Advent & Christmas

Advent Worship
The season of Advent (the four Sundays prior to Christmas) is a festive time at Westminster. Seasonal themes and wonderful music are part of what makes this season unique. In addition, the whole church is decorated for the holidays and special programs make Advent a delightful and meaningful time in the life of our church.

Christmas Eve – December 24
The afternoon 4:00 p.m. children’s and families’ worship service is an informal worship experience, led by child readers and youth choirs, telling the story of Jesus’ birth with a Christmas tableau with church school students.

The traditional Christmas Eve Candlelight Services at 8:00 and 10:00 p.m. feature the Westminster organ and Adult Choir, lessons of Scripture recounting the history of salvation, and a brief sermon by the pastor.
 

Lent, Holy Week & Easter

Ash Wednesday
Services are held at noon and 6:30 p.m. to mark the beginning of the season of Lent.

Wednesdays in Lent
Noon worship in the Sanctuary. A thirty-minute service of quiet reflection and music following the Lenten theme.
Wednesday night Lenten Program. Westminster offers an evening Lenten Series, starting with dinner in the Refectory at 5:30. A child-oriented service for families is held from 6:15-6:30 p.m. A Taizé-style prayer service is held in the Great Hall from 6:30-7:00 p.m. Adult educational programs generally run from 7:00 – 8:30 p.m.

Palm Sunday
Worship on Palm Sunday (8:30 & 10:30a.m.) includes special music by our children’s and youth choirs. Holy Week begins with this service, which marks Jesus’ return to Jerusalem. The service conveys both the triumphant entry and the shadow of the Passion.

Maundy Thursday
Noon communion service in the Chapel.
The 7:00 p.m. service is a Communion Tenebrae in the Sanctuary. The lessons of Scripture, followed by silent reflection and by the unadorned breaking of the bread and pouring of the cup in darkness, underscore the solemnity of the night of Christ’s betrayal.

Good Friday
The Greater Minneapolis Council of Churches sponsors a noon Ecumenical service in the Westminster sanctuary, with dramatic readings from the passion narrative and music by the Westminster Choir.

Easter Services
Worship services on Easter begin  with a 7:00am communion service that starts in the Courtyard and moves into the Chapel. At 9:00 & 11:00a.m. there are services in the Sanctuary.  Easter worship offers special music by the Westminster Choir with the addition of a brass section.

Macalester Sunday
The Sunday following Easter, known as “low Sunday” in most churches because of the post-Easter drop in attendance, is anything but low at Westminster. The Macalester Choir, Macalester Bagpipes, and college president join Westminster clergy in leading the service. Westminster and Macalester – a Presbyterian-related college – have enjoyed a close relationship since the college’s founding.