Easter Day – from Tragedy to Triumph

At St. Boniface Church this morning, a large wooden cross decked out with daffodils was brought in to the church. It was a beautiful scene.

As the music director Hugh Benham explained in this post, during Lent at the parish church, a large wooden cross is on display, and on Good Friday the altar is bare. Symbols of the Passion are laid at the foot of this cross at the start of the 10.00 Eucharist on each Sunday in Lent. Flowers are generally avoided.

Today is Easter Day. At the beginning of the service, there was a ritual of removing religious items called “From Tragedy to Triumph.” I found the ritual culturally relevant, and it is worth knowing these symbols of Christianity, even if you are not a Christian. You may find that many children do not know the basics of Christianity. Share this post with them and help them get to grasp with some basics.

I’m sharing the text read by Revd. Dr. Ian Bird with you.

We remove from the cross:

The Bread and Wine, symbols of the body of Christ broken and the Blood of Christ shed for us all.
The Bowl and Towel that remind us that Jesus became a servant to us all.
The Bag of Money, thirty pieces of silver that remind us that we sold Christ for our own ends.
The Purple Robe and Crown of Thorns with which we mocked our Saviour Jesus.
The Whip with which we scourged Christ.
The Palm Branch that reminds us of the fickleness of people who hailed Jesus as King, just a week before they shouted ‘Crucify!’
The nails that held our Saviour to the tree.

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