Date: April 7, 2007

Time: 8:30 p.m.

Location: St. Paul’s Anglican Church, 10127-145 Street, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Event: The Rending of the Veil, curated by Interface Worship

Description: This photo depicts part of the communion ritual we use on Holy Saturday at our ‘The Rending of the Veil’ service. The Eucharistic ritual is based upon Hebrews 10:19-20: ‘So now, my friends, the blood of Jesus makes us free to enter boldly into the sanctuary by the new, living way which he has opened for us through the curtain, the way of his flesh.’

For this service, we create a symbolic veil which separates us from the high altar, which is torn by a liturgical dancer during a sung confession. The red fabric from the rent veil is what the congregation passes under when we move into communion. Theologian Alan Lewis considered Holy Saturday to be a borderland from which we can look forward and look back, for Holy Saturday both separates and joins the two most important days in the Christian calendar: the separation giving each day its full import, the joining giving each day its full context. Only Holy Saturday can provide this perspective.

These rending confession and communion rituals are particularly appropriate for this day, for they depict that what has occurred on Friday is what allows us to live into fully on Sunday, and highlight the immense change that occurred over the span of the three days.

‘Rending’ has been staged annually since 2006. Additional photos and descriptors of service elements can be found here.

image shared by Jim Robertson/© Gordon Howell

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