About Lent

Historical Background

Reprinted from Book of Worship © 1986 Office of Church Life and Leadership, 2002 Worship and Education Ministry Team, United Church of Christ. Used by permission.

“Lent is a penitential season of self-examination, prayer, and fasting that precedes the observance of the Triduum (Maundy Thursday evening, Good Friday, and the Vigil of Easter which begins on Saturday night). In Western churches, the season opens on Ash Wednesday and consists of forty days excluding Sundays. The term Lent is derived from roots that mean to lengthen. The Lenten season points to the spring of the year and to the increasing daylight hours which spring brings.

“Lent is first clearly documented in Canon Five of the Council of Nicaea (A.D. 325). However, the practice of a pre-Easter period of discipline is much older. A century earlier, Hippolytus of Rome mentioned a two-and-one-ha1f-week fast prior to Easter. In some places this season was the intensified period of preparation for those who were to be baptized on the eve of Easter.

“The color for the season of Lent, beginning with Ash Wednesday and including Sundays, is purple. Some traditions, however, recommend black for Ash Wednesday.

“The earliest extant reference to Ash Wednesday is in the Gelasian Sacramentary of the seventh century. It is customary in some traditions to mark the forehead of Christians with ashes on this day. The use of ashes is based on several scriptural texts, including Genesis 3:19 and 18:27, Jeremiah 6:26, and Jonah 3:6.

“Holy Week, beginning with Palm/Passion Sunday, marks the final week of Lent. Egeria [a 4^th-century writer] described a procession to Bethany ‘six days before the Passover’, on which occasion the story of the raising of Lazarus was read in anticipation of Christ's passion. She placed the event on the Saturday before Palm Sunday. In the medieval period, churches in the West began to observe Passion Sunday on the Sunday before Palm Sunday. In recent calendar revisions, most churches have combined the Passion and Palm Sunday themes. They have reduced the Palm Sunday observance of Christ's triumphant entry into Jerusalem to an opening or entrance rite and have made the sixth Sunday in Lent predominantly an anticipation of Christ's passion. In some traditions the color recommended for Palm/Passion Sunday and the weekdays before Maundy Thursday is red. The color is reminiscent of martyrdom.

“Maundy Thursday commemorates the institution of Holy Communion and the giving of the new commandment (mandatum) that people should love one another even as Christ Loves them (John 13:34-35). It also is an appropriate occasion for the rite of washing the feet. In most traditions the color for the day is white in keeping with the glad receiving of the gift of Holy Communion. In those churches where red is introduced on Palm/Passion Sunday, it may remain in use on Maundy Thursday. It is the custom of many churches at the conclusion of the last service on Maundy Thursday to strip the chancel of all paraments and altar hangings in preparation for Good Friday.

“Good Friday and Easter, in the earliest celebrations of the church, were combined in a unified rite. Peter Cobb has stated: ‘Originally, when the Feast of Feasts emerges into the light of history in the second century, it is a unitive commemoration of the death and resurrection of the Lord, a nocturnal celebration of a single night, constituting the Christian Passover.’ However, very early, as Egeria attested, special services were held on Good Friday. She described a fourth century vigil at the site of the cross that began at noon and ended at 3:00 P.M. This separation of the events of Good Friday from those of Easter Sunday, especially in the West, contributed to an emphasis on the death of Christ in the celebration of Holy Communion ‘to the exclusion of the resurrection and ascension’.

— quoted from the Introduction to Worship in the United Church of Christ, as posted on the UCC Web Site.

Here at Pilgrim Church

During Lent at Pilgrim Church, we have special activities or services on Wednesday evenings, generally to a specific theme chosen by our ministry team. These services usually begin with a pot-luck supper, and then transition to whatever presentation, discussion, or worship activity has been chosen for that evening.

Holy Week is a special time here. On Palm Sunday, we begin the week celebrating Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, but also noting that this is the start of his Passion. That service usually includes a brunch in Fellowship Hall. Maundy Thursday is observed with a supper (sometimes a seder meal), followed by a service of tennebrae. Good Friday is often co-celebrated with one of the other churches in the area.

Recently, we have started a new tradition for Holy Week. At the conclusion of the Good Friday service, we begin a 24-hour prayer vigil. Members take turns—either in the Sanctuary or in their homes—and our goal is to have someone always in prayer or quiet meditation throughout the entire vigil. The sanctuary is lit with candles; the chancel table is bare (commemorating the crucifixion); music and books help to put participants into a thoughtful frame of mind. Many of our members who have participated—some quite reluctantly at first—have said it is a truly wonderful and refreshing experience, and look forward to the next vigil.