Celebrating the Vigil

Saturday's evening service (6.30pm) is called the Easter Vigil. It's a new service for many Anglicans and heralds the official beginning of Easter. If you havent been before come and see. In this candlelit service we hear well known stories from the Bible, renew our baptismal vows and the receive Holy Communion.

If we could travel back in time to the fourth century we would find God's Church at the cusp of massive growth in the dying days of the Roman Empire. After a period of horrific persecution the Church was legalised by the new Emperor, Constantine and believers found new freedoms. Many in the church however were unsure as to how to deal with the large numbers of pagans seeking baptism. Was it simply fashion or were they genuine? Some felt that all this populism was diluting the historic faith and went off to the desert looking for a 'purer' exercise of discipleship. The Easter Vigil is a product of that time and is well documented by for example, St Ambrose.

For candidates for baptism this was the highlight of their spiritual journey and the occasion in which they were baptised. It was at this service that they were anointed and heard the Bible stories of salvation. The evidence is that the liturgy went through the night. Men and women were baptised fully into baths in separate rooms. They were then presented dressed in white to the overseer (bishop) who lay hand on them to confirm and seal the work of the Holy Spirit. They then were finally initiated via Holy Communion. Up until then none of them would have seen the Eucharist since it was done in private. In fact much of their journey was carefully planned exposing them bit by bit to the service. In the Orthodox Church they still dismiss the catechumens after the sermon with the words 'The doors the doors'. (There is a story that Metropolitan Anthony, the Russian bishop in London, had a chill in the cold church and intoned; 'The doors the doors - shut the bloody doors!')

Now we find ourselves in Britain in a less religious more secular country and the rites of the Church need to accomodate this. Large sections of the population remain unbaptised and common language of the Faith is becoming less and less familiar. On this Good Friday in Salcombe we had our procession with wooden cross around town. As we moved to Chapel End a young lad shouted out. "Has someone's died?". I replied 'Jesus'. He promptly ran back into the house 'Mum's Jesus is dead!'. I added, shouting over the fence, 'Dont worry on Sunday he rises?' According to researchers in this field we are now talking of three generations of de-churched people. The task for us is really challenging.

The Easter Vigil calls us to use our imagination, to rediscover liturgies which enchant. It also calls us to take seriously the task of journeying with people seeking faith.