Welcome to Christ Church, New Mill, for the annual Good Friday service of music and words.

On Good Friday, Christians around the world remember Christ's crucifixion. This can be in terms of recalling the events of two thousand years ago, or in terms of trying to imagine what people were thinking or feeling at the time. Important to us in the 21st century is the meaning of Jesus' sacrifice, and God's purpose in bringing about these events. The services held by different Christian denominations on Good Friday employ all of these points of view, and our service this evening also reflects on all of these.

Jesus said, "Destroy this temple and I will rebuild it in three days". Although referring to the temple of His body and His resurrection, the allusion to the destruction of the temple was apt - Solomon's temple, as indeed Jerusalem itself, had earlier been destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar's troops. Jerusalem was God's city and the people of Judah were devastated by this destruction. The bible depicts some of their feelings in the book of Lamentations, and these emotions bear some analogy to those which must have been felt by those closest to Jesus at His crucifixion. In some churches on Good Friday, the service of tenebrae ("darkness") is held, which includes readings from the book of Lamentations.

The biblical readings this evening are taken from the Contemporary English Version, © American Bible Society 1991, 1992, 1995. Used with permission / Anglicisations © British & Foreign Bible Society 2996. Two experienced readers are used, one male, one female so that the two voices are contrasting.

Romans 5: 12a, 15b-16, 18, 19
Romans 6: 10-11
John 3: 16
Hebrews 9: 27-28

HYMN (during which the choir processes in)

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.

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.

Second Reading.

FIRST VOICE
Ezekiel 22:2,3,7,8,12,13;
Jeremiah 6:1, 6b-7

SECOND VOICE
Matthew 16: 21
Matthew 17: 22,23
Matthew 20: 17-19
Matthew 26: 20-24, 36-39

The choir sings In monte Oliveti Music by Anton Bruckner (1824-96)

In monte Oliveti oravit ad Patrem, Pater, si fieri potest, transeat a me calix iste: Fiat voluntas tua, voluntas tua.

HYMN (during which the choir moves to the north front of the nave, to face a large wooden cross)

Go to dark Gethsemane,
  ye that feel the tempter's power;
Your Redeemer's conflict see,
  watch with him one bitter hour;
Turn not from his griefs away;
  learn of Jesus Christ to pray.

See him at the judgement-hall;
  beaten, bound, reviled, arraigned.
O the wormwood and the gall!
  O the pangs his soul sustained!
Shun not suffering, shame, or loss:
  learn of Christ to bear the cross.

Calvary's mournful mountain climb;
  there, adoring at his feet,
Mark that miracle of time,
  God's own sacrifice complete.
"It is finished!" hear him cry;
  learn of Jesus Christ to die.

FIRST VOICE
2 Chronicles 36: 17-20

SECOND VOICE
Matthew 27: 27-44

The choir sings- facing the cross - The ways of Zion do mourn Music by Michael Wise (ca. 1648-87)

The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn feasts. All her gates are desolate: her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness. For these things I weep, mine eye runneth down with water. Her adversaries are the chief, her enemies prosper; for the Lord hath afflicted her. For the multitude of her transgressions, the Lord hath afflicted her. See, O Lord, and consider, for I am become vile.

.

FIRST VOICE
Lamentations 2: 20-22;

SECOND VOICE
John 19: 25-27a; 
Luke 23: 47-49

The choir sings 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.

Psalm 22: 1-8, 14-18

The choir sings The Lord hath trodden under foot Music by Michael Wise.

The Lord hath trodden under foot all my mighty men in the midst of me. He hath called an assembly against me to crush my young men. The Lord hath trodden under foot the virgin, the daughter of Judah. For these things I weep; mine eye runneth down with water because the comforter that should relieve my soul is far from me. See, O Lord and consider, for I am become vile.

HYMN (during which the choir assembles around the wooden cross)

O sacred head, surrounded
  by crown of piercing thorn!
O bleeding head, so wounded,
 so shamed and put to scorn!
Death's pallid hue comes o'er thee,
  the glow of life decays;
Yet angel-hosts adore thee,
  and tremble as they gaze.

Thy comeliness and vigour
  is withered up and gone,
And in thy wasted figure
  I see death drawing on.
O agony and dying!
  O love to sinners free!
Jesu, all grace supplying,
  turn thou thy face on me.

In this thy bitter passion,
  good Shepherd, think of me
With thy most sweet compassion,
  unworthy though I be:
Beneath the cross abiding
  for ever would I rest,
In thy dear love confiding,
  and with thy presence blest.

The choir sings - from the cross - The Reproaches Music: plainsong from the Roman Liturgy; harmonised version by T. L. de Victoria (ca. 1548-1611)

Popule meus, quid feci tibi? aut in quo contristavite? Responde mihi. Agios o Theos; Sanctus Deus. Agios ischyros. Sanctus fortis. Agios athanatos, eleison imas. Sanctus et immortalis, miserere nobis.

I led you out of Egypt, but you led your Saviour to the cross. I bore you up with manna in the desert, but you struck me down and scourged me. I gave you saving water from the rock, but you gave me gall and vinegar to drink.

HYMN (during which the choir returns to the stalls in the chancel)

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 came to this poor world below,
And wept, and toiled, and mourned, and died,
Only because He loved us so.

I cannot tell how He could love
A child so weak and full of sin;
His love must be most wonderful,
If He could die my love to win.

It is most wonderful to know
His love for me so free and sure;
But ’tis more wonderful to see
My love for Him so faint and poor.

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. 

The choir sings Vexilla Regis music by Anton Bruckner.

Vexilla regis prodeunt fulget crucis mysterium; Quo carne carnis conditor suspensus est patibulo. O crux ave spes unica hoc passionis tempore auge piis justitiam reisque dona veniam.

Father,
In the garden green of Olivet,
.
.
. 
"It is finished."
Triumphing, at last
Alone.

The choir sings 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.

HYMN during which the choir recesses.

When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.

Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,
Save in the death of Christ my God:
All the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them to His blood.

See from His head, His hands, His feet,
Sorrow and love flow mingled down:
Did e’er such love and sorrow meet,
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?

Were the whole realm of Nature mine,
That were an offering far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all!