Easter Sunrise

Sunrise Service  

We begin outside

Greeting

Dear friends in Christ,

Throughout the world Christians celebrate this day

when our Lord Jesus Christ passed from death to life.

Throughout the world Christians gather this day

to celebrate the awesome power of God.

As we hear his word and proclaim all that God has done,

we can be confident that we shall share his victory over death

and live with him forever.

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Let us pray.

Father, we share in the light of your glory

through your Son, the light of the world.

Sanctify this new fire, and inflame us with new hope.

Purify our minds by this Easter celebration

and bring us one day to the feast of eternal light.

We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

A fire is lit

The light of Christ.

Thanks be to God.

The people light their candles.

Exultet

Rejoice, heavenly powers! Sing, choirs of angels!

Exult, all creation around God’s throne! Jesus

Christ, our King, is risen! Sound the trumpet of

salvation!

Rejoice, O earth, in shining splendour, radiant in

the brightness of your King! Christ has conquered!

Glory fills you! Darkness vanishes for ever!

Rejoice, O Mother Church! Exult in glory! The risen

Saviour shines upon you! Let this place resound with

joy, echoing the mighty song of all God’s people!

The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.

It is right to give our thanks and praise.

It is truly right that with full hearts and minds and

voices we should praise the unseen God, the all-powerful

Father, and his only Son, our Lord Jesus

Christ. For Christ has ransomed us with his blood,

and paid for us the price of Adam’s sin to our

eternal Father!

This is our Passover feast, when Christ, the true

Lamb, is slain, whose blood consecrates the homes

of all believers.

This is the day when first you saved our forebears:

you freed the people of Israel from their slavery and

led them dry-shod through the sea.

This is the day when Christians everywhere,

washed clean of sin and freed from all defilement,

are restored to grace and grow together in holiness.

This is the day when Jesus Christ broke the chains

of death and rose triumphant from the grave.

Father, how wonderful your care for us! How

boundless your merciful love! To ransom a slave

you gave away your Son.

The power of this holy day dispels all evil, washes

guilt away, restores lost innocence, brings

mourners joy.

Day truly blessed when heaven is wedded to

earth and we are reconciled with God!

Therefore, heavenly Father, in the joy of this day,

receive our morning sacrifice of praise, your

Church’s solemn offering.

May the Morning Star which never sets find this

flame still burning: Christ, that Morning Star, who

came back from the dead, and shed his peaceful

light on all creation, your Son who lives and reigns

for ever and ever. Amen.

Responsory

Alleluia! Christ is risen.

The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!

Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

He gave us new life and hope

by raising Jesus from the dead.

Rejoice, then, even in your distress.

We shall be counted worthy when Christ appears.

God has claimed us as his own.

He called us from our darkness into the light of his day.

Alleluia! Christ is risen.

The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!

Candles are blown out; We enter the church.

Jeremiah 31:1-6

At that time, says the Lord, I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people.

Thus says the Lord:

The people who survived the sword

   found grace in the wilderness;

when Israel sought for rest,

   the Lord appeared to him from far away.

I have loved you with an everlasting love;

   therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.

Again I will build you, and you shall be built,

   O virgin Israel!

Again you shall take your tambourines,

   and go forth in the dance of the merrymakers.

Again you shall plant vineyards

   on the mountains of Samaria;

the planters shall plant,

   and shall enjoy the fruit.

For there shall be a day when sentinels will call

   in the hill country of Ephraim:

‘Come, let us go up to Zion,

   to the Lord our God.’

Christ our Passover

1 Corinthians 5.7–8; Romans 6.9–11; 1 Corinthians 15.20–22

Alleluia!

Christ our Passover has been sacrificed for us;

therefore let us keep the feast,

Not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil,

but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

Alleluia!

Christ being raised from the dead will never die again;

death no longer has dominion over him.

The death that he died, he died to sin, once for all;

but the life he lives, he lives to God.

So also consider yourselves dead to sin,

and alive to God in Jesus Christ our Lord. Alleluia!

Christ has been raised from the dead,

the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.

For since by a man came death,

by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.

For as in Adam all die, *

so also in Christ shall all be made alive. Alleluia!

The Gospel

The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to John.

Glory to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

John 20:1-18

Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples returned to their homes. But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, “Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'” Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”: and she told them that he had said these things to her.

The Gospel of Christ.

Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

Song of the Multitude in Heaven

Revelation 19.1, 2, 5–7

Alleluia!

To our God belong victory, glory, and power,

for right and just are his judgements.

Praise our God, all you who serve him,

you who fear him, great and small.

Alleluia!

The Lord God almighty has claimed his kingdom.

Let us rejoice and triumph and give him praise:

the time has come for the wedding-feast of the Lamb.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit;

As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.

We pray to Jesus who is present with us to eternity.

Jesus, light of the world,

bring the light and peace of your gospel to the nations

Jesus,Lord of life, In your mercy,hear us.

Jesus,bread of life, give food to the hungry

and nourish us all with your word.

Jesus,Lord of life, In your mercy,hear us.

Jesus, our way, our truth, our life,

be with us and all who follow you in the way

Deepen our appreciation of your truth and fill us with your life.

Jesus, Lord of life, In your mercy, hear us.

Jesus, Good Shepherd who gave your life for the sheep,

recover the straggler, bind up the injured, strengthen the sick

and lead the healthy and strong to new pastures.

Jesus, Lord of life, In your mercy, hear us.

Jesus, the resurrection and the life,  

we give you thanks for all who have lived and believed in you 

Raise us with them to eternal life.

Jesus,Lord of life, in your mercy,

hear us, accept our prayers,

and be with us always. Amen.

Collect

Let us pray.

Eternal Giver of life and light,

this holy day shines with the radiance of the risen Christ.

Renew your Church with the Spirit given to us in baptism,

that we may worship you in sincerity and truth,

and shine as a light in the world;

through Jesus Christ our Lord,

who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and for ever.  Amen.

 

Lord’s Prayer

And now, as our Saviour Christ has taught us,

we are bold to say,

Our Father, who art in heaven,

hallowed be thy name,

thy kingdom come,

thy will be done,

on 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. Amen.

Dismissal

Let us bless the Lord. Alleluia, Alleluia.

Thanks be to God. Alleluia, Alleluia.

The Lord bless us and keep us. The Lord make his face shine

on us and be gracious to us. The Lord look upon us with favour

and grant us peace. Amen. Alleluia

Go in the peace of Christ. Alleluia, Alleluia.

Thanks be to God.  Alleluia, Alleluia!