Though we are now in the joyful celebration of Eastertide, I commend to you some
beautiful pictures of the somber Good Friday Mass as celebrated by one of our sister LCMS congregations, historic Redeemer Lutheran Church in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
The pastor in the pulpit chanting the Reproaches is the Rev. Douglas Punke, who ordained me at Redeemer's sister historic congregation, Zion Lutheran Church (where he serves as senior pastor), also in Fort Wayne. The kantor (shown in the last two pictures), the Rev. Dr. Daniel Reuning, is a beloved and learned professor emeritus from the Fort Wayne Seminary, an expert on Liturgics, former dean of Kramer Chapel, and now serves as the conductor of the critically acclaimed Fort Wayne Bach Collegium.
Redeemer has been the church home of many Fort Wayne professors throughout the years, including one of my most beloved professors, mentors, and fathers in Christ, the sainted Rev. Prof. Kurt Marquart. The Rev. Dr. Charles Evanson, who has served many years now as a seminary professor in Lithuania (on loan, so to speak, from Ft. Wayne), was Pr. Petersen's predecessor as Redeemer's pastor.
Redeemer is a congregation where the Law is proclaimed in all its fierceness, the Gospel is preached in all its sweetness, and the sacraments are given and received with joy, with reverence, and with an unabashed fidelity to our Lutheran tradition.
Christ is risen!
The pastor in the pulpit chanting the Reproaches is the Rev. Douglas Punke, who ordained me at Redeemer's sister historic congregation, Zion Lutheran Church (where he serves as senior pastor), also in Fort Wayne. The kantor (shown in the last two pictures), the Rev. Dr. Daniel Reuning, is a beloved and learned professor emeritus from the Fort Wayne Seminary, an expert on Liturgics, former dean of Kramer Chapel, and now serves as the conductor of the critically acclaimed Fort Wayne Bach Collegium.
Redeemer has been the church home of many Fort Wayne professors throughout the years, including one of my most beloved professors, mentors, and fathers in Christ, the sainted Rev. Prof. Kurt Marquart. The Rev. Dr. Charles Evanson, who has served many years now as a seminary professor in Lithuania (on loan, so to speak, from Ft. Wayne), was Pr. Petersen's predecessor as Redeemer's pastor.
Redeemer is a congregation where the Law is proclaimed in all its fierceness, the Gospel is preached in all its sweetness, and the sacraments are given and received with joy, with reverence, and with an unabashed fidelity to our Lutheran tradition.
Christ is risen!
6 comments:
Beautiful pictures; though they raise a query...
How common is it for Lutheran parishes to celebrate the Eucharist on Good Friday?
I ask because the general western catholic tradition makes Good Friday a day for the Mass of the Presanctified (with Holy Saturday aliturgical). In evangelical Anglican circles, I know Eucharists are not unheard of on Good Friday, and the Orthodox celebrate Divine Liturgy on Good Friday when it happens to also be Annunciation day.
I understand that the LSB gives propers for a Good Friday Eucharist, but I am curious about its usage.
What do you do in your parish?
Rob+
Dear Robert:
It's fairly common to have Eucharist on GF within the Lutheran tradition. I know some congregations have a tenebrae of some sort, with or without Eucharist.
My own parish has a 12:00 noon Mass and one later at 7:30 pm.
As far as the history of the practice goes, I'm not up on that, but I'm sure someone will weigh in!
Great to hear from you!
Christ is risen!
This comment was interesting to me, because someone read a blog post I wrote and out of the whole post talking about other things, they picked out that we had communion on Good Friday and they had never had that before (born and raised midwestern LCMS and now lives in northwestern USA). That surprised me because I always remember having communion on Good Friday. 2 of our churches in our tri-parish had evening services on Good Friday with communion at both of them.
Ewe,
I grew up Roman Catholic, so our Good Friday communion was reserve from Holy Thursday. No consecration. When I became an Anglican later on in life, no Communion. This was also the case when I went to the Syriac Church. Now that I am back in the west, I have found it interesting to compare and contrast this particular bit of liturgical trivia.
Rob+
Fr Lyons et al --
There is no Communion on Good Friday. The logic of Holy Week follows the historical logic of the events. The unity of Christ's cross as our Passover and the Passover meal trandformed into his body and blood does not come to-gether except in the risen Christ, Easter.
Therefore the church celebrates the transformation of the seder just as he did -- on the night before he suffered, he took bread etc -- but not the crucifixion and the crucifixion in and of itself, no seder. The union does not come to-gether until Easter itself.
That is why the church reads John both days, first the supper part, then the cross part, not one account of it all as earlier in Holy Week.
That is why the church does not offer mass just one day of the year, Good Friday.
This assumes of course the mass is the normal service, not every other Sunday, but every Sunday, as a "little" Easter, and such week days as it may be celebrated.
The "mass of the pre-sanctified", besides sounding like a Wagner music-drama, still does not involve offering mass, since in RC belief a consecrated host remains consecrated, and can be offered for Communion on another day.
We do not have that, thus there can be no "mass of the presanctified" still not offering mass, but there must be a mass in order to offer Communion. Which destroys the energy and structure of the synthesis on Easter of the separate events of the Triduum leading up to it.
Actually, I enjoyed the Easter Vigil and Easter morning services at Redeemer this year, live and in person.
The incense smells much better when one is there.
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