You are invited to say the text in bold in English.
Order of Service
Please stand as the Minister sings
Let us pray.
Please remain standing whilst the Choir and Clergy enter the stalls
Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane: we pray now that he would be merciful to us.
Lord Jesus, for our sake, you accepted the cup of suffering:
Help us to keep watch with you.
Please remain standing as the Choir sings
THE INTROIT
When Jesus wept, the falling tear in mercy flowed beyond all bound; when Jesus groaned a trembling fear seized all the guilty world around.
William Billings (1746–1800)
Eoghan Desmond (b.1984)
Jesus was condemned by those who gave false evidence against him: let us pray now that he would forgive us our betrayal of him.
Lord Jesus for our sake you accepted the false charges laid against you:
Help us to be faithful to you in word and deed.
Please remain standing to sing the
Hymn
1. My song is love unknown,
My Saviour’s love to me,
Love to the loveless shown,
That they might lovely be.
O who am I,
That for my sake
My Lord should take
Frail flesh, and die?
2. He came from his blest throne,
Salvation to bestow;
But men made strange, and none
The longed-for Christ would know,
But O, my Friend,
My Friend indeed,
Who at my need
His life did spend!
3. Sometimes they strew his way,
And his sweet praises sing,
Resounding all the day
Hosannas to their King.
Then ‘Crucify!’
Is all their breath,
And for his death
They thirst and cry.
4. Here might I stay and sing,
No story so divine;
Never was love, dear King,
Never was grief like thine!
This is my Friend,
In whose sweet praise
I all my days
Could gladly spend.
Samuel Crossman (1624–83) John Ireland (1879–1962)
Plainsong
Please sit for the
First Reading
Luke 22: 54–62
Then they seized him and led him away, bringing him into the high priest’s house. But Peter was following at a distance. When they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat down together, Peter sat among them. Then a servant-girl, seeing him in the firelight, stared at him and said, ‘This man also was with him.’ But he denied it, saying, ‘Woman, I do not know him.’ A little later someone else, on seeing him, said, ‘You also are one of them.’ But Peter said, ‘Man, I am not!’ Then about an hour later yet another kept insisting, ‘Surely this man also was with him; for he is a Galilean.’ But Peter said, ‘Man, I do not know what you are talking about!’ At that moment, while he was still speaking, the cock crowed. The Lord turned and looked at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said to him, ‘Before the cock crows today, you will deny me three times.’ And he went out and wept bitterly.
The Choir sings the
Psalm
PSALM 130
De profundis.
Out of the deep have I called unto thee, O Lord: Lord, hear my voice. O let thine ears consider well: the voice of my complaint. If thou, Lord, wilt be extreme to mark what is done amiss: O Lord, who may abide it? For there is mercy with thee: therefore shalt thou be feared. I look for the Lord; my soul doth wait for him: in his word is my trust. My soul looketh for the Lord: more than watchmen look for the morning; yea, more than watchmen for the morning. O Israel, trust in the Lord, for with the Lord there is mercy: and with him is plenteous redemption. And he shall redeem Israel: from all his sins.
Remain seated for the
Second Reading
John 19: 17–24
And carrying the cross by himself, he went out to what is called The Place of the Skull, which in Hebrew is called Golgotha. There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, with Jesus between them. Pilate also had an inscription written and put on the cross. It read, ‘Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.’ Many of the Jews read this inscription, because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, in Latin, and in Greek. Then the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, ‘Do not write, “The King of the Jews”, but, “This man said, I am King of the Jews.”’ Pilate answered, ‘What I have written I have written.’ When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his clothes and divided them into four parts, one for each soldier. They also took his tunic; now the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from the top. So they said to one another, ‘Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see who will get it.’ This was to fulfil what the scripture says,
‘They divided my clothes among themselves,
and for my clothing they cast lots.’
Please sit as the Choir sings the
ANTHEM
Crux fidelis, inter omnes, arbor una nobilis: Nulla silva talem profert, fronde, flore, germine: Dulce lignum, dulces clavos, Dulce pondus sustinet. Amen.
(Faithful Cross, among all others, one and only noble tree: Never grew there one so blessed, branches, blossoms: sweetest wood, sweetest nails, sweetest weight you bear. Amen.)
Mervyn Cousins (2004)
Please remain seated for
The Sermon
Preacher The Very Reverend W. W. Morton, B.Th., M.A., Ph.D., M.Mus., D.Litt., Dean and Ordinary
The Minister says
Let us pray.
Please kneel or remain seated for the
PRAYERS
At the end, all say
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with us all, evermore. Amen.
Jesus died on the cross, giving up his spirit for us. Let us pray now that Jesus, the Light of the world, will shine in our hearts.
Lord Jesus, you died on the cross, and darkness came over all the land:
Help us to see your light which overcomes the darkness of our despair.
Please stand to sing
Hymn
1. We sing the praise of him who died,
Of him who died upon the Cross;
The sinner’s hope let men deride;
For this we count the world but loss.
2. Inscribed upon the Cross we see
In shining letters, ‘God is love’;
He bears our sins upon the Tree;
He brings us mercy from above.
3. The Cross! it takes our guilt away;
It holds the fainting spirit up;
It cheers with hope the gloomy day,
And sweetens ev’ry bitter cup.
4. It makes the coward spirit brave,
And nerves the feeble arm for fight;
It takes its terror from the grave,
And gilds the bed of death with light:
5. The balm of life, the cure of woe,
The measure and the pledge of love,
The sinner’s refuge here below,
The angels’ theme in heaven above.
Thomas Kelly (1769–1854)
Sydney Nicholson (1875–1947)
Please remain standing as the Choir sings
The Motet
Drop, drop, slow tears, and bathe those beauteous feet, which brought from heaven the news and Prince of peace. Cease not, wet eyes, his mercies to entreat; to cry for vengeance sin shall never cease. In your deep floods drown all my faults and fears; nor let his eye see sin, but through my tears.
Phineas Fletcher (1582–1650)
Eoghan Desmond (b.1984)
Please stand as the Choir and Clergy depart in silence.