Good Friday – A solemn service that includes readings, reflections and the Veneration of the Cross.

There is both a certain starkness about the Good Friday liturgy and an elegant simplicity, in a rite that has changed very little in 1600 years.

We gather this afternoon, as Christians have done since the earliest days of the Church, not to mourn the death of Christ, but to celebrate the triumph of the cross. Yet it is still a very real and solemn liturgy we are about to celebrate; a liturgy which brings the power and effect of Good Friday into our lives in a very real way. So the vestments are blood-red in honour of the victory which gives all martyrdom and death its meaning.

The liturgy has a feel of restraint and awe in response to Jesus’ death upon the cross.

As the service details the suffering and death of Jesus Christ it may not be suitable for younger children.