Easter Vigil Services?

[Weedon]

LSB's Vigil is slightly different, divided into these six parts:

Service of Light - substantially the same.
Service of Readings - up to 12, but we will use five
Service of Baptismal Remembrance - with Adult Confirmation this year
Service of Prayer - the Easter Litany
Service of the Word - beginning with easter announcement and then This is the Feast and wrapping up with Paschal homily (St. John Chrysostom preaches here!)
Service of the Sacrament - Preface through post-communion, benediction and final hymn

[J. Thomas Shelley]

Service of the Word - beginning with easter announcement and then This is the Feast and wrapping up with Paschal homily (St. John Chrysostom preaches here!)

Here, too, John "the golden mouthed" borrows  my voice....the section "O great and wondrous mystery...." is always a part--sometimes the major part--of my Vigil homily.

It is especially fitting for us to use the treasures of the Christian East this year when all Christendom celebrates Pascha on the same date.  On Easter Day a women's quartet will sing part of the Byzantine Paschal Troparion at the beginning of the Communion distribution.

[Dan_Biles]

I've never been able to introduce one in my parishes.  So, I go to Christ Lutheran, York.

[vicarbob]

If I correctly recall reading a post of his,  I think that perhaps Pr. Weedon's field worker could be considered a deacon, i.e., placed into a minor office with the laying on of hands, etc.

Not to go afield, as this thread is on spot...but Deacon is not one of the Minor Orders.....although American Lutheranism sure has it appear that way. So I wasn't picked a fight with the good pastor....and his response is, well what I said, rubrics allow, so therefore he does. But a seminarian is not a deacon, just sayin. Heck, this year i will again be blessed to preach at the Great Vigil and I will carry the Paschal Candle and intone, The Light of Christ...but a cantor will sing....and we all are blessed that evening, as Light shatters the darkness.
pax,
A Synodical Deacon serving as pastoral Vicar
aka PiT

[Donald_Kirchner]

Yes, it is. And yes, you are.

But you are baptized. Game, set, match.

[edoughty]

For those of you who have not been able to celebrate the vigil at the churches you lead-- what is the ultimate roadblock for you and your congregation?  I recognize there are always various dynamics at work, but as a pastor who is called to preach, teach, and administer the sacraments, could you not say, "I will be celebrating the Great Vigil of Easter at 7 PM on Saturday in the sanctuary, and if anyone else wants to join in, that's wonderful," . . . and then do it, joyfully? 

I mean. . . yes, people will object.  Doesn't any "new" service at a congregation meet with objections ("We've never done it that way before," et cetera)? 

I am thinking here of my own current congregation; its roots are Free Church Lutheran, so I'm sure at its beginnings it didn't have a vigil and probably there was resistance when whichever pastor started one floated the idea past the worship committee.  I am guessing the first few years, there wasn't much in the way of attendance at Vigil either-- maybe the pastor, assisting minister, musician, and their families (and lectors).  But now it's a service many look forward to.  It doesn't get the same attendance as Easter Sunday morning, but the church is more than half-full now and the service is established. 

For that matter, when we started a Saturday afternoon service there were objections, too.  Now that service is also a regular, established one.  It took effort and persistence for several years.

But don't all new services kind of start small that way?  Or is it just a "you gotta pick your battles" sort of thing?

Curiously,
Erik

[Jeremy Loesch]

Hi Erik.  And everyone else too. 

This is our first year doing the Vigil.  I've wanted to do one for a long time (well, ten years) but have always been too chicken to introduce it.  This year I've screwed my courage to the sticking place with the help of a dear member.  Very plainly in Bible class one night, she announces, "I've made a few phone calls to churches I attended with my parents and I've discovered that I've never been baptized.  Can I be baptized?"  (We were exploring the story of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch.)  My response was, "Sure!"  This was about a week or two before Ash Wednesday.  Talking privately with her, I suggested getting baptized at the Vigil service, and she consented.  She's been a member of the congregation for a long time, faithful in worship and receiving the Sacrament, faithufl in service to the church and community.  And I believe that attendance at our first Vigil service will be quite good.  If there were no baptism, then I think attendance would be smaller. 

I like your comment about anyone in the congregation is welcome to join the pastor for worship.  Sometimes I feel that way too.  And my most favorite service of the year is Christmas Day.  This past year we had 30, which is about 10-15 more than in typical years.  (Our guest organist brought a fair number of family members with him.)

Jeremy