Special Events at Canterbury!

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We love celebrations at Canterbury.  We follow the Church calendar of holy days and feasts, and we observe many of them with special events, including dinners and get togethers in Beckett Hall, our church annex.  

Special Events:

“TREE OF LIFE” LITURGY

For the past several years the Wednesday evening of Holy Week has been set aside for a Stations of the Cross liturgy, but we have decided this year to reintroduce a liturgy created by Edwina Beard and Fritz Frurip more than a decade ago and known as the “Tree of Life” liturgy. The service was designed around scriptural and other readings that feature the tree or tree-as-cross image. This seemed an appropriate image for Lenten reflection, given the connection of a tree to the fall of Adam, the teaching that faithful Christians will be known by their fruit, the use of the wood from a tree as the
instrument of Christ’s execution, etc.

The service is composed of five units, framed by excerpts from an anonymous 8th century poem, The Dream of the Rood. Each unit consists of a reading (some from the Bible, some from other sources) followed by a period of silence for reflection, the singing of a hymn, and a versicle and response from one of the anthems provided for use as devotions before the cross in the Good Friday liturgy.

The setting for the service will feature numerous candles and a “garden” composed of potted trees from the atrium. We hope you will join us on at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, April 20, for this special liturgy.

In addition to honoring designated Holy Days, some of our observances in the past have included an Earth Day eucharist. In observance of St. Francis's day in September we have our own special version of the "Blessing of the Pets." After the Easter Service the children love our yearly Easter egg hunt. St. Thomas also sponsors many activities of interest to parishioners and to the general community throughout the year.