Lady Chapel Evensong for Good Friday

Welcome to the Lady Chapel Evensong for Good Friday.

For those who are joining us for the first time, Evensong is an Episcopal / Anglican service of evening prayer that follows a set order of hymns, psalms, readings, and prayers. You can listen via the audio player above or wherever you get your podcasts.

If you want to follow along in the Book of Common Prayer, we’re on page 117. Or you can follow the order of service below. - Allie

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Order of Service for Evensong

A brief welcome from my daughter

Opening Responses (also called Preces, which in Latin means prayers)

Then follows

Evening Hymn: O Gracious Light (Phos hilaron)

Then follows

The Psalm (read by Ray McMillan)

Psalm 22:1-11

1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? *
and are so far from my cry
and from the words of my distress?

2 O my God, I cry in the daytime, but you do not answer; *
by night as well, but I find no rest.

3 Yet you are the Holy One, *
enthroned upon the praises of Israel.

4 Our forefathers put their trust in you; *
they trusted, and you delivered them.

5 They cried out to you and were delivered; *
they trusted in you and were not put to shame.

6 But as for me, I am a worm and no man, *
scorned by all and despised by the people.

7 All who see me laugh me to scorn; *
they curl their lips and wag their heads, saying,

8 "He trusted in the Lord; let him deliver him; *
let him rescue him, if he delights in him."

9 Yet you are he who took me out of the womb, *
and kept me safe upon my mother's breast.

10 I have been entrusted to you ever since I was born; *
you were my God when I was still in my mother's womb.

11 Be not far from me, for trouble is near, *
and there is none to help.

Then follows

The Lesson (read by Jenny Ethridge)
Isaiah 52:13-53:12

See, my servant shall prosper;
he shall be exalted and lifted up,
and shall be very high.

Just as there were many who were astonished at him
--so marred was his appearance, beyond human semblance,
and his form beyond that of mortals--

so he shall startle many nations;
kings shall shut their mouths because of him;

for that which had not been told them they shall see,
and that which they had not heard they shall contemplate.

Who has believed what we have heard?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

For he grew up before him like a young plant,
and like a root out of dry ground;

he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.

He was despised and rejected by others;
a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity;

and as one from whom others hide their faces
he was despised, and we held him of no account.

Surely he has borne our infirmities
and carried our diseases;

yet we accounted him stricken,
struck down by God, and afflicted.

But he was wounded for our transgressions,
crushed for our iniquities;

upon him was the punishment that made us whole,
and by his bruises we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have all turned to our own way,

and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;

like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.

By a perversion of justice he was taken away.
Who could have imagined his future?

For he was cut off from the land of the living,
stricken for the transgression of my people.

They made his grave with the wicked
and his tomb with the rich,

although he had done no violence,
and there was no deceit in his mouth.

Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him with pain.

When you make his life an offering for sin,
he shall see his offspring, and shall prolong his days;

through him the will of the Lord shall prosper.
Out of his anguish he shall see light;

he shall find satisfaction through his knowledge.
The righteous one, my servant, shall make many righteous,
and he shall bear their iniquities.

Therefore I will allot him a portion with the great,
and he shall divide the spoil with the strong;

because he poured out himself to death,
and was numbered with the transgressors;

yet he bore the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors.Then follows

The Song of Mary (Magnificat)

The Apostles’ Creed

I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord. He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again. He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

The Prayers

The Lord’s Prayer - Sung to the tune of "Lifting Up the Lowly" (music coming soon) Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.

A Collect for Good Friday by Jamie Quatro

Broken Jesus, In our haste to get to the joy of the empty tomb, may we not forget to linger near the anguish of the cross. As we stand beneath the darkening sky, may we listen to your words: Father, forgive them. Remind us in our human suffering that you chose to suffer with us—as one of us. Teach us, before we sing of Resurrection, to mourn with those who mourn and weep with those who weep. All for your love’s sake. Amen.

A hymn is sung. Intercessions can be offered aloud or in silence.

The service closes with

Amen.

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Jamie Quatro wrote our collect for Good Friday. Her next novel Two-Step Devil comes out this September. Her work has been featured in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, The New York Review of Books, and elsewhere. I particularly love this conversation about her novel Fire Sermon: “How a Christian Writer Should Be” for Literary Hub. Learn more about her here.

This podcast was mixed by Meg Settle and mastered by Edsel Holden. Songs and readings were recorded at the downtown branch of the Chattanooga Public Library and Meg’s House.

Thank you to Chase Floyd for playing guitar and harmonica on O Gracious Light and Lifting Up the Lowly. Thank you to Drew Bunting for playing guitar on The Lord’s Prayer.

Thank you to Rev. Claire Brown, Rev. Dr. Zac Settle, Rev. Murdock Jones, Rev. Casey Andrew Perkins, Chase Floyd, Megan Wesolowski, Rev. April Berends, Rev. Drew Bunting, Meg Settle, Ray McMillan and Jenny Ethridge for sharing your beautiful voices in this service.

Thank you to Mary Erskine for notating these charts.