Friday Five: 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?
Palms only. I've gone both ways, but I still have the sneaking feeling that Palm Sunday deserves a day of its own, and if you tell the whole Passion story then, you're usurping a huge part of the Holy Week pattern. I can be fairly pitiless when it comes to liturgical order: if you're too lazy to come to Good Friday worship, then that's your problem. At any rate, I'm not going to give you an excuse by telling the whole story this Sunday.

2. Maundy Thursday Footwashing: Discuss.
We do a Seder meal. As this is my first call congregation, I've only helped with a footwashing service once, on my internship. Can't say I miss it too much, though I do love the image.

3. Share a particularly meaningful Good Friday worship experience.
I'm almost always moved by Good Friday. That said, I can't pick out one particular worship service, but what I like most about them all is the leaving in silence. It's so different from ordinary worship, and so appropriate to me.

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?!?"
C, no question. Here's what I always wanted to say (and didn't) when we had a Sunrise service: "Even Jesus isn't up yet! Why are we here???"

5. Complete this sentence: It just isn't Easter without...
The processional singing of "Jesus Christ is Risen Today," complete with pull-out-all-the-stops pipe organ.

Bonus: Any Easter Vigil aficionados out there? Please share.
Absolutely. This will be our third annual Vigil (we gave up the Sunrise service in favor of the Vigil - alleluia indeed). I love the whole thing. It's the best service of the year, hands down. A friend's congregation even uses champagne for communion during the Vigil; they pop the cork as they invite everyone forward. It's fantastic. Some year I'm going to steal that idea.