An insider's guide: our best individual resources for Lent, Holy Week, & Easter (for any year)
We have been creating new resources for the season of Lent since 2017. If you are familiar with us, you know that we release resources in bundles shaped around an overarching theme. We do this to provide cohesive and comprehensive materials for a full liturgical season. However, this means we now have many individual resources from past seasons that could be meaningful and useful any year. Here’s an insider’s guide for our best resources for Lent, Holy Week, and Easter. None of these offerings are too particular to any one theme or lectionary cycle, so they could be used any year.
RESOURCES FOR LENT
Cultivating & Letting go: a service for healing & wholeness (w/ prayer stations and visual art)
Incorporating written reflection, prayer stations, and a visual meditation, this service flows through 3 major movements to allow space to pray and reflect on letting go of anxiety, busyness, fear, and doubt. Liturgy by: Rev. Sarah (Are) Speed.
“back to back” brokenness worship film
This film blends visual and spoken poetry to offer a meditation on our communal and individual brokenness and how we can allow it to divide us, or we can harness it to deepen our empathy, connection, and compassion. Video by: Rev. Lisle Gwynn Garrity, with spoken word by Rev. Sarah (Are) Speed.
relent lament worship film
Pairing time lapse imagery with the words of Psalm 31, this short video meditation explores what it means to relent in the midst of suffering and lament. Art & film by: Rev. Lisle Gwynn Garrity.
VISUAL ART FOR LENT
Browse all of the (primarily RCL-based) Lent art in our image licensing library. Use the images for: art galleries, visio divina, small group discussions, bulletin cover art, and worship projection.
resources for holy week
palms to passion worship service w/ midrash
This creative service for Palm/Passion Sunday follows Matthew’s telling of the events from Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem to his arrest in the garden of Gethsemane, highlighting a few narrative moments in between through midrash offered from the perspectives of 5 characters. Midrash & liturgy by: Rev. Sarah (Are) Speed.
POETRY REFLECTIONS & LITURGY FOR MAUNDY THURSDAY
This liturgy integrates poetry reflections (to be offered as spoken word in lieu of a traditional sermon) on three elements present in the narrative of Jesus' final hours: water (foot washing), bread (the Last Supper), and silver (Judas' betrayal). The poetry reflections are integrated within a full order of worship. Poetry & liturgy by: Rev. Sarah (Are) Speed.
FULL TO THE BRIM MAUNDY THURSDAY LITURGY
Through three movements in this creative liturgy, worshipers will visit the baptismal font, trusting in their goodness and God’s loving claim on their lives; they will experience the nourishment of the Table, encountering Jesus’s body through ritual; and they will explore how to live out Jesus’s new commandment to love others as he has loved us. Liturgy by: Adrian White.
singing through the wilderness liturgy for holy week (w/ poetry & original hymns)
This service (for Maundy Thurs, Good Friday, or both) interweaves song and poetry within the passion narrative to keep us singing on the journey to the cross. The liturgy includes numerous suggestions (with licensing info) for the hymns and sung responses, as well as original poems and hymns by Slats Toole. Liturgy by: Slats Toole.
again & again stations of the cross liturgy
This service honors the ancient story of Jesus’ death while recognizing the ways this narrative repeats itself again and again throughout the past and present. It provides multi-sensory ways to engage, confess, and lament, creating a profound and prophetic Holy Week worship experience. Liturgy & original visual art by: Rev. T. Denise Anderson.
stations of the cross graphic art series (w/ companion guide)
This graphic art rendition of the Stations by Lauren Wright Pittman nods to tradition while imagining Jesus’ journey toward crucifixion through a modern lens. In twelve black and white poster images, these visuals highlight the metaphorical and emotional layers of Jesus’ journey toward his last breaths. The Companion Guide includes scripture, visual prompts, an artist reflection, and prayer for each Station.
Stations of Peter Liturgy
This creative liturgy invites you to walk “the way of sorrows” to the cross, but through the eyes and experiences of one of Jesus’ closest disciples. As a nod to the “Stations of the Cross,” this liturgy highlights Peter’s role in the crucifixion narrative. This liturgy includes two options for engagement: a communal worship service and prayer stations. Liturgy & original art by: Rev. T. Denise Anderson
seeking: a service of silence & sorrow for good friday
This complete service for Good Friday invites worshipers into an intimate and vulnerable space for silence and sorrow, placing worshipers “in the round” and using a single familiar hymn to remove the need for bulletins. Silent pauses, during which the worship space grows progressively darker, are placed throughout the service to remember the three hours Christ was on the cross. Liturgy by: Rev. Bruce Reyes-Chow.
VISUAL ART FOR HOLY WEEK
Browse all of the Holy Week art in our image licensing library. Use the images for: art galleries, visio divina, small group discussions, bulletin cover art, and worship projection.
resources for easter
new life poetic prayers
These 5 short poetic prayers reflect on themes of new life & resurrection in a way that feels personal and intimate and deeply human. These could be used for Easter Sunday worship, or as opening prayers for worship throughout Eastertide. Poetry by: Rev. Sarah (Are) Speed.
empty tomb banner designs for easter
These banner designs by Hannah Garrity offer a powerful image of the the empty tomb and symbolize how Jesus’ resurrection transforms the brokenness of the world. Create them throughout Lent to install for Eastertide.
A NEW CREATION BANNER DESIGNS FOR EASTER
These designs by Hannah Garrity feature blooming lilies with hints of imagery from the days after Jesus’ resurrection—crucified hands, breaking bread, fish, the road to Emmaus. These banners invite you to look closer to find the imagery embedded within the larger composition of blooming, new life. Create them throughout Lent to install for Eastertide.
VISUAL ART FOR EASTER
Browse all of the Easter art in our image licensing library. Use the images for: art galleries, visio divina, small group discussions, bulletin cover art, and worship projection.
A NEW CREATION EASTER LITURGY
A full order of worship for Easter Sunday including: Communion liturgy, a Prayer for the People, and a Prayer of Dedication after the Offering. Liturgy by: Rev. Sarah (Are) Speed.