Great Vigil, 2016
26/03/16 05:14
I often think of the Christian calendar as an annual journey through the life of Jesus. We begin with Advent and the anticipation of the birth, move on to Christmas and quickly into Epiphany. By Lent, we’ve gone through the early experiences of Jesus’ life and many of the stories of his ministry including the call of disciples, miracles and teachings. Lent focuses on the final trip to Jerusalem and the events surrounding his death. At Easter we celebrate the resurrection and on Pentecost Day we celebrate the beginning of the church and throughout the summer and autumn months as the long season of Pentecost unfolds, we read more stories of the teachings and events of Jesus. Each year we go through the cycle of learning and remembering.
It is no accident that the calendar has been organized around these events, but it was also created out of institutional needs and the process of organizing a growing institutional church. Lent and Easter, which are “anchored” in the dates establishing the Jewish Passover, are probably the most ancient of the Christian holidays. As the emerging church began to grow, a system was needed to prepare initiates for membership. Easter was a good time for the official ceremony to take place and a preparation period of six months was deemed to be about right to teach prospective new members the things that were thought to be important for them to know. The readings of the season of Lent were arranged to contain what were thought to be the most important parts of Jesus life.
From that tradition came the Great Vigil of Easter, also known as the Paschal Vigil. It is the first official celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus. During this service people are baptized and adult catechumens are received into full communion with the church. Officially, the great Vigil begins with sunset on Holy Saturday and ends with sunrise on Easter Day. Throughout the night there are four distinct phases to the ceremonies. The first is a service of light during which new fire is kindled and a candlelight procession emerges as the flame is passed from candle to candle. A fresh Paschal Candle for the new year is first lighted and special prayers celebrate the gift of light and Jesus as the light of the world.
The second is a service of the word. Beginning with the creation stories that open Genesis, selected texts are read to tell the flow of history, including the story of Exodus, the coming of kings, the words of the prophets, selected tests from the Epistles and finally readings from the Gospels. The readings are punctuated with Psalms and songs and periods of silence.
The third service is a service of baptism in which those who have not been baptized receive the sacrament and those who have been baptized repeat their baptismal vows and are sprinkled to remind them of their baptisms.
The vigil concludes with the celebration of Holy Communion - the first communion for the new members of the church.
In our contemporary setting, we no longer stay up all night and spread out the liturgy. Rather the four services are compressed into a compact liturgy that includes the highlights of the elements of the Great Vigil. We don’t even wait quite until sundown, preferring rather to start by the clock at a time that is convenient for worshipers and allows them to go home and sleep before the sunrise service the next day. Our actions are symbolic and remind us of former practices while acknowledging that we operate in a different way in the contemporary church. In our times, people join the church at many different times throughout the year and preparation for membership varies by the needs and understandings of those who are preparing for membership. The events of membership preparation don’t always occur in the same order and less emphasis is laid on the understandings of concepts and intellectual assent to dogma.
This shift in meaning and in the mode of celebration has resulted in the Great Vigil slipping from the services of many congregations a they focus on Easter services. Some contemporary congregations eschew Holy Week services while placing huge emphasis on Easter morning celebrations. At the same time, traditional churches are experiencing a return to Great Vigil services. Each year in our community one or two congregations that had not previously observed the vigil add a service. Once thought to be primarily the observance of Roman Catholic and Episcopal churches, the Great Vigil is celebrated in Lutheran, Presbyterian, Methodist and United Church of Christ congregations among others.
One of the duties of my day will be the preparation of the Paschal Candle, which we do to prepare for the service rather than in the midst of the service as was the ancient tradition. Our candle came from the candlemakers already inscribed with its symbols. Each has a special meaning:
Christ yesterday and today is the vertical line of the cross.
The beginning and the End is the horizontal line.
The Alpha is cut into the candle above the vertical line.
The Omega is cut into the candle below the vertical line.
The four numerals of the current year are each cut into the candle with special prayer.
In some congregations, five grains of incense are inserted into the candle in the form of the cross. In our congregation we would have to insert the incense fairly high on the cross in order for the flame to burn down to them during the year. Even though we light the candle for all of our worship services during the year, less than a third of the total length of the candle is consumed. Still, it is rather dramatic to remove the old candle from its candleholder and place the new candle and recall how many services of worship the candle has witnessed and how much light it has given to our faith in the course of a year.
