Christ Church, New Mill

Christ Church, New Mill

GOOD FRIDAY April 13^th 2001, 7.30pm

Meditations on the Cross
in Music and Words

Welcome to Christ Church, New Mill for our annual Good Friday service. Please stand and join in the hymns, and sit (or kneel as you prefer) for the prayers, readings and choir items.
The service starts with silence.
Hymn:

Now the thirty years are ended

Which on earth he willed to see,

Willingly he meets his Passion,

Born to set his people free;

On the Cross the Lamb is lifted,

There the sacrifice to be.

There the nails and spear he suffers,

Vinegar and gall and reed;

From his sacred body pierced

Blood and water both proceed:

Precious flood, which all creation

From the stain of sin hath freed.

Faithful Cross, above all other,

One and only noble tree!

None in foliage, none in blossom,

None in fruit thy peer may be;

Sweetest wood and sweetest iron,

Sweetest weight is hung on thee.

Bend, O lofty tree, thy branches,

Thy too rigid sinews bend;

And awhile the stubborn hardness

Which thy birth bestowed, suspend;

And the limbs of heav'n's high monarch

Gently on thine arms extend.

Bishop Venantius Fortunatus(ca. 530 - 609)

tr. J.M. Neale (1818-1866)

Tune - traditional French carol.

Prayer:

My friends, welcome to this act of meditation in music and words, in which we hear again of the last moments of our Blessed Lord's life here on earth 2000 years ago, and in which we think about the meaning of His great Sacrifice to us and all people on earth.

But first let us pray for all people on earth, that the Holy Spirit, liberated in the world through His Cross and Resurrection, may move mightily among them. We pray that their unhappy divisions may be healed, and that the witness of the church in the world may in very truth be the harvest of Calvary.

Let us pray for the nations of the world that they may be brought before the judgement of Him who reigns from the Tree, and receive from Him the peace which He alone can bestow.

And let us pray for the Upper Holme Valley, and especially for New Mill, and all who live and work there, that it may be a place which does not forget the things that belong to its peace, but welcomes its only Saviour.

And let us pray for this congregation of Christ's people, that alike in praise and service and love to one another it may show forth the glory of Christ.

And let us pray for those who are in trouble: for the weak, the oppressed, the poor and the hungry, the sick and the mentally afflicted, that upon them all the touch of Christ's hand may fall in healing and help.

And let us thank the Father for making known to us in this blessed Cross the secrets of suffering and of victory: for crowning with glory and honour the head which we dishonoured; for enthroning his Son among the lights of heaven, and for calling us to His discipleship.

The Lord forgive us when we know not what we do;

The Lord remember us when He comes in His kingdom;

The Lord receive us as we commit ourselves into his hands.

Amen.

First Reading: Isaiah 52: 10, 13 - 15; 53: 10 - 12.

Isaiah's prophesy of the Suffering Servant.

Hymn: From heav'n you came, helpless babe, (The Servant King)

Graham Kendrick (b. 1950).

Second Reading: Philippians 2 : 6 -11

Christ's humility.

Choir: Christus Factus Est. (Music: Anton Bruckner, 1824 - 96)

Christus factus est pro nobis; obediens usque ad mortem, mortem autem crucis.

Propter quod et Deus exaltavit illum, et dedit illi nomen, quod est super omne nomen.

(Christ was made human; obedient always to death, even death on the cross.

Therefore God exalted him, and gave him the name which is above every name).

Third Reading: Luke 9: 21 - 24

Jesus forecasts his own suffering and death.

Hymn:

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?

He came from His blessed 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!

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.

Why, what hath my Lord done?

What makes this rage and spite?

He made the lame to run,

He gave the blind their sight.

Sweet injuries! Yet they at these

Themselves displease, and 'gainst Him rise.

They rise and needs will have

My dear Lord made away;

A murderer they save,

The Prince of life they slay,

Yet cheerful He to suffering goes,

That He His foes from thence might free.

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.

(S. Crossman, 1624-84.

