Evangelical protestants and Good Friday

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AnneTeresa

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Do evangelicals and non-denominational christians have services for Holy Thursday and Good Friday? I was evangelical for a number of years and don’t ever remember seeing any services, but maybe I just missed it. I remember on Easter Sunday it felt a little bit empty to have not gone through those three days liturgically.

I am assuming that more liturgical protestants, like Lutherans, do have services on those days. Does anyone know if that is correct?

Also (sorry this is another question) WHY don’t evangelicals and some other protestant denominations have a liturgical year and calendar? Is there a reason they don’t do so? I know they don’t believe in crucifixes, but again, I wonder why.
 
AnneTeresa said:
Do evangelicals and non-denominational christians have services for Holy Thursday and Good Friday? I was evangelical for a number of years and don’t ever remember seeing any services, but maybe I just missed it. I remember on Easter Sunday it felt a little bit empty to have not gone through those three days liturgically.
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The Evangelical churches I’ve been a part of do have weekly Wednesday Lenten services, then Maundy Thursday and Good Friday services.
 
AnneTeresa said:
Do evangelicals and non-denominational christians have services for Holy Thursday and Good Friday? I was evangelical for a number of years and don’t ever remember seeing any services, but maybe I just missed it. I remember on Easter Sunday it felt a little bit empty to have not gone through those three days liturgically.
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My church never had services on Holy Thursday. I had to look it up to even know what that was! On Good Friday, we will sometimes have something that night. For several years we watched Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ, and after the movie we had like a prayer meeting.
AnneTeresa said:
Also (sorry this is another question) WHY don’t evangelicals and some other protestant denominations have a liturgical year and calendar? Is there a reason they don’t do so? I know they don’t believe in crucifixes, but again, I wonder why.
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I don’t know. We just don’t. I’ve never heard an explanation for this. It’s just the way it is.
 
Also (sorry this is another question) WHY don’t evangelicals and some other protestant denominations have a liturgical year and calendar? Is there a reason they don’t do so? I know they don’t believe in crucifixes, but again, I wonder why.

In 7 years at an evangelical church all I ever heard was galatians, Romans, gospel of John (excluding 6&20), ephians 1-3, repeated over and over and with over half the time spent with the pastors personal self help ideas.
If an evangelical pastor believes in osas he will usssaly just cherry pick versus that work for the alter call
 
Lutherans, Episcopalians, Anglicans, Orthodox and maybe a few others have some form of a Holy Week with services on Wed and maybe Thursday and Friday depending on what faith they belong to.

Being raised Baptist, We only went to a service on Sunday morning & night and Wed night. There was no Lent or Holy Day of Obligations. If you missed service on Sunday…no biggie. The elder ladies would talk about ya but that’s it. lol
 
AnneTeresa said:
Is there a reason they don’t do so? I know they don’t believe in crucifixes, but again, I wonder why.
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because they are protestants?

Jokes aside, remember that every protestant doctrine is basically 15 centuries of Catholic doctrine deprived of a whole lot of things - be it parts of the Sacred Scripture or parts of Sacred Tradition, but usually both - with the addition of a few, basic man-made tenets that can always be traced to whoever thought about them first (though sometimes the introduced error is so ancient that we can find Church Fathers refuting it).

The liturgy is truly a God-given gift fully preserved in the Catholic Church 🙂 And I know how you feel…my first fully Catholic Easter and my first fully Catholic Christmas were astonishing…it felt like the first time I had ever praised the Lord on these special days and times.
 
Yes, the Presbyterian Church (USA) that I grew up in had holy week services every year. Doesn’t mean you missed your church’s services. They don’t all have them.
 
AnneTeresa said:
Do evangelicals and non-denominational christians have services for Holy Thursday and Good Friday? I was evangelical for a number of years and don’t ever remember seeing any services, but maybe I just missed it. I remember on Easter Sunday it felt a little bit empty to have not gone through those three days liturgically.

