A Church Plant Celebrates Holy Week

by Morgan Reed

This was our first Holy Week as a new church plant and we had the joy and privilege of joining with our friends at All Saints' Church to celebrate the Triduum jointly. As I have been thinking back to a few of the highlights of that week, there are three that come to mind. We had at least three people for whom this was their first Anglican Holy Week. One of them commented on Palm Sunday about how moving it was to transition from the Hosannas at the beginning to the Passion reading prior to the sermon. A second person mentioned how Holy the Vigil felt; that it helped them understand Jesus in fresh and helpful ways. Both of these were a good reminder that our liturgy, done well and with reverence, is God's gift to us in the formation of disciples of Jesus.

The third story comes from our mini-retreat on Holy Saturday. We decided on Holy Saturday that we would celebrate the Holy Saturday liturgy from the Book of Common Prayer and that between each of the four readings we would allow people to share a brief testimony of how their story intersects with the experience of Jesus and the disciples. One of the women who came had attended the Alpha Course online and actually lives several hours away. She made the trip just for this retreat and has been asking very good questions about God and the church. She mentioned that our church plant feels like her own family. It was a very touching experience to move from a virtual Alpha Course to in-person fellowship where someone belongs as though they are family. This was a formative first Holy Week for Corpus Christi Anglican Church. It is such a gift to have great churches to partner with and an encouragement to see God continue to form this community for His glory."

"The Rev. Morgan Reed has been called to plant Corpus Christi Anglican Church (Formerly "The Franconia-Springfield Mission), which serves the Franconia, Springfield, and Kingstowne areas of Northern Virginia. Their vision is to become a common people in common prayer for uncommon transformation."