anglican focus

The news site of the Anglican Church Southern Queensland: nourishing and connecting our faith community

Holy Saturday

Reflections Torres Strait Islander elder wearing a suit standing against a red brick wall Reflections

"The first Easter I remember"

“As a community, after the Easter Day service we celebrated the resurrection of the Lord Jesus with a big kai kai (feast). People from all over the Torres Strait Islands and Papua New Guinea (which was then still administered by Australia) came via sailing canoes rather than by motor boats, bringing seafood, taro, sweet potato, casava, sago and other traditional foods. We then had traditional dancing with men wearing headdresses made of emu feathers and women wearing grass skirts,” says Uncle Milton Walit from NATSIAC and The Parish of Laidley

"What we can be sure of is that Jesus was under the power of death until the third day" (The Rev'd Charlie Lacey, 2023)
Dates & Seasons

Tough Questions: Where did Jesus go when he died?

“But what actually happened to Jesus between Good Friday and Easter Sunday? The fact that Jesus’ body was in the tomb is undisputed, but there are various conjectures about what happened to Jesus’ spirit, or soul,” says The Rev’d Charlie Lacey from St Andrew’s, Springfield

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Bishop Jeremy Greaves' Holy Saturday 2023 message

“In the great liturgy of the Triduum, Holy Saturday comes as an awkward silence between the cross and the resurrection and the temptation is to fill it with noise and busyness. Many parishes will hold working bees or clean-up days on Holy Saturday in readiness for Easter Day…but if as Claude Debussy says, ‘Music is the silence between the notes’, we should respond to the invitation of Holy Saturday and stop, in silence and listen,” says Bishop Jeremy Greaves

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Bishop Cam Venables’ Holy Saturday 2022 message

“In the Easter story it’s helpful to remember/that resurrection new life/did not arrive quickly/and that disciples, family, and friends/were crushed – shattered – nothing mattered!/The tomb was sealed/and all hope of justice/through future kingdom/had been crushed –shattered…/nothing mattered, anymore!” says Bishop Cam Venables in his Holy Saturday poem

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Bishop Jeremy Greaves' Holy Saturday 2021 message

“Because we don’t really talk much about Holy Saturday in the Church these days and we tend to fill it with church working bees or preparation for Easter, we like Good Friday – ‘Jesus died for us’; we really like Easter Sunday – ‘Jesus rose again from the dead!’; but we don’t like Holy Saturday – ‘the death of God’,” says Bishop Jeremy Greaves as he reflects on a famous TIME magazine cover