The Meaning of
Lent
Historically, Lent is a 40-day period of Christ-centered devotion between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday.
The practice of Lent has been observed by Christians around the world since the early centuries of the church. It is a season of spiritual preparation in which we remember Christ's temptation, suffering, and death.
To practice Lent is to draw near and better understand Jesus Christ. Lent is a season of intentional discipleship under and with Christ. We also practice Lent to bond with fellow Christians who are on the same journey - not only with those at Christ Episcopal Church, but also with all those around the world. Along the way, our sin and habits are put to death, and we learn to internalize and share in Christ’s resurrection power.
In the Western church, the forty days of Lent extend from Ash Wednesday through Holy Saturday, omitting Sundays. The last three days of Lent are the sacred Triduum of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday. Today, Lent has reacquired its significance as the final preparation of candidates for baptism. Joining with them, all Christians are invited "to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God's holy Word" (Book of Common Prayer, p. 265).
As is our custom here at Christ Episcopal Church, we will celebrate Holy Eucharist using the Rite I liturgy from our Book of Common Prayer during the season of Lent. We will first use Rite I during the Ash Wednesday liturgy, and return to Rite II at the Easter Vigil.
Christ Church's Lenten
Services & Gatherings
Below are some of the services and gatherings scheduled at Christ Church during the 2026 Lenten season. More information can be found in our Sunday worship leaflets, our weekly Christ Church Gatherings email (contact us to join our mailing list), and other items around the campus.
You are always welcome at Christ Episcopal Church,
and we hope that you will join us often.
Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper
February 17 @ 6:00 p.m. in New Brick Lower Level
The incredible youth of Christ Church will once again host our annual Shrove Tuesday/Mardi Gras Pancake Supper on Tuesday, February 17. Join us in the Great Hall of New Brick for this traditional start to the Lenten season. Service will be available from 6:00 p.m. until approximately 7:30. Tickets are $15 for an individual and $25 for a family, and you can pay using cash at the door or by using our online giving form (choose “Shrove Tuesday Dinner” in the FUND dropdown menu). We'll have freshly made, flavorful pancakes and side dishes, enjoy live steelpan music with Lennard, games for the kids, and fantastic fellowship for everyone. What a way to begin the Lenten season - don't miss it!
Ash Wednesday at Christ Church
Wednesday, February 18
Ashes to Go from 6:00 a.m.
7:00 a.m. service in Old Brick
12 noon & 7:00 p.m. services in New Brick
Ash Wednesday reminds us of our mortality and of what we are made of. To get our thoughts and ourselves ready and prepared for Lent, Christ Church offers worship with the Imposition of Ashes on Wednesday, February 18, at 7:00 a.m. in Old Brick, and then at 12 noon and 7:00 p.m. in the New Brick Sanctuary. We‘ll also livestream the 7:30 p.m. worship on our website, YouTube, and Facebook pages.
Weather permitting, we'll also offer Ashes to Go, a brief stop at Christ Church for working commuters, students, and early risers to receive ashes as they start their day. Clergy will offer a short prayer and administer the ashes to those who cannot be with us in worship that morning, but who desire ashes nonetheless. Simply follow the Ashes to Go signs on the lawns, and stop by beginning at 6 a.m. If you want to come later in the day, let us know what time, stop by, and we will administer the ashes to you then.
Lenten Morning Prayer
Weekday mornings at 7:00 a.m.
on the main page of our website and Facebook
A wide range of dedicated and extraordinary Christ Church parishioners continue to host Morning and Evening Prayer worship throughout the season of Lent. You can join us every weekday morning, and also on Friday evenings. This brief service livestream helps to re-center us as we begin and conclude our days.
Lenten Healing Eucharist with Father Manny
Thursdays at 12:00 noon in Old Brick
beginning February 19
Gathering each Thursday during Lent, Christ Church offers a midday Healing Eucharist in Old Brick. The Rev. Emmanuel Ato Mercer leads this service of readings, prayers, a litany for healing, and the Holy Eucharist. Parishioners and community members are all welcome to join in a prayerful time in the presence of God, and to share in the wonderful mystery of God’s love whilst we seek healing for ourselves and our loved ones. Please come in to reflect, pray, and participate in a service held in our beautiful, historic chapel.
