Silly Good Friday question

[wellyes]

Do Christians who are not Catholic 'celebrate' Good Friday or mark it in any way? Or is it a Catholic-only observance?

[BabyBearsMom]

I don't know about all Christians, but I know that Episcopalians celebrate Good Friday. They also do Lent.

[Melaine]

Some churches have special good friday services. As non-denominational Christians, my family has always acknowledged Good Friday somewhat soberly, but haven't done anything else until Sunday when we have a big church service and more of a family holiday.

[KpbS]

Yes, we have Maundy Thursday and Good Friday services. Our parochial schools are out of school for Good Friday as well.

[bcafe]

We are non-denominational and absolutely recognize Good Friday. I won't say "celebrate" because it is a somber, sad service, as well as it should be. The celebration will be on Easter Sunday. He has risen!

[wolverine2]

Absolutely. Maundy Thursday as well.

[DietCokeLover]

As a Christian, I recognize Good Friday. It is a somber day. Our church opens the chapel all day for those who would like to come and pray. It is the lead in for the celebration of Easter and the resurrection. We will celebrate all day on Sunday.

[wellyes]

Sorry for the poor word choice - I wasn't meaning to be insensitive, I just couldn't come up with the right word (probably "observe").

[Uno-Mom]

Sorry for the poor word choice - I wasn't meaning to be insensitive, I just couldn't come up with the right word (probably "observe").
Your wording was fine! :)

Episcopalians and Catholics have quite different theologies but our services and rituals are very, very close.

Many evangelical churches do not observe the "tridium," or Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter. They just celebrate Easter. Or, if they observe the other two, it is much more low-key. My personal experience was that the rest of the story was barely mentioned and then we had a big celebration on Easter. (That was my take-away as a child and teen. The adults probably discussed and pondered more than I was aware of.) That was my experience, growing up evangelical. I know for certain that many evangelical churches do it differently! Seems like more and more of my evangelical friends are digging into the old church traditions and we've had some great conversations recently.

One of the other differences is that my Episcopal church and the Catholic church have a high view of the whole season of Lent and then the season of Easter. So we've been doing various special liturgical things since Ash Wednesday.

[AnnieW625]

I am Catholic, but I swear I had never heard Holy Thursday called Maundy Thursday until I heard it on Morning Edition this morning.

[Uno-Mom]

I am Catholic, but I swear I had never heard Holy Thursday called Maundy Thursday until I heard it on Morning Edition this morning.
I wonder if that was one of the Vatican II changes? Making the language less archaic?

My parents are Catholic and it's interesting to compare the language. I know the Episc/Anglican church kept more of the archaic words. We had a big change right at the time of Vatican II but moving in the opposite direction. The Anglican change was to go more traditional, bring back more of the old language. There have been lots of evolution since then, though.

[maestramommy]

Well, I'm playing the Good Friday service tomorrow, does that count? I'm Presbyterian. We don't take the kids because it's their bedtime. Our church does a Maundy Thursday and Good Friday service. And they've been having a Wed night program for Lent. But we don't have dietary restrictions unless someone has given up something for Lent. And even that I don't think is a Protestant thing. It's pretty much up to the individual.

[klwa]

I'm United Methodist, and we celebrate Lent, Good Friday, & Maundy Thursday. (Annie, none of the Catholics I know refer to it as Maundy Thursday. Wikipedia states that in the US, the RCC uses only Holy Thursday as the official title.) Our big service this year for Holy Week is Maundy Thursday (tonight) rather than tomorrow, but we'll do the full reading of the Passion tonight. I like it better when we have seperate services for the foot washing/communion & then the Passion on Good Friday, but our current pastor decided to condense it. (Glad she'll be gone next year!)

[wellyes]

I am Catholic, but I swear I had never heard Holy Thursday called Maundy Thursday until I heard it on Morning Edition this morning.
I grew up Catholic too, and I've only heard of Maundy Thursday recently. I thought "is that related to Fat Tuesday?"

