The
Easter Vigil 2006
On the
night
of Holy Saturday, or Easter Eve, many churches follow the tradition
of holding
an Easter
Vigil service, which traces in words and music the story from the Old
to the New
Testament which
culminates in the death and resurrection of Christ, before the
celebration of
the first communion of Easter.
This year at St Faith's, this powerful and moving service also
included
the confirmation, by the Bishop
of Warrington, of four young candidates.
Our pictures show the opening
ceremonies of the blessing of the Paschal
Candle and the lighting of the new
fire outside church, followed
by the rite of confirmation inside. After the service,
the Bishop and the officiating
priests (all five of them this
year!) pose for the camera, before the Bishop greets one of
the newly confirmed.
A ritual unique to St Faith's in
recent years (as far as we know!) is
the quaffing of champagne while watching
a firework display launched
from the vicarage garden. The final picture shows an
intrepid member of the
congregation reprising her performance
on the cymbals (the symbolic moment of the
resurrection in the service
is marked by a cacophony of bells, whistles, squeakers, loud organ music -
and, for 2006, some sounding
brass!
As Fr Aidan Mayoss, our visiting Holy Week preacher declared, noone could accuse
our worship of being boring!
Go to the
Easter Day picture gallery
Return to St Faith's home
page