Post by Glen B Ogle on Apr 12, 2009 19:56:42 GMT
On Friday evening we held a Tenebrae service at our church in MK. We last did this service in 2003 (before we had electricity), so although we used the same basic text it was very different!
For those who aren;t familiar with this service you traditionally start with 15 candles lit, then as you go throught the Easter story in readings, meditations and music, you gradually extinguish 14 of the candles.
As we now have electricity I was able to use my PA system for both the music and to provide some voice reinforcement for the readers. By adding a bit of reverb it really improves the impact!
If you've read some of my past postings you may remember that our church is ecumenical with a "relaxed traditional" style for many services. So the music started with Funeral for a Friend, a very moving Elton John instrumental. We than moved into John's Gospel for the Crucifixion before the first candle was extinguished, after which we sung the first hymn (Here is Love) - fortunately we had a live organist for the hymns!
The service continued in this vein, getting darker and darker as the candles were extinguished (and the lights gradually dimmed). My own reading, between operating the PA, was from Lamentations. The hymns included Dear Lord and Father, before we went over to music including Rick Wakeman's piano versions of The Day Thou Gavest and Abide with Me, it being too dark to read the words by then!
I said you extinguish 14 candles! The last candle is hidden, not extinguished, to represent Christ's leaving this world - for extra significance we used last year's easter candle as the final one. You then sit in darkness for a short while before, as it's generally put, "A loud noise is heard!" This represents either the closing of the tomb or an earthquake (sources vary). I've seen various descriptions of how to produce this noise - in our case it involves me hitting the side of the pulpit very hard! This time we checked the pulpit was empty - last time the tomb echoed as I hit it, then the large Church Bible inside fell over with a thump.
It's difficult to put into words, but this is one of the most moving of church services. It's very haunting, and really represents the "theme".
Glen
For those who aren;t familiar with this service you traditionally start with 15 candles lit, then as you go throught the Easter story in readings, meditations and music, you gradually extinguish 14 of the candles.
As we now have electricity I was able to use my PA system for both the music and to provide some voice reinforcement for the readers. By adding a bit of reverb it really improves the impact!
If you've read some of my past postings you may remember that our church is ecumenical with a "relaxed traditional" style for many services. So the music started with Funeral for a Friend, a very moving Elton John instrumental. We than moved into John's Gospel for the Crucifixion before the first candle was extinguished, after which we sung the first hymn (Here is Love) - fortunately we had a live organist for the hymns!
The service continued in this vein, getting darker and darker as the candles were extinguished (and the lights gradually dimmed). My own reading, between operating the PA, was from Lamentations. The hymns included Dear Lord and Father, before we went over to music including Rick Wakeman's piano versions of The Day Thou Gavest and Abide with Me, it being too dark to read the words by then!
I said you extinguish 14 candles! The last candle is hidden, not extinguished, to represent Christ's leaving this world - for extra significance we used last year's easter candle as the final one. You then sit in darkness for a short while before, as it's generally put, "A loud noise is heard!" This represents either the closing of the tomb or an earthquake (sources vary). I've seen various descriptions of how to produce this noise - in our case it involves me hitting the side of the pulpit very hard! This time we checked the pulpit was empty - last time the tomb echoed as I hit it, then the large Church Bible inside fell over with a thump.
It's difficult to put into words, but this is one of the most moving of church services. It's very haunting, and really represents the "theme".
Glen