Tune "Love Unknown" - John Ireland, 1879-1962)

Choir: Sweet the moments. (Music by Anthony Joule, b. 1959)

Sweet the moments, rich in blessing, which before the cross I spend,

Life and health, and peace possessing, from the sinner's dying friend.

Here I stay, for ever viewing mercy streaming in his blood;

Precious drops, my soul bedewing, plead and claim my peace with God.

Truly blessed is this station, low before his cross to lie.

While I see divine compassion floating in his languid eye.

Lord, in ceaseless contemplation fix our hearts and eyes on thee,

Till we taste thy full salvation, and unveiled glories see.

W. Shirley (1725-86) et al.

Fourth Reading : John 19: 16b - 20.

The Crucifixion.

Choir: Is it nothing to you. (Music by F.A. Gore Ouseley, 1825-89)

Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by?

Behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me,

wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.

Words from Lamentations 1: 12
Hymn:

O dearest Lord, thy sacred head

With thorns was pierced for me,

Tune "Albano" - Vincent Novello, 1781-1861)

Fifth Reading: John 19: 25-30a; Luke 23: 44-46

At the foot of the Cross.

Choir: Stabat Mater Dolorosa (from Stabat Mater, music by G.B. Pergolesi, 1710-36)

Stabat mater dolorosa juxta crucem lacrymosa dum pendebat Filius.

(The grieving mother stood in tears by the cross where her Son was hanging)

Sixth Reading: Bear well the hurt (Donald Hilton)

Choir: Drop, drop slow tears. (Music by Orlando Gibbons 1583-1625)

Drop, drop slow tears, and bathe those beauteous feet,

Which brought from heav'n the news and Prince of peace.

Cease not, wet eyes, his mercies to entreat;

To cry for vengeance sin doth 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)

Hymn: I cannot tell why He, whom angels worship,

William Y. Fullerton.(1857-1932)

Tune "Londonderry Air" - trad. Irish melody.

Choir: It is a thing most wonderful. Music by John Ireland (1879-1962)

It is a thing most wonderful, almost too wonderful to be,

That God's own Son should come from heaven and die to save a child like me.

And yet I know that it is true; he chose a poor and humble lot,

And wept, and toiled, and mourned, and died, for love of those who loved Him not.

I sometimes think about the Cross, and shut my eyes, and try to see

The cruel nails and crown of thorns, and Jesus crucified for me.

But even could I see Him die, I could but see a little part

Of that great love which, like a fire, is always burning in His heart.

And yet I want to love Thee, Lord; O light the flame within my heart,

And I will love Thee more and more, until I see Thee as Thou art.

Bishop W. Walsham How (1823-1897)

Seventh Reading: Hebrews 9:11-14; 10:12-14.

Christ our sacrifice.

Choir: Solus ad Victimam Music by Kenneth Leighton (1929-88)

Alone to sacrifice thou goest, Lord, giving thyself to Death whom thou hast slain.

For us thy wretched folk is any word? Who know that for our sins this is thy pain?

For they are ours, O Lord, our deeds, our deeds. Why must thou suffer torture for our sin?

Let our hearts suffer in thy Passion, Lord, that very suffering may thy mercy win.

This is the night of tears, the three days' space, sorrow abiding of the eventide,

Until the day break with the risen Christ, and hearts that sorrowed shall be satisfied.

So may our hearts share in thine anguish, Lord, that they may sharers of thy glory be;

Heavy with weeping may the three days pass, to win the laughter of thine Easter Day.

Peter Abelard (1079-1142), trans. Helen Waddell
Silence

Prayer

Recessional Hymn: I will sing the wondrous story

Of the Christ who died for me;

Francis Rawley (1854-1952).

Words Copyright © 1952 HarperCollins Religious/Adm. by CopyCare

Music tune "Hyfrydol", by R.H. Pritchard (1811-87),

arr. R. Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)

NOTE: Copyright material has been removed for web publication. These hymns/songs can be found in "Hymns Old & New, New Anglican ed." (Mayhew) and elsewhere.