I am assuming that more liturgical protestants, like Lutherans, do have services on those days. Does anyone know if that is correct?

Also (sorry this is another question) WHY don’t evangelicals and some other protestant denominations have a liturgical year and calendar? Is there a reason they don’t do so? I know they don’t believe in crucifixes, but again, I wonder why.
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The Evangelical churches I used to attend did not ever have Holy Week or Good Friday anything. As a matter of fact there wasn’t much for Christmas either. I believe the reason was the focus was on the resurrection. They would tell us not to focus so much on the death of Jesus but remember his resurrection, so they would not celebrate or have anything for Good Friday because that would not be focusing on Jesus’ resurrection.

Also, that would include why they don’t have crucifixes. We were told to concentrate on the resurrection of Jesus and not the death and to remember he is no longer on the cross.

I love the way we Catholics take the whole and not just the part. I love Holy Week and it is a great way to remember what Jesus went through for us.
 
peace2u2 said:
Has anyone Protestant or Catholic attended a Tenebrae Service? It is quite moving especially if the priest has a good strong voice.

sistersofcarmel.com/tenebrae.php
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In my experiece, virtually every Lutheran parish I’ve attended has a Tenebrae service on Good Friday. It is particularly moving, ending, as the link stsates with the loud sound, and th return of the candle light. When I was young, the return of the light was accompanied by a trumpet sound, outside the nave (as if in the distance) playing “Jesus Christ is Risen Today”. I get chills just sitting here typing about it.

Jon
 
aidanbradypop said:
Lutherans, Episcopalians, Anglicans, Orthodox and maybe a few others have some form of a Holy Week with services on Wed and maybe Thursday and Friday depending on what faith they belong to.
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Maundy Thursday, with foot washing, is important in Mennonite churches and the Church of the Brethren. The Evangelical Congregational church (Methodist-based) I grew up in also does Maundy Thursday foot washing in some congregations.
 
Most Lutheran churches (especially the traditional ones) have follow a liturgical year very similar to the RCC. And we are considered “evangelical” so I guess it depends on the definition of evangelical you are referring to.

For Lent, we have special mid-week services for starting on Ash Wednesday, focusing on Christ’s Passion. For Holy Week, which begins on Palm Sunday, there is a Maundy Thursday service, a Good Friday service, and an Easter morning service.
 
I was brought up in the pentecostal Foursquare denomination and my father was a pastor. During my childhood years in the 50’s and 60’s we actually had Easter Week services every night, Monday through Friday, culminating in a communion service on the evening of Good Friday. Usually a well-known preacher from within our denomination or a professor from the denominational Bible college would preach those five services. This practice stopped in the waning years of the 1970’s due to lack of interest. I think that the rise of what I call the “entertainment church” was a big factor. People just would not stand for a whole week of services even if the sermons were part of a series.
We did not do anything special for Maundy Thursday not did we use that term for it. There were no services on Holy Saturday, but Easter Sunday had three, starting with the sunrise service.
Crucifixes were not used for the same reason other posters have mentioned-that focus should be on the resurrection and not on the crucifixion. Liturgy was thought to have been an accretion that actually stood between the worshipers and God and which obscured the simplicity of the gospel message. I took all these explanations for granted back then and was really surprised to find myself drawn to and eventually a member of the Catholic Church
 
AbideWithMe said:
Maundy Thursday, with foot washing, is important in Mennonite churches and the Church of the Brethren. The Evangelical Congregational church (Methodist-based) I grew up in also does Maundy Thursday foot washing in some congregations.
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I did not know that… thanks
 
Our Holy Week schedule includes:
  • Maundy Thursday - Eucharist
  • Good Friday - Tenebrae
  • Saturday evening - Easter Vigil, celebrated with our neighbors, RC & Episcopal (we celebrate the first part together, then go to our respective churches for the Eucharist)
  • Sunday - Easter Festival Service - Eucharist.
 
In my old Pentecostal church, we did foot washing and a communion on Easter.
 
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