What is in Kelvin's Head?

The Triduum Promise

02/04/2015
Over the next couple of days, I will be entering into a different time zone.

It is one thing to put the clock forward to British Summer Time but it is quite another to step into the triduum zone.

The Triduum is the set of services that begin with the Maundy Thursday communion service tonight and which culminate (if Jesus rises) with a great feast on Sunday morning.

When I say that it is like stepping into a timezone, people might presume that it is like stepping back 2000 years but in fact it feels different to that. It is more as though the events surrounding the crucifixion step into our time than that we are looking backwards.

Every year I make the same promise – if you come and keep the Triduum here in St Mary’s it will change your life and change the way you think about Christianity forever. I’ve never had anyone say that my promise wasn’t kept.

What I’m talking about is coming to all of the following:
- The Maundy Thursday service followed by as much of the Watch as possible. (The Watch will be kept until Midnight and some people go away after the communion and return for some of the Watch later in the evening).
- The Good Friday Three Hour devotions and at least one of the other services (either Veneration of the Cross at 9.30 am or Stations of the Cross at 7.30 pm)
- The clean and polish on Holy Saturday – (Yes, this really is part of the triduum experience).
- The Fire Vigil at 7 am on Easter Day.
- High Mass on Easter Day.
It seems like a lot. It is a lot.

But it is a big promise and I’ve found that there’s always one or two who try it out every year. They tend to come back and repeat the experience and yes, they describe it as life changing.

There’s at least one description of what it is like from someone who tested the promise out online, but there’s plenty more accounts circulating in the congregation.

[The previous links in the post above all point to previous descriptions I’ve written on this blog about those services – a couple of years out of date, 2000 years up to date – I don’t know)/

7 responses to “The Antisemitism Notice”

Gordon

25/03/2026

Helpful, thank you

What is the concern with the reproaches? I’m not familiar with them

Reply
1. Kelvin
  
  25/03/2026
  
  They can be interpreted as being directed at us the listeners. But they can also be interpreted as speaking to Jewish people as all the imagery is from the Hebrew Scriptures and doesn’t reference the experience of those who actually were around Jesus during his life on earth.
  
  For example:
  “I led you out of Egypt, having drowned Pharaoh in the Red Sea:
  and you have delivered me to the chief priests.”
  
  Who is being addressed here?
  
  Reply
  1. Nick Drew
    
    09/04/2026
    
    That’s interesting, because whenever I have sung the Reproaches I have always felt them as being expressions of personal repentance rather than accusations thrown at the listener.
    
    Reply
Rosemary Hannah

25/03/2026

I must admit I had always read the Reproaches as directed to the listener. That the Egypt from which we are delivered is the Egypt of the modern world, the slavery of ghastly jobs (I’ve had a few, in fact a lot) and the oppression of terrible political systems. But I come from a totally different thought world to that of most people today, and I absolutely see they wouldn’t commonly be read that way.
But I think it would benefit everyone to find a way of expressing BOTH what faith can offer in terms of freedom AND the mess we do make of the world, and sitting with that tension.
And I think the church as a whole urgently needs to find a compelling and deep reaching way of doing both.

Reply
1. Kelvin
  
  25/03/2026
  
  You might be interested that we’re looking at Isaiah 59 as a helpful text for this year, given the current ways of the world.
  
  Reply
2. Christine McIntosh
  
  25/03/2026
  
  I’m of much the same mind. (A mind that is still blown away when I hear them sung)
  
  Reply
Dan Floyd

25/03/2026

Thank you

Reply