Holy Week And Easter In The Season Of COVID-19

Whether it is the four seasons of the year or the seven seasons of the liturgical year, each season is a lens through which we see and experience life. Each season offers a unique perspective on life, highlights certain events, and emphasizes particular activities. This year, in addition to the usual and familiar seasons, there has been another season, the Season of COVID-19. It has changed the way we see the world, others, and ourselves. We are having to do and be the church differently, and that’s not all bad. It’s been an undeniable and ever present backdrop to our experience of Holy Week and Easter this year. Even when not explicitly addressed, it’s been a thread running through my sermons this Holy Week and Easter.

• The Pandemic Is Our Holy Week;
• This Is The One – A Palm Sunday Sermon;
• Let’s Never Stop Loving – A Maundy Thursday Sermon;
• Life In The Shadow of the Cross – A Good Friday Sermon;
• Not Sorrowing As Those Without Hope – A Holy Saturday Sermon; and
• Easter Happens – An Easter Sunday Sermon.

O God, who by the glorious resurrection of your Son Jesus
Christ destroyed death and brought life and immortality to light:

Grant that we, who have been raised with him,
may abide in his presence and rejoice in the hope of eternal glory;

through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit,
be dominion and praise for ever and ever. Amen.

(Collect for Tuesday in Easter Week, The Book of Common Prayer, 223)