Lenten Evening Compline with Mother Marcia
Mondays and Friday evenings throughout Lent
beginning Friday, February 20, at 8 p.m.
on YouTube, Facebook, and our website
The Rev. Marcia Davenport leads this online worship service series, featuring personal messages and prayers from around the world. Each night will focus on a new reflection and feature liturgy from a different prayer book. Don’t miss this beautiful way to worship in your own time at home during Lent.
Lenten Reflection Day
Saturday, February 21 @ 8:30 a.m. in Old Brick
Christ Church’s Spiritual Life Commission presents Lenten Reflection Day on Saturday, February 21, and we hope you'll join us for this very special launch of the season. We are honored to welcome the Reverend Kirk Kubicek, who will lead us in prayerfully reflecting on our 2026 theme, Building Relationships through Love.
Lenten Reflection Day includes a light breakfast at 8:30 a.m., is followed by the morning's program, and then wraps up around noon with an informal Eucharist. It's a morning filled with prayer, discussion, and group reflection, and we hope that you'll find time to join us for an inspirational start to the Lenten season.
Questions? Email us at SL@christchurchcolumbia.org.
Sunday Worship at Christ Church
Holy Eucharist at 8:00 a.m. in Old Brick
Family Worship at 9:00 a.m. in New Brick
Choral Eucharist at 10:30 a.m. in New Brick
Except for Easter Sunday, Christ Church's Sunday morning schedule remains the same, with three worship services and many formation and fellowship gatherings for all ages. You can learn more about the Sunday schedule on our website's Sunday Mornings at Christ Church page, and you can receive more details each week in our Christ Church Gatherings email.
Adult Forum: Sunday Circle
Sunday mornings from 9:30-10:15 a.m. in Old Brick,
and online via Zoom
How well do you know yourself?
What stories do you tell yourself about yourself?
This Lenten offering will help us uncover the mask that so often hides our true selves from even ourselves. The gift of being yourself is a spiritual movement towards self-discovery. The gift of our self-discovery blesses us with the grace to be our true, authentic selves.
February 22: Transformational Knowing of Self and God
March 1: Somos Amigos
March 8: First Steps of Knowing Yourself
March 15: Unmasking Your False Self
March 22: Becoming Your True Self
Lenten Taizé Vespers
Every Sunday during Lent at 6:00 p.m. in the New Brick Sanctuary
Vespers is a liturgy of Evening Prayer that combines scripture readings, prayer, silent meditation, and rich music. Each Sunday evening, Christ Church offers a service of contemplative prayer and music in the tradition of the Taizé community of France. It offers this special service each Sunday evening during this Lenten season with the hope of offering different opportunities for prayer, music, and reflection.
The founder of the Taizé community, Brother Roger, explains: "What we usually call 'worship' the Taizé community simply calls 'Prayer.' Taizé Prayer consists of 'short chants, repeated again and again, giving them a meditative character. Using just a few words, they express a basic reality of faith, quickly grasped by the mind. As the words are sung over many times, this reality gradually penetrates the whole being. Meditative singing thus becomes a way of listening to God."
This community promotes peace and justice through prayer and meditation. Our Taizé Vespers service mirrors Taizé-style attention to silence, holy words, prayer, and singing and offers a chance to meditate and reflect on God's love and presence in one's life, to offer prayer for oneself and others, and to share in a supportive community of fellow pilgrims on the way.
Centering Prayer
Monday evenings at 7:00 p.m. on Zoom
Centering Prayer is a special evening gathering that helps us be present and open to God. The practice of this prayer could lead to a more intimate union with God and a more powerful experience of God’s presence in our lives. This active presence heals, transforms, and offers freedom and peace. Join us in Old Brick at 7:00 on Monday evenings, but you can also take part virtually from wherever you are. You'll find the Zoom details in our weekly emails or Sunday bulletin, or you can email centering@christchurchcolumbia.org and we'll send them to you. It's a restorative experience, so come and be a part of this gathering of reflection.
