St. Giles’ Cathedral
Morning Service at 11am
Easter Day
Sunday 31st March 2024
Organ Music
Charles Tournemire Dominica Resurrectionis
Introit
This joyful Eastertide
This joyful Eastertide, away with sin and sorrow.
My Love, the Crucified, hath sprung to life this morrow.
Had Christ, that once was slain, ne'er burst his three-day prison,
Our faith had been in vain: but now hath Christ arisen.
My flesh in hope shall rest, and for a season slumber:
Till trump from east to west shall wake the dead in number.
Death's flood hath lost his chill, since Jesus crossed the river:
Lover of souls, from ill my passing soul deliver.
Text: G.R.Woodward 1848-1934
Music: Dutch Traditional arr. Charles Wood 1866-1926
Processional Hymn
'Christ the Lord is risen today',
all on earth and angels say;
raise your joys and triumphs high;
sing, ye heavens, and earth reply.
Love's redeeming work is done,
fought the fight, the battle won;
lo! our Sun's eclipse is o'er,
lo! he sets in blood no more.
Vain the stone, the watch, the seal;
Christ has burst the gates of hell:
death in vain forbids his rise;
Christ has opened Paradise.
Lives again our glorious King;
where, O Death, is now thy sting?
Once he died, our souls to save;
where thy victory, O grave?
Soar we now where Christ has led,
following our exalted head;
made like him, like him we rise;
ours the cross, the grave, the skies:
Hail, the Lord of earth and heaven!
Praise to thee by both be given;
thee we greet triumphant now;
hail, the Resurrection thou!
Text: Charles Wesley 1707-88
Music: St George’s Windsor CH4 411 G.J.Elvey 1816-93
Scripture Sentence
The Preces
O Lord open thou our lips
Philip Moore b.1943
Bidding
Prayer
Hymn
Now the green blade rises from the buried grain,
wheat that in dark earth many days has lain;
love lives again, that with the dead has been:
Love is come again, like wheat that springeth green.
In the grave they laid him, Love whom men had slain,
thinking that never he would awake again,
laid in the earth like grain that sleeps unseen:
Forth he came at Easter, like the risen grain,
he that for three days in the grave had lain,
quick from the dead my risen Lord is seen:
When our hearts are wintry, grieving, or in pain,
thy touch can call us back to life again,
fields of our hearts that dead and bare have been:
Text: John Macleod Campbell Crum 1872-1958
Music: Noël nouvelet CH4 417 French Traditional Carol melody
First Lesson 1 Corinthians 15 1-11
The Choir sings the TE DEUM
WE praise thee, O God: we acknowledge thee to be the Lord.
All the earth doth worship thee: the Father everlasting.
To thee all Angels cry aloud: the Heavens, and all the Powers therein.
To thee Cherubin and Seraphin: continually do cry,
Holy, Holy, Holy: Lord God of Sabaoth;
Heaven and earth are full of the Majesty: of thy glory.
The glorious company of the Apostles: praise thee.
The goodly fellowship of the Prophets: praise thee.
The noble army of Martyrs: praise thee.
The holy Church throughout all the world: doth acknowledge thee;
The Father: of an infinite Majesty;
Thine honourable, true: and only Son;
Also the Holy Ghost: the Comforter.
Thou art the King of Glory: O Christ.
Thou art the everlasting Son: of the Father.
When thou tookest upon thee to deliver man: thou didst not abhor the Virgin's womb.
When thou hadst overcome the sharpness of death: thou didst open the Kingdom of Heaven to all believers.
Thou sittest at the right hand of God: in the glory of the Father.
We believe that thou shalt come: to be our Judge.
We therefore pray thee, help thy servants: whom thou hast redeemed with thy precious blood.
Make them to be numbered with thy Saints: in glory everlasting.
Benjamin Britten Te Deum in C
Second Lesson St Mark 16 1-8
Hymn
We know that Christ is raised and dies no more.
Embraced by death, he broke its fearful hold,
and our despair he turned to blazing joy.
Alleluia!
We share by water in his saving death.
Reborn, we share with him an Easter life
as living members of a living Christ.
Alleluia!
The God of splendour clothes the Son with life.
The spirit's fission shakes the church of God.
Baptized, we live with God the Three in One.
Alleluia!
A new creation comes to life and grows
as Christ's new body takes on flesh and blood.
The universe restored and whole will sing:
Alleluia!
Text: John Brownlow Geyer b.1932
Music: Engelberg CH4 635 C.V.Stanford 1852-1924
Sermon
Anthem
Blessed be the God and Father
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
which according to his abundant mercy
hath begotten us again unto a lively hope
by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled,
that fadeth not away,
reserved in heaven for you,
Who are kept by the power of God
through faith unto salvation
ready to be revealed at the last time.
But as he which hath called you is holy,
so be ye holy in all manner of conversation.
Pass the time of your sojourning here in fear.
Love one another with a pure heart fervently.
See that ye love one another.
Love one another with a pure heart fervently:
Being born again,
not of corruptible seed,
but of incorruptible,
by the word of God.
For all flesh is as grass,
and all the glory of man
as the flower of grass.
The grass withereth,
and the flower thereof falleth away.
But the word of the Lord endureth for ever.
Amen.
Text: 1 Peter 1:3–5, 15, 17, 22b, 23a, 24
Music: S.S.Wesley 1810-1876
The Offering
Prayer
The Lord’s Prayer
Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come, thy will be done, in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, for ever and ever.
Hymn
Thine be the glory, risen conquering Son;
endless is the victory thou o'er death hast won.
angels in bright raiment rolled the stone away,
kept the folded grave clothes where thy body lay.
Thine be the glory, risen conquering Son:
endless is the victory, thou o'er death hast won.
Lo! Jesus meets us, risen from the tomb;
lovingly he greets us, scatters fear and gloom.
let the church with gladness hymns of triumph sing;
for her Lord now liveth; death hath lost its sting.
No more we doubt thee, glorious Prince of Life!
life is naught without thee; aid us in our strife;
make us more than conquerors, through thy deathless love:
bring us safe through Jordan to thy home above.
Text: Edmond Budry 1854-1932 Tr. R Birch Hoyle 1875-1939
Tune: Maccabaeus CH4 419 G.F.Handel 1685-1759
Benediction
Organ Voluntary
Charles-Marie Widor Final (Symphonie VI)
CCL Licence No 980930
Streaming Licence 57837
The service was conducted by The Rev Dr George J Whyte