MAUNDY THURSDAY
Community Communion Service
Thursday, April 2 at 7:00 p.m.
Area churches and choirs come together for a community communion Maundy Thursday service at Second Presbyterian Church of Charleston.
Easter Lilies
Easter lilies are available for order for $20 each. If you would like to make a donation this Easter season to honor a loved one or to the glory of God, please complete the order form below and submit your total donation online, place in the offering plate on Sunday, or deliver it to the church office.
All lilies have been accounted for, but memorials can still be published. Forms must be submitted by Wednesday, April 1, 2026 in order for memorials to be published.
Easter Lilies Order Form
Easter Lilies
Easter lilies are available for order for $20 each. If you would like to make a donation this Easter season to honor a loved one or to the glory of God, please complete the order form below and submit your total donation online, place in the offering plate on Sunday, or deliver it to the church office.
All lilies have been accounted for, but memorials can still be published. Forms must be submitted by Tuesday, April 15, 2025 in order for memorials to be published.
Easter Lilies Order Form
Easter Lilies
Easter lilies are now available for order for $20 each. If you would like to make a donation this Easter season to honor a loved one or to the glory of God, please complete the order form below and submit your total donation online, place in the offering plate on Sunday, or deliver it to the church office.
Forms must be submitted by Thursday, March 28, 2024 in order for memorials to be published.
Easter Lilies Order Form
Holy Week 2023
PALM SUNDAY: Worship Service Sunday, April 2 at 10:30 a.m. including a palm processional. Church followed by a picnic in the park hosted by the deacons.
MAUNDY THURSDAY: Community Communion Service Thursday, April 6 at 7:00 p.m.
GOOD FRIDAY: Service of Tenebrae Friday, April 7 at 7:00 p.m. Somber service of readings of the Seven Last Words of Christ with hymns and musical meditations
EASTER EGG HUNT: Community Easter Egg Hunt in the park* Saturday, April 8 at 9:30 a.m.
*event will be moved inside if the weather should not cooperate
EASTER SUNDAY: Festival Communion Service Sunday, April 9 at 10:30 a.m. Service of the Resurrection
ONE GREAT HOUR OF SHARING – For more than 70 years, this special offering has connected us in God’s healing, tending, and growing to create a world where all needs are met. One Great Hour of Sharing currently supports projects in more than 100 countries. Please give generously toward the special offering to help make a difference around the world.
Loving God, in a world that sometimes doesn’t make sense to us, open our hearts to receive your care and your joy. Amen.
“Meeting people at their point of need and inviting all into a dynamic relationship with Christ.”
Easter Lilies
Easter lilies are now available for order for $15 each. If you would like to make a donation this Easter season to honor a loved one or to the glory of God, please complete the order form below and submit your total donation online, place in the offering plate on Sunday, or deliver it to the church office.
Forms must be submitted by Thursday, April 6, 2023 in order for memorials to be published.
Easter Lilies Order Form
Easter Sunday 2022
Find all Holy Week services here.
EASTER SUNDAY
Easter Sunday, April 17, 2022 livestream for 10:30 a.m. worship at Second Presbyterian Church of Charleston. Enjoy the festive service with trumpet and guest tenor soloist Dr. Robert Taylor singing Five Mystical Songs (#1,2,5) by Ralph Vaughan Williams.
Prelude: Trumpet Tune (Jeremy Bankson) and Trumpet Tune (Scott Hyslop), trumpet: Grant Cordé
Choral Introit: “Easter” (Ralph Vaughan Williams), soloist: Dr. Robert Taylor
Hymn: Jesus Christ Is Risen Today! #232
Offertory Anthem: “I Got Me Flowers” (R. Vaughan Williams), soloist: Dr. Robert Taylor
Scripture: Mark 16:1-8
Sermon: "Step Up, Sign On, Sign In," Rev. Cress Darwin
Closing Hymn: Christ Is Risen! Shout Hosanna! #248
Choral Response/Postlude: “Antiphon” (R. Vaughan Williams)
WE WELCOME OUR GUEST MUSICIANS:
Dr. Robert Taylor, tenor soloist, is Director of Choral Activities at the College of Charleston, Founding Artistic Director and President of the Taylor Festival Choir (TFC) and Taylor Music Group (TMG), and the Director of the Charleston Symphony Orchestra Chorus and Chamber Singers.