Christ Church Book Club
Tuesday evenings at 7:30 p.m. on Zoom
The Christ Church Book Club is an informal online conversation that decides on a book and discusses it as a group, offering different perspectives and experiences. We've also moved Book Club to a new night to accommodate more participants' schedules and gather via Zoom on Tuesdays at 7:30 p.m. You don't have to register in advance; just grab the book and join us to discuss. Books being discussed during Lent will be shared soon; if you have any questions or need the Zoom link, email us at bookclub@christchurchcolumbia.org.
Wednesday Evening Lenten Supper Series
Wednesday evenings at 6:30 p.m. in the Great Hall of New Brick
Each year, the Wednesday Evening Lenten Supper Series is one of the most enriching experiences of the season. We are always thankful to the members of Christ Church's Spiritual Life Commission, who work so hard to put this, and other, events together. The WELS series offers five weeks of insightful, life-transforming seminars on this year's theme: Building Relationships through LOVE.
The clergy presenters for this year are:
February 25: Right Reverend Robert Ihloff
March 4: Reverend Richard Ginnever
March 11: Reverend Tim Grayson
March 18: Reverend Emmanuel Ato Mercer
March 25: Archdeacon Denise Schiavone
We begin each evening at 6:30 p.m. with a communal supper in the Great Hall - each week, a different Christ Church ministry group provides the potluck meal - followed by our guest presenter. The evening then concludes with a brief, informal Eucharist. There's no other series like this at Christ Church throughout the year, and we highly encourage you to gather with us for this unique discussion and fellowship.
Center for Spiritual Nourishment
Saturday, March 14
8:30 a.m. to 12 noon throughout the Christ Church campus
The Center for Spiritual Nourishment at Christ Church is in its second year, and it could be argued that the season of Lent is when we need spiritual nourishment more than ever. Join seekers of a deeper relationship with the Divine on the second Saturday in March, as we offer experiences that engage the mind, body, and spirit, providing safe spaces to explore an array of opportunities for spiritual growth. The CSN is open to anyone interested in spiritual nourishment, regardless of religious affiliation or spiritual beliefs, and offers an array of experiences that engage the mind, body, and spirit in a nurturing, unified environment. Come for one session or the entire morning, as we tend to our souls in community!
Learn more about the CSN at www.christchurchcolumbia.org/spiritual-nourishment
Baptism Class
Christ Church will present the sacrament of Baptism during Easter Vigil on Saturday, April 5, at 7:00 p.m. for those interested in receiving, and our clergy will host a Baptism class in the weeks leading up to Easter. Please contact the church office if you are interested, or complete the Contact Form on our website.
Schedule subject to change
Holy Week
at Christ Episcopal Church
This year, Palm Sunday is on March 29 and is followed by Holy Week, the most sacred period of our Christian faith. This is when the foundational story of Christianity – Jesus’ suffering, death, and resurrection – is remembered and retold, both in words and in ritual actions, at services throughout the week. We gather together as a community of faith to journey with Jesus to Jerusalem, to stand with him before his accusers, to walk to Golgotha, and to stand at the foot of his cross. Finally, on Easter Sunday, we will joyously celebrate the resurrection of Christ, lifting our voices in praise of the hope that is ours and the world’s.
From earliest times, Christians have observed the week before Easter as a time of special devotion. The heart of Holy Week observance is the three holy days, or Triduum, of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday, and Christ Church has services on each of these days.
Join us for all of it, if you can, remembering that without the journey of Holy Week, Easter loses its deep meaning.
Holy Week Services
Palm Sunday
Sunday, March 29
Holy Eucharist at 8:00, 9:00, & 10:30 a.m.
Liturgy of Palms begins at Old Brick (weather permitting)
The holiest of weeks begins with Palm Sunday, also called Passion Sunday. Here, the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem is recalled, and yet, the liturgy quickly shifts to the events of the week that lead Jesus to his arrest, trial, and death on the cross. The congregation gathers in Old Brick, processes to New Brick with blessed palm leaves, and joins in the reading of the Gospel narrative in parts. The liturgy ends in quietness, a stark contrast to the joy of the procession.
And with this, our Holy Week journey begins.
