had been lying. “Dear woman, why are you crying?” the angels asked her.
“Because they have taken away my Lord,” she replied, “and I don’t know where they have put him.”
She turned to leave and saw someone standing there. It was Jesus, but she didn’t recognize him. “Dear woman, why are you crying?” Jesus asked her. “Who are you looking for?”
She thought he was the gardener. “Sir,” she said, “if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and get him.”
“Mary!” Jesus said.
She turned to him and cried out, “Rabboni!” (which is Hebrew for “Teacher”).
“Don’t cling to me,” Jesus said, “for I haven’t yet ascended to the Father. But go find my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”
Mary Magdalene found the disciples and told them, “I have seen the Lord!” Then she gave them his message.
Silence is kept.
May your word live in us
and bear much fruit to your glory
HOMILY
Bearers of Good News
How many of us have been summoned to give testimony in court? When I was a social worker involved in child welfare work, I was required to testify as a witness in numerous cases in Juvenile Court and District Court, depending upon which court had jurisdiction over the case. Before I would testify the assistant district attorney in that court would qualify me as a witness in the case. This process would establish me as someone who was able to give testimony in the case that could be admitted as evidence in the case under the judicial rules governing the admission of evidence. I was allowed only to testify to the facts of the case as I knew them. I was generally not permitted to offer a personal opinion on the matter before the court.
What is interesting about John’s account of the resurrection in John 19: 1-18 is that the first person to discover that the tomb was empty was a woman, Mary Magdelene; the first person to see the risen Lord was a woman, Mary Magdalene; and first person to bring the good news of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead to the disciples was a woman, Mary Magdalene!
In Jewish courts and tribunals at that time women were not allowed to give testimony. Their testimony was considered inadmissible as evidence. Yet in John’s gospel the first witness to the risen Jesus is a woman! The first bearer of the good news is a woman! This is significant.
If John had been a part of a conspiracy to deceive people into believing that Jesus had risen from the dead, he would not have picked a woman to be the first witness to the risen Lord and to the bearer of the good news. He would have chosen someone who in the minds of his fellow Jews was a more credible witness.
John’s gospel much more than the Synoptic Gospels, the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, recognizes and affirms the role of women in Jesus’ life and ministry.
It was Martha, one of the little group of Jesus’ followers who lived in the village of Bethany near Jerusalem, who recognized Jesus as the Messiah.
It was Jesus' women followers who bankrolled his ministry.
It was his women followers who stayed to witness his crucifixion when most of his men disciples had gone into hiding from fear of arrest.
Woman played an important role in the transmission of the Christian faith in the early days of Christianity, a fact that is often lost in the hubbub over Paul’s prohibition of women speaking in gatherings of the local church, something that is related more to Paul’s notions of seemliness than it is to the ability of women to understand, interpret, and expound Scripture; to provide spiritual care to others; or to share their faith.
Women have an important role to play in the spread of the gospel and the teachings of Jesus in our day along with their brothers in Christ.
God chose a group of women to discover that the tomb in which Jesus' body was laid was empty. God chose a woman, Mary Magdalene, to be the first person to encounter Jesus risen from the dead. God chose a woman, the same Mary Magdalene, to bear the good news of Jesus’ resurrection to the eleven. These choices had a purpose.
God has chosen all followers of Jesus to be bearers of the good news to a suffering world, a world in need of hope, a world in need of love, a world in need of Jesus. Our gender, our age, the color of our skin, the condition of our health, our walk of life does not matter. We have been called out darkness into God’s marvelous light to be God’s messengers, to make known the goodness of God, the goodness that he has shown us in Jesus Christ.
Silence is kept.
SONG OF PRAISE
Open this link in a new tab to hear Rory Cooney's adaptation of the Magnificat, "My Soul Cries Out with a Joyful Shout."
1 My soul cries out with a joyful shout
that the God of my heart is great,
and my spirit sings of the wondrous things
that you bring to the ones who wait.
You fixed your sight on your servant’s plight,
and my weakness you did not spurn,
so from east to west shall my name be blest.
Could the world be about to turn?
My heart shall sing of the day you bring.
Let the fires of your justice burn.
Wipe away all tears, for the dawn draws near,
and the world is about to turn.
2 Though I am small, my God, my all,
you work great things in me,
and your mercy will last from the depths of the past
to the end of the age to be.
Your very name puts the proud to shame,
and to those who would for you yearn,
you will show your might, put the strong to flight,
for the world is about to turn.
My heart shall sing of the day you bring.
Let the fires of your justice burn.
Wipe away all tears, for the dawn draws near,
and the world is about to turn.
3 From the halls of pow’r to the fortress tow’r,
not a stone will be left on stone.
Let the king beware for your justice tears
ev’ry tyrant from his throne.
The hungry poor shall weep no more,
for the food they can never earn;
there are tables spread, ev’ry mouth be fed,
for the world is about to turn.
My heart shall sing of the day you bring.
Let the fires of your justice burn.
Wipe away all tears, for the dawn draws near,
and the world is about to turn.
4 Though the nations rage from age to age,
we remember who holds us fast:
God’s mercy must deliver us
from the conqueror’s crushing grasp.
This saving word that our forebears heard
is the promise which holds us bound,
till the spear and rod can be crushed by God,
who is turning the world around.
My heart shall sing of the day you bring.
Let the fires of your justice burn.
Wipe away all tears, for the dawn draws near,
and the world is about to turn.
PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE
Periods of silence may be kept.
Heavenly Father,
you have promised to hear when we pray
in the name of your Son.
Therefore in confidence and trust
we pray for the Church:
(Particular intercessions/thanksgivings may be offered.)
Father, enliven the Church for its mission
that we may be salt of the earth and light to the world.
Breathe fresh life into your people.
SONG OF PRAISE
Open this link in a new tab to hear Rory Cooney's adaptation of the Magnificat, "My Soul Cries Out with a Joyful Shout."
1 My soul cries out with a joyful shout
that the God of my heart is great,
and my spirit sings of the wondrous things
that you bring to the ones who wait.
You fixed your sight on your servant’s plight,
and my weakness you did not spurn,
so from east to west shall my name be blest.
Could the world be about to turn?
My heart shall sing of the day you bring.
Let the fires of your justice burn.
Wipe away all tears, for the dawn draws near,
and the world is about to turn.
2 Though I am small, my God, my all,
you work great things in me,
and your mercy will last from the depths of the past
to the end of the age to be.
Your very name puts the proud to shame,
and to those who would for you yearn,
you will show your might, put the strong to flight,
for the world is about to turn.
My heart shall sing of the day you bring.
Let the fires of your justice burn.
Wipe away all tears, for the dawn draws near,
and the world is about to turn.
3 From the halls of pow’r to the fortress tow’r,
not a stone will be left on stone.
Let the king beware for your justice tears
ev’ry tyrant from his throne.
The hungry poor shall weep no more,
for the food they can never earn;
there are tables spread, ev’ry mouth be fed,
for the world is about to turn.
My heart shall sing of the day you bring.
Let the fires of your justice burn.
Wipe away all tears, for the dawn draws near,
and the world is about to turn.
4 Though the nations rage from age to age,
we remember who holds us fast:
God’s mercy must deliver us
from the conqueror’s crushing grasp.
This saving word that our forebears heard
is the promise which holds us bound,
till the spear and rod can be crushed by God,
who is turning the world around.
My heart shall sing of the day you bring.
Let the fires of your justice burn.
Wipe away all tears, for the dawn draws near,
and the world is about to turn.
PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE
Periods of silence may be kept.
Heavenly Father,
you have promised to hear when we pray
in the name of your Son.
Therefore in confidence and trust
we pray for the Church:
(Particular intercessions/thanksgivings may be offered.)
Father, enliven the Church for its mission
that we may be salt of the earth and light to the world.
Breathe fresh life into your people.
Give us power to reveal Christ in word and action.
We pray for the world:
(Particular intercessions/thanksgivings may be offered.)
Creator of all,
lead us and every people into ways of justice and peace.
That we may respect one another in freedom and truth.
Awaken in us a sense of wonder for the earth and all that is in it.
Awaken in us a sense of wonder for the earth and all that is in it.
Teach us to care creatively for its resources.
We pray for the community:
(Particular intercessions/thanksgivings may be offered.)
God of truth, inspire with your wisdom
those whose decisions affect the lives of others
that all may act with integrity and courage.
Give grace to all whose lives are linked with ours.
May we serve Christ in one another, and love as he loves us.
We pray for those in need:
(Particular intercessions/thanksgivings may be offered.)
God of hope, comfort and restore
all who suffer in body, mind or spirit.
May they know the power of your healing love.
Make us willing agents of your compassion.
Strengthen us as we share in making people whole.
We remember those who have died and those who mourn:
(Particular intercessions/thanksgivings may be offered.)
We remember with thanksgiving those who have died in the faith
of Christ, and those whose faith is known to you alone.
Father, into your hands we commend them.
Give comfort to those who mourn.
Bring them peace in their time of loss.
We praise you for (N and) all your saints
who have entered your eternal glory.
May their example inspire and encourage us.
We pray for ourselves and our ministries:
(Particular intercessions/thanksgivings may be offered and the prayers
conclude with the following.)
Lord, you have called us to serve you.
Grant that we may walk in your presence:
your love in our hearts,
your truth in our minds,
your strength in our wills;
until, at the end of our journey,
we know the joy of our homecoming
and the welcome of your embrace,
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
The Collect
Jesus Christ our Saviour,
you have delivered us from sin and death.
You have brought with the dawn
a new beginning and an empty tomb;
grant us strength and humility
to enter into life.
Hear this prayer for your love’s sake.
Amen.
RESPONSE
Open this link in a new tab to hear Les Petites Soers de Jésus and L'Arche Community’s “Lord Jesus, You Shall Be My Song as I Journey.”
1 Lord Jesus, you shall be my song as I journey;
I'll tell everybody about you wherever I go:
you alone are our life and our peace and our love.
Lord Jesus, you shall be my song as I journey.
2 Lord Jesus, I'll praise you as long as I journey;
May all of my joy be a faithful reflection of you.
May the earth and the sea and the sky join my song.
Lord Jesus, I'll praise you as long as I journey.
3 As long as I live, Jesus, make me your servant,
to carry your cross and to share all your burdens and tears.
For you saved me by giving your body and blood.
As long as I live, Jesus, make me your servant.
4 I fear in the dark and the doubt of my journey;
but courage will come with the sound of your steps by my side.
And will all of the family you saved by your love,
we'll sing to your dawn at the end of our journey.
THE LORD’S PRAYER
And now, as our Saviour has taught us,
we are bold to say,
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name;
thy kingdom come;
thy will be done;
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation;
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
the power, and the glory
for ever and ever.
Amen.
BLESSING
May Christ who out of defeat brings new hope and new alternatives, bring us new life
and the blessing of God our Creator, Redeemer and Giver of life be with us always. Amen
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