Today is a day of preparation, mostly, with a service in the evening to prepare for the events of tomorrow. It is hardly a vigil and yet it is a tradition that I enjoy greatly. There is much anticipation of what will come tomorrow.
It is no accident that the calendar has been organized around these events, but it was also created out of institutional needs and the process of organizing a growing institutional church. Lent and Easter, which are “anchored” in the dates establishing the Jewish Passover, are probably the most ancient of the Christian holidays. As the emerging church began to grow, a system was needed to prepare initiates for membership. Easter was a good time for the official ceremony to take place and a preparation period of six months was deemed to be about right to teach prospective new members the things that were thought to be important for them to know. The readings of the season of Lent were arranged to contain what were thought to be the most important parts of Jesus life.
From that tradition came the Great Vigil of Easter, also known as the Paschal Vigil. It is the first official celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus. During this service people are baptized and adult catechumens are received into full communion with the church. Officially, the great Vigil begins with sunset on Holy Saturday and ends with sunrise on Easter Day. Throughout the night there are four distinct phases to the ceremonies. The first is a service of light during which new fire is kindled and a candlelight procession emerges as the flame is passed from candle to candle. A fresh Paschal Candle for the new year is first lighted and special prayers celebrate the gift of light and Jesus as the light of the world.
The second is a service of the word. Beginning with the creation stories that open Genesis, selected texts are read to tell the flow of history, including the story of Exodus, the coming of kings, the words of the prophets, selected tests from the Epistles and finally readings from the Gospels. The readings are punctuated with Psalms and songs and periods of silence.
The third service is a service of baptism in which those who have not been baptized receive the sacrament and those who have been baptized repeat their baptismal vows and are sprinkled to remind them of their baptisms.
The vigil concludes with the celebration of Holy Communion - the first communion for the new members of the church.
In our contemporary setting, we no longer stay up all night and spread out the liturgy. Rather the four services are compressed into a compact liturgy that includes the highlights of the elements of the Great Vigil. We don’t even wait quite until sundown, preferring rather to start by the clock at a time that is convenient for worshipers and allows them to go home and sleep before the sunrise service the next day. Our actions are symbolic and remind us of former practices while acknowledging that we operate in a different way in the contemporary church. In our times, people join the church at many different times throughout the year and preparation for membership varies by the needs and understandings of those who are preparing for membership. The events of membership preparation don’t always occur in the same order and less emphasis is laid on the understandings of concepts and intellectual assent to dogma.
This shift in meaning and in the mode of celebration has resulted in the Great Vigil slipping from the services of many congregations a they focus on Easter services. Some contemporary congregations eschew Holy Week services while placing huge emphasis on Easter morning celebrations. At the same time, traditional churches are experiencing a return to Great Vigil services. Each year in our community one or two congregations that had not previously observed the vigil add a service. Once thought to be primarily the observance of Roman Catholic and Episcopal churches, the Great Vigil is celebrated in Lutheran, Presbyterian, Methodist and United Church of Christ congregations among others.
One of the duties of my day will be the preparation of the Paschal Candle, which we do to prepare for the service rather than in the midst of the service as was the ancient tradition. Our candle came from the candlemakers already inscribed with its symbols. Each has a special meaning:
Christ yesterday and today is the vertical line of the cross.
The beginning and the End is the horizontal line.
The Alpha is cut into the candle above the vertical line.
The Omega is cut into the candle below the vertical line.
The four numerals of the current year are each cut into the candle with special prayer.
In some congregations, five grains of incense are inserted into the candle in the form of the cross. In our congregation we would have to insert the incense fairly high on the cross in order for the flame to burn down to them during the year. Even though we light the candle for all of our worship services during the year, less than a third of the total length of the candle is consumed. Still, it is rather dramatic to remove the old candle from its candleholder and place the new candle and recall how many services of worship the candle has witnessed and how much light it has given to our faith in the course of a year.
Today is a day of preparation, mostly, with a service in the evening to prepare for the events of tomorrow. It is hardly a vigil and yet it is a tradition that I enjoy greatly. There is much anticipation of what will come tomorrow.