Meditations on the Passion
Sunday, March 29
at 6:00 p.m. in New Brick
This Palm Sunday evening, Christ Church will present Meditations on the Passion, a special service of poems, readings, song, and prayer. Join us at 6:00 p.m. in the New Brick Sanctuary as we contemplate the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ in a way that makes us realize the immense love He has for each one of us, a love that is capable of suffering and death in order to free us from our sins.
Tenebrae
Wednesday, April 2
7:00 p.m. in New Brick
As Jesus draws ever closer to the events of Good Friday, the church readies itself by reading the service of Tenebrae, taken from the monastic tradition. In this Wednesday evening service, a candelabrum with fifteen candles is used, and one by one the candles are extinguished, until the only light remaining symbolizes the light of Christ. This light is taken and hidden for a moment, as Christ was laid in the tomb. Then, as a loud noise resembling that of the earthquake is heard, the light is returned to its stand. In silence, and by the light of only that single candle, the congregation exits.
Maundy Thursday
Thursday, April 3
5:00 p.m. Seder meal in New Brick
7:00 p.m. Eucharist in New Brick, with foot-washing and stripping of Altar
9:00 p.m. Vigil in Old Brick
On this evening of Maundy Thursday, we gather together to bring into remembrance the Last Supper of our Lord and the Institution of the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. We hear and remember the words of Jesus as he states, “Do this in remembrance of me.” As the service concludes, the altar is stripped of all of its appointments, so that the focus of all can be upon the cross alone on the following day, Good Friday. We then hear of the Agony in the Garden, as Jesus is arrested. The Watch then takes place through the night, as in response to our Lord’s question: “Could you not watch with me for one hour?”
Good Friday
Friday, April 4
12:00 noon and 7:00 p.m. Veneration of the Cross and Eucharist in New Brick
Christians throughout the world recall Good Friday as the day upon which Jesus died. As it remembers the great sinfulness of man, it also points to the glory and love of God. It is most somber in its offering, and includes the Veneration of the Cross, another ancient custom of the Church. A plain wooden cross is carried into the church and is held before us. The congregation is then invited to come forward in reverence of the cross - by touching the wood, a simple bow, a genuflection, or the act of kissing the wood of the cross.
The noonday service lasts one hour and draws our attention to the extraordinary love that God has for each of us in giving His son to die on the cross. The evening service is slightly longer, as we also receive communion from the Sacrament Reserved. Church tradition prohibits the celebration of the Eucharist on this day.
Holy Saturday
Easter Vigil and Eucharist, Lighting of the New Fire, and Baptisms
Saturday, April 5
7:00 p.m. in New Brick
As the church awaits the glory of the resurrection, Holy Saturday is a day of preparation. As the sun sets, bringing with it the end of the Lenten season, one of the most beautiful services of the entire church year is held. We begin in utter darkness, signifying Christ in the tomb, and then a new fire is lit & blessed, and with it the Paschal Candle symbolizing Christ. As the Paschal Candle is carried into the church, the light is passed to parishioners, who each hold a candle. As the church is illumined by just candlelight, the ancient hymn The Exsultet is sung. Then, within that light, lessons are read which remind us of God’s desire for man’s salvation. The Sacrament of Holy Baptism takes central focus on the priesthood of all believers and then we celebrate the first Eucharist of Easter. The darkness is now full light!
This year, Christ Church will provide Holy Baptism for all interested individuals. Baptism class will take place on Saturday, March 22nd, and individuals and families who are interested in Holy Baptism at this service are invited to let us know. We will then give you more information.
Easter Sunday
Sunday, April 6
8:00 a.m., in Old Brick
9:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. with music and choir in New Brick
We have now reached Easter Day – a day of joy, celebration, and the gift of life to God’s people.
There are three services this morning, and you are welcome to be with us at 8:00, 9:00, and 11:00 a.m.
At the 9:00 and 11:00 services, a full choir and procession with all of the rituals appointed for the day help us celebrate and express our joy. The Easter sermon is given; the choir anthems are spectacular, and the glory of the day radiates from our worship into the community.
Celebrations on this day include the annual Easter Egg Hunt, as well as the Flowering of the Cross. These are beloved celebrations for the youngest among us, and the rest of us ensure a safe and fun time for all. Please be sure to bring your basket or bag for the egg hunt! Flowers will be provided.