[lizzywednesday]

I grew up Catholic too, and I've only heard of Maundy Thursday recently. I thought "is that related to Fat Tuesday?"

Lapsed Cradle-Catholic here and I've heard it both ways, but that's mostly because my dad is an armchair theologian and Latin scholar.

[sunshine873]

I'm Lutheran (we lovingly call it Catholic-Lite) and we have always observed Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. The entire week leading up to Easter (starting on Palm Sunday) is quite holy and calls for much reflection. I'd like to go to services tonight and tomorrow as well, but they're all skirting around DDs bedtime...not sure if it's something we want to do or not.

[katerinasmom]

I'm Greek Orthodox. The entire week before Easter Sunday is celebrated with a different service for each of the Holy Week days starting with Palm Sunday. I was raised in a family that believed Holy Wednesday, Thursday and Friday are all especially important dates in the preparation for the resurrection service on Saturday at midnight. Growing up my mother used to take us to services on Palm Sunday, Holy Wednesday afternoon, Holy Thursday evening, Holy Friday early afternoon and again Holy Friday evening and then for the resurrection service Saturday at midnight.

Our Holy Week and Easter are not usually on the same dates as they are for the Catholic faith though. This year our Easter is a week later.

[daisymommy]

We do (Baptist church). Palm Sunday the week prior, them Maundy Thursday service to commemorate the last super, a somber Good Friday service, and then a celebratory Easter service.

As our pastor says, if you skip straight to the Easter Sunday service, it's like skipping the first two chapters of a book or the first two movies in a trilogy and going straight to the ending! So true :)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[BeachBum]

Your wording was fine! :)

Episcopalians and Catholics have quite different theologies but our services and rituals are very, very close.



Could you hit me with the highlights? I'm very genuinely interested...

[bostonsmama]

We're EPC (protestant) and have a Maundy Thursday service that's very somber (a candle-lighting, passage-readings, Last Supper-like communion, and exit in silence), sometimes a Good Friday observance, and celebratory services all Resurrection Sunday.

Our pastor sent out a neat email about the Wednesday before Good Friday, "the silent day" in scripture (since we know what he was doing the Tuesday before and Thursday after), and what Jesus might have been doing in preparation for His betrayal, crucifixion, death and resurrection on earth & then heaven. I found it thought-provoking.

[lalasmama]

I'm an evangelical Christian. Interestingly, though, I don't know if the denomination as a whole observes it or not.

I still remember my second Good Friday as a Christian. We had a Good Friday service that still haunts me to this day. Basically, it went step-by-step through the crucifixion... They had a very basic wood cross at the front of sanctuary. They invited any congregants with sins to dropped a nail in a box at the alter... and throughout the whole service, a few lay leaders nailed those nails into the cross. I still cry thinking about it. As a relatively new believer, it was the first time I faced the very real basis of my beliefs--it wasn't a nice, clean, painless death to pay for my sins. I heard my sins being pounded into the cross. ... We haven't done this again at our church, because of an uproar that happened later from the elders. But it's still such a strong, emotional service that I will never forget.

[scrooks]

I am Catholic, but I swear I had never heard Holy Thursday called Maundy Thursday until I heard it on Morning Edition this morning.

Ditto this! I just heard it in this thread for the first time!

[MontrealMum]

Isn't it kind of integral to any strain of Christianity to observe Good Friday? Perhaps some don't have the exact same practices, but I'd think that all would have some form of acknowledgement.

[new_mommy25]

We go to a UCC church (Protestant) and we celebrate Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. We also celebrated Ash Wednesday which surprised me because I thought only Catholics did. I grew up Catholic but go to our current church for DH. I had never heard the term Maundy Thursday either until last year. Our Maundy Thursday celebration is actually really cool-it's a potluck in the actual church. We do a lot of prayer and reflection and enjoy our supper together.