The Easter Vigil

As the sun sets, come celebrate Christ’s journey from death to resurrection with the Easter Vigil. This is Christianity’s most ancient worship, and its power to tell the story of our faith is still astounding.

We begin outside, under the porte-cochere, kindling a new fire to symbolize how the evil of the cross can’t extinguish God’s light; and from this fire, we light the Paschal candle. The congregation then follows this holy light into the darkened church, after which a series of Old Testament readings tells the story of salvation from creation through the prophets. Then we baptize new Christians and reaffirm our baptismal vows, remembering our own passage from death to life in Christ. The congregation sits in darkened silence for a few minutes until a noise breaks through (symbolizing the earthquake that opened the tomb) and the lights come on, revealing the altar and cross adorned in flowers! Suddenly, it’s Easter, and God’s light and life have once again conquered the power of sin and death. From there, the celebration continues with the first Eucharist of Easter.

Watch online at standrewkc.org/watch.