Holy Week & Easter

St. Dunstan's Anglican Church | Largo, FL

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A smiling woman with glasses places an orange flower into a large wooden cross being decorated with colorful flowers by a congregation inside a church.
A priest in red vestments speaks from a pulpit to a congregation. Above him, a screen displays a Bible verse from Isaiah. The congregation sits in wooden pews.
A priest in a white robe kneels on a red carpet to wash the feet of an elderly woman seated in a chair during a religious service.
A smiling priest in white vestments interacts with a young boy who is playfully blessing him with a holy water sprinkler during a church service.
A congregation stands in pews during a church service, with a large wooden cross decorated with colorful flowers in the foreground.

Holy Week & Easter at St. Dunstan's

Lent has been a journey through the wilderness. Holy Week is where that journey arrives — not yet at the Promised Land, but at the river's edge. These are the days when the story of salvation reaches its most concentrated intensity: the King entering his city, the night of betrayal, the cross, the silence of the tomb, and the dawn that changes everything. 

You cannot understand Easter without Holy Week. The resurrection is not an escape from suffering but its defeat. We walk these days slowly and deliberately so that when we arrive at Easter morning, we do not merely celebrate an idea — we celebrate a victory

A smiling priest in white vestments interacts with a young boy who is playfully blessing him with a holy water sprinkler during a church service.

Why Holy Week Matters

Easter is the oldest, holiest celebration in the Christian year — the feast on which everything else depends. The resurrection of Jesus is not one doctrine among many; it is the event that validates every other claim the gospel makes. Without the resurrection, there is no Christianity, only a memory. 

Holy Week gives us the gift of entering the events that Easter celebrates. The church does not merely remember these days — she relives them. To kneel in the candlelight of the Easter Vigil after the silence of Holy Saturday is to taste, just barely, what it meant to be there when the stone was rolled away.

A man in a white robe kneels to wash the foot of a seated person during a Christian service, as another robed person watches in the background.

The Triduum

The word Triduum comes from the Latin for "three days" — and these three days, Maundy Thursday evening through Easter Sunday, form the beating heart of the entire Christian year. Every other season exists in relation to them. 

The Triduum is not three separate services that happen to fall on consecutive days. It is one continuous act of worship — a single liturgy that begins on Thursday night, pauses in silence on Friday and Saturday, and reaches its culmination in the explosion of joy on Easter morning. Leaving early on Thursday night and returning Sunday morning is a little like arriving at a concert for the finale without hearing the piece. The ending is glorious — but you missed what made it glorious.

The structure of the Triduum follows the structure of the gospel itself. Thursday evening gives us the gift Jesus gave before the cross: his body and blood, and a commandment to love. Good Friday gives us the cross — the moment when the Son of God absorbs the weight of human sin and dies the death we deserved. Holy Saturday gives us the silence — the strange, aching in-between of a world that does not yet know the ending. And Easter Vigil and Easter Sunday give us the resurrection — the answer that vindicates everything Jesus said and did, and that opens the door to a future death cannot close. 

If you have never observed the Triduum in its fullness, we invite you to do so this year. Come on Thursday. Return on Friday. Sit in the silence of Saturday. And then come to the Vigil on Saturday night or to Easter Sunday morning — and discover what it feels like to arrive at Easter having walked the whole way there.

Holy Week and Easter Services at St. Dunstan's

Palm Sunday

April 6, 10:30 AM 

We welcome Jesus into Jerusalem with hosannas. The crowds are wrong about what kind of king he is, but they are not wrong that he is a king. The week begins in triumph — and it will end in a triumph none of them expected.

Maundy Thursday

April 10, 7:00 PM 

On the night of his betrayal, Jesus takes bread and wine and gives them to his disciples as his body and blood. He wraps a towel around his waist and washes their feet. He gives a new commandment: love one another as I have loved you. We gather to receive what he gave that night — and to sit with him in the garden before the darkness comes.



Good Friday

April 11, Noon & 7:00 PM 

The cross. The Son forsaken. The death that should not have happened — and that had to happen. We gather in solemn prayer, Scripture, and meditation to enter into the suffering of the One who bore our sin so that we might go free.

Holy Saturday

April 12, Noon 

The quietest day in the Christian year. Jesus is in the tomb. We gather in that silence — not yet knowing what Sunday will bring — and we wait. This is the day that teaches us how to hope.

Easter Vigil

April 12, 8:30 PM 

The mother of all vigils. We begin in darkness. We light the Paschal candle. We hear the great story of salvation from creation to Exodus to the prophets. We wait for the dawn. When it comes, we baptize and confirm, we renew our vows, and we celebrate the Eucharist for the first time since Thursday. This is the night.

Easter Sunday

April 13, 8:00 & 10:30 AM

Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. Everything Lent prepared us for, every fast and prayer and act of repentance, pointed here. We gather to celebrate the victory that death could not hold — and to receive a foretaste of the feast that has no end.

Making the Most of Holy Week

Holy Week is most powerful when you treat it as a retreat within ordinary life — not a week like any other, but a week set apart. 

Come to as many services as you can. The services of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and the Easter Vigil are not three separate events — they are one continuous liturgy, the Paschal Triduum, the three days at the heart of the Christian faith. If you have never attended all three, this is the year. 

Reduce the noise. Consider turning off social media from Good Friday through Holy Saturday. Observe the silence of the tomb. Let the quiet do its work. 

Bring someone with you. Easter is the ideal moment to invite a friend, neighbor, or family member who is curious about faith. The services speak for themselves.


Resources for Deeper Engagement

These books are recommended for Holy Week reading and preparation:

The book cover for "Easter" features two white lilies with a golden halo against a white background with a gold geometric pattern.

Easter by Wesley Hill

The companion to McCaulley's Lent in the Fullness of Time series. Hill — an Episcopal priest and New Testament scholar — explores the history and significance of the entire Easter season, not just Easter Sunday. An accessible and theologically rich introduction to Eastertide.

The book cover for 'The Crucifixion' by Fleming Rutledge, featuring a modern stained-glass window of Jesus Christ on the cross in shades of blue and purple.

The Crucifixion by Fleming Rutledge

The most serious theological treatment of the cross available to a general reader. Demanding and rewarding.

Seven Words for the Cross by Samuel Wells

Seven meditations on Jesus's words from the cross, ideal for Holy Week reading.

The black book cover of 'The Day the Revolution Began' by N. T. Wright. The subtitle reads, 'Reconsidering the Meaning of Jesus's Crucifixion'.

The Day the Revolution Began by N. T. Wright

Wright's accessible account of the meaning of the crucifixion — a natural companion to From Wilderness to Glory.

A crowd of people dressed in historical robes hold green palm fronds during a reenactment of a Palm Sunday procession.

"Holy Week: A Rookie Anglican Guide" (Anglican Compass)

A direct Anglican introduction to Holy Week, available at anglicancompass.com — a natural companion to the Lenten guide

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