St Stephen Lutheran Church Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: April 2025

Sunday, April 20, 2025

The Holy Communion on Easter Sunday

Saturday, April 19, 2025

The Great Vigil of Easter: Saturday, April 19, 2025, 6:30 pm

This is the night! From the ashes of Good Friday, a fire awakens, and from the new fire the Paschal candle is lit, symbol of Christ’s risen presence among us. The resurrection of Christ is God’s act of new creation in which he redeems all which he has made for his good pleasure. On this night the Church offers praise to God for his acts of creation, from the beginning to his works of deliverance for God’s people Israel. On this ancient baptismal festival we recall that God has given us new life by our baptism into Christ’s death and resurrection; we repeat our renunciation of evil and our confession of faith and are sprinkled with water as a tangible remembrance of God’s grace to us in baptism. The Church celebrates the first Eucharist of Easter with abundant Alleluia, standing erect and rejoicing to receive the Lord’s body and blood.

Click here for the livestream.

Click here for the order of service.

Friday, April 18, 2025

The Liturgy of Good Friday: April 18, 2025, 7:30 pm

FRIDAY: On Passion Sunday, the focus is on the suffering (passio) of Christ, but on Good Friday, the Crucified One is put forward as the sign of God’s victory over sin, death, and evil. Isaiah’s depiction of Jesus as the ‘suffering servant,’ so important to the early Christians as they sought to understand the events of Good Friday, is read as the prelude to the Passion according to St John, who presents Jesus as the one whose glory is revealed on the Cross.

In the shadow of that Cross, the Church then prays for the entire world, using an ancient form of prayer in which the leader ‘bids’ (asks) the people to silently pray for various groups of people. The service concludes with a solemn act of adoration as we sing both of Christ’s great love for humanity and his triumph over death.

Click here for the livestream.

Click here for the order of service.

Thursday, April 17, 2025

The Holy Communion on Maundy Thursday: April 17, 2025, 7:30 pm

THURSDAY: This evening concludes the season of Lent. We hear the public absolution for the first time since Transfiguration and receive the personal address of forgiveness with the laying on of hands. Having been thus reconciled with God and each other, we begin the Triduum – one service of worship which takes place over three days, in which we enter the mystery of Christ’s suffering, death, and resurrection.

On Maundy Thursday the focus is on the community of disciples Jesus creates by his passion and resurrection; a community of which we are part. The church-community is known by mutual subjection in service, following Jesus’ example in washing his disciples’ feet, and by the celebration of Jesus’ abiding presence in the Sacrament of Holy Communion. After we who have been reconciled celebrate the Sacrament, we are led into the contemplation of our Lord’s Passion, as the altar is stripped, and Psalm 22 is sung. We go out in silence into the darkness of evening, meditating upon Jesus’ descent into darkness on the night before his crucifixion.

The livestream may be found here.

The order of service may be found here.