A Retired Rector's Reflections

Sung Evensong was a feature of the weekly worship schedule in many rural churches when I was a boy. In my local church this usually involved a congregation of about 10 to 12 people singing hymns, the versicles and responses, and also the canticles to a familiar chant. This was common in neighbouring churches of the area too..

There was a slight but significant change on Easter Day. At the end of the prayers after the third collect our parish priest invited us to remember loved ones who had died, and any worshippers who had died in the previous year. We were encouraged to remember their closeness to us in the communion of saints, and in the glory of Easter we were called to join with them to sing our praises. We then stood and sang the Te Deum, We praise Thee O God.

This small act of devotion left a great impression with me. This is quite different from the autumnal All Souls devotion with its solemnity and careful reading out of names. At that worship there is a feeling of separation and grief. On Easter Day there was light, brightness and a glorious hope expressed liturgically.

In our simple devotion in a church with beautiful Easter flowers we were alongside departed family and friends, ‘joint-petitioners’ and worshippers before God‘s throne. The 17th century Richard Baxter expressed this in the hymn He wants not friends:

Years later on Easter day I loved to lead the beautiful service of Benediction followed by the Maria Consolata devotion. At this devotion we gathered around Mary’s statue and also recalled that in our joy Easter we joined with Mary and with family and friends who had gone before us. Together we sang the Regina Coeli, and expressed the joy of Easter in worship, with Mary, Angels and Saints and those who whom we love but see no longer.

Of course remembering and worshipping with loved ones who have died, in this way at Easter is found in other countries. In Poland and in some other asreas of Eastern Europe on Easter Thursday the faithful go to Mass, which is offered particulalrly for the dead of the parish. Relatives’ and friends’ pictures are decorated with flowers at home, and in the cemetry.

Today in the Church of England Easter Day evening worship is a thing of the past in many smaller churches. It allowed worshippers, like the angel of the Resurrection, to sit and reflect! A time to bask in the glory and quietly join with others, living and departed, in saying thank you to God. Perhaps, in some way, churches can encourage this to take place at home if worship in church proves not to be possible on Easter Day, or perhaps, a devotion in Easter week can be arranged.