Friday Five from RevGalBlogPals: Holy Week, Batman!

Well, the Clergy Superbowl is almost upon us, and so, I offer up this Friday Five (with apologies for the irreverent title):

1. Will this Sunday be Palms only, Passion only, or hyphenated?
This Sunday is hyphenated, I think. There will definitely be a procession with children waving palms to begin the service. The choir is doing a cantata that I think is a Passion cantata. (No I don't really know because if I knew for sure and thought it stunk I couldn't change it anyway so I'd rather just not know.)

2. Maundy Thursday Footwashing: Discuss.
This is where I lose any "touchy, feely" credentials I might have scraped up along the way: NO WAY! I don't care who thinks this should be a sacrament because Jesus did it. Jesus peed standing up and I don't think that makes it a sacrament. Footwashing does not have the same connotations today, we have not maintained it as a meaningful service over time, and I would much rather experience someone living out the attitude demonstrated in the act of footwashing instead of participating in the ritual only to experience the abuse of their power later.

3. Share a particularly meaningful Good Friday worship experience.
hmmm ... I think the silence without any structure of a cathedral in Toronto on Good Friday. I also like a service of darkness published by Creative Communications for the Parish. It is a service of scripture with the extinguishing of candles. I recruit folks to read the Psalms from their seats (any age that can read well) and I read the other nocturnes. While it's sold for "large" churches. I have used it very effectively with a crowd of 20.

4. Easter Sunrise Services--choose one:
a) "Resurrection tradition par excellence!"
b) "Eh. As long as it's sunrise with coffee, I can live with it."
c) "[Yawn] Can't Jesus stay in the tomb just five more minutes, Mom?!?"

Easter Sunrise is my "penance" service. If I have done any wrong, I expect the sacrifice of leading Easter Sunrise to cover it.

5. Complete this sentence: It just isn't Easter without... trumpets. Which means it hasn't "really" been Easter in a few years. And we must sing Christ the Lord is Risen today. And when that is done we must have a nap!

Bonus: Any Easter Vigil aficionados out there? Please share. A few years ago at a different church, I had a woman who had grown up Episcopalian that desperately wanted me to have an Easter vigil a friend of hers with a similar background was nearby and joined in the request. So I arranged for musicians planned and lead the service. And neither of them showed. And no one else did either. The musicians and I went out to eat. I don't think that qualifies me for aficionado status.