Holy Week and Easter

Against all common sense, in the bleakest of circumstances, life is breathed into a place that seems lifeless. The story of Easter is at the heart of the Christian faith, and each year Trinity Church moves through it slowly and deliberately.

Palm Sunday, April 13

Jesus enters Jerusalem triumphantly. Riding on a humble donkey, he is greeted by cheering crowds.

Holy Eucharist | 8am | 9am | 11:15am

Cross-Making Tutorial | 1pm

Solemne eucaristía y bendición de los ramos (en español) | 2pm

Special Compline by Candlelight | 7pm
St. Paul’s Chapel

Wednesday, April 16

With every step, Jesus draws closer to the cross. “Believe,” he tells his people urgently. “Believe in the light, so that you may become children of the light.”

Tenebrae | 6pm

Agape Meal | 7:30pm
Trinity Commons

Maundy Thursday, April 17

Jesus sits at the Passover table in a room filled with his closest friends. He gives them a new commandment: “Love one another.” Later that night, he is betrayed and arrested.

Noonday Prayer | 12:05pm

Holy Eucharist | 6pm

All-Night Vigil | 8pm–9am

Good Friday, April 18

Jesus is beaten, stands trial, and is sentenced to death. From the cross, alongside two criminals, he speaks, “It is finished,” and takes his last breath.

Liturgy of Good Friday | 12:05pm

Holy Saturday, April 19

Jesus’s body, anointed with spices and wrapped in a clean linen cloth, lies in a new tomb. A great stone covers the opening.

The Great Vigil of Easter | 8pm

Easter Sunday, April 20

The earth shakes. The stone rolls back. Jesus is here again, truly here. Death did not win.

Simple Holy Eucharist | 8am

Family-Friendly Festive Eucharist | 9am

Easter Egg Hunt | 10am

Festive Eucharist | 11am | 1pm

Solemne eucaristía de la resurrección del Señor (en español) | 3pm

Busqueda de huevos y celebración | 4pm

The new fire burns at the back of Trinity Church during the Great Vigil of Easter

What Is the Great Vigil of Easter?

This once-a-year service — the first of Easter — tells the entire story of Christianity, from creation to now. And it all happens on Saturday night.

A person walks along the top of a sand dune, backlit by a bright sun shining on the horizon

A New Way to Think About Fasting During Lent

Fasting isn’t just about food. It’s also about attention: putting aside distracting habits to focus on what’s essential and true.

Rays of sunlight across a leather-bound copy of The Book of Common Prayer

How Holy Week Services Help Us Walk With Jesus

We ground ourselves in the scriptural accounts of Jesus’s life because this ancient story reminds us death is not the final word.

Celebrate Easter at Trinity Church

Hear a personal invitation from Father Phil Jackson, Trinity’s rector, and Summerlee Staten, executive director of Faith Formation and Education, to walk with Trinity Church through Holy Week.

What Is Tenebrae?

This once-a-year liturgy has no direct connection to the scriptural accounts of Jesus’s final days yet encapsulates the entire story of Holy Week in one service. Father Michael Bird, Trinity’s vicar, explains how Tenebrae helps us center on the mystery, meaning, and majesty of this sacred time.

A photo of the replica of the 8th-century St. John's cross on the island of Iona off the coast of Scotland

Faith EducationSummerlee StatenMay 29, 2025

At the Heart of Everything

In John’s Gospel, Jesus makes a world-altering request: that his followers might be united with him just as he is united with God the Father. “Jesus speaks of an eternal union — the grand weave of humanity swept up into the mystical life of the Trinity itself,” writes Summerlee Staten. “Beyond time and founded on an overflowing love.”

A figure sits on the ground, holding their head in their hands, and up from their body flows the cosmos with a dove in flight

Faith EducationThe Rev. Yein KimMay 22, 2025

The Peace That Meets Our Pain

It takes faith to live in a world that denies protections to the most vulnerable, where the dignity of every human being is not respected. But not just any faith. “It’s a faith,” writes the Rev. Yein Kim, “birthed in the greatest gift Jesus leaves us: God’s peace.”

A child with a bright smile warmly embraces an adult figure, whose hands we see

Faith EducationThe Rev. Matthew WelschMay 15, 2025

What Did Jesus Do?

What does it mean to truly love one another? It looks a lot like doing the things Jesus did: healing the sick, feeding the hungry, liberating the captive. “In Jesus, we encounter a God who turns down power and wealth and chooses to spend his time with the outcast,” writes the Rev. Matthew Welsch. “We encounter a God who chooses to serve others rather than to be served.”

Faith EducationKathy Bozzuti-JonesMay 8, 2025

Enough Is Enough

“The LORD is my shepherd.” The time-tested words of Psalm 23 reassure us that “God’s love is both present and personal,” no matter what’s happening around us. In relationship with God and one another, writes Kathy Bozzuti-Jones, we have all that we need. “We are enough. We have enough. There is enough.”

Faith EducationSummerlee StatenMay 1, 2025

Open to Wonder

When we, like the Apostle Paul, encounter Jesus along the roads of our lives, we don’t swap our old beliefs for a set of new, equally rigid ones. “The story of Paul’s conversion begs us to trade our certainty for a posture of humility and wonder,” writes Summerlee Staten. “Who knows what facets of divine light might be available to us, if we await God’s revealing with openness.”

A painting of the disciple Thomas reaching for Jesus's open wound, inside which we see verses of Scripture

Faith EducationThe Rev. Yein KimApril 24, 2025

Doubt Is the Place God Meets Us

The disciple Thomas, who refuses to believe the news of Jesus’s resurrection without seeing it for himself, is known as a doubter. But in focusing on Thomas's uncertainty, we miss a deeper truth. “Doubt is not at odds with faith; it’s part of it!” writes the Rev. Yein Kim. Jesus isn’t angry when we ask questions. On the contrary, he meets us where we are and gives us exactly what we need to believe.

A figure approaches and peeks through a doorway, through which we can see a bright golden texture

Faith EducationThe Rev. Matthew WelschApril 17, 2025

The Impossible Story of Easter

“It’s so easy to look at the state of our lives or the world around us and assume the worst,” writes the Rev. Matthew Welsch. But Christians are called to orient our lives around a different reality: Death does not win. Even when it seems impossible, Jesus brings new life.

A lone figure walks in one direction while their reflection walks in the other direction

Faith EducationKathy Bozzuti-JonesApril 10, 2025

The Paradox of Being Human

The narrative arc of Palm Sunday invites us to sit with our dual natures: Like the crowds who go from celebrating Jesus to calling for his execution, we, too, can be at odds within ourselves. We joyfully welcome God into our hearts and then reject that same God — often when we need God most. “The desire to connect and the impulse to resist,” writes Kathy Bozzuti-Jones, “coexist within us.”

Green leaves sprout from a barren branch as a magenta butterfly hovers nearby

Faith EducationSummerlee StatenApril 4, 2025

Death Is Not the Last Word

Our Gospel reading this week features a sweeping drama encapsulated in a dinner hosted by Lazarus, a man Jesus raised from the dead mere days before. “It is a story bathed in the light of a much greater revelation,” writes Summerlee Staten, “the truth that God is the God of resurrection,” not just for some, but for all who rest in Jesus.

A figure stands with open arms and hands while another figure draw close with head bowed

Faith EducationYein KimMarch 27, 2025

God’s Welcoming Embrace

What if the Parable of the Prodigal Son is actually about two brothers, the reckless and the rule-follower, each lost in his own way? We, too, lose our way searching for fulfillment in places we’ll never find it, writes the Rev. Yein Kim, “but God has already found us.”