St. Peter's By-the-Sea Episcopal Church
Gulfport, Mississippi

Join Father Patrick for virtual worship on the third of the Holy Week services of the Triduum. We’ll be here on FaceBook LIVE and through our website at https://stpetersbytheseagulfport.com.

The Saturday after Good Friday, which recalls the day when the crucified Christ visited among the dead while his body lay in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea. In the Episcopal Church there is no eucharist on Holy Saturday. The BCP provides a simple liturgy of the word with collect and readings for the Holy Saturday service. The funeral anthem “In the midst of life” (BCP, pp. 484 or 492) is used instead of the prayers of the people (BCP, p. 283).
Holy Saturday ends at sunset. Fasting and other preparations end at sunset or with the Easter Vigil, which begins the celebration of Easter.

The liturgy intended as the first (and arguably, the primary) celebration of Easter in the BCP (pp. 284-95). It is also known as the Great Vigil. The service begins in darkness, sometime between sunset on Holy Saturday and sunrise on Easter, and consists of four parts: The Service of Light (kindling of new fire, lighting the Paschal candle, the Exsultet); The Service of Lessons (readings from the Hebrew Scriptures interspersed with psalms, canticles, and prayers); Christian Initiation (Holy Baptism) or the Renewal of Baptismal Vows; and the Eucharist. Through this liturgy, the BCP recovers an ancient practice of keeping the Easter feast. Believers would gather in the hours of darkness ending at dawn on Easter to hear scripture and offer prayer. This night-long service of prayerful watching anticipated the baptisms that would come at first light and the Easter Eucharist. Easter was the primary baptismal occasion for the early church to the practical exclusion of all others. This practice linked the meanings of Christ’s dying and rising to the understanding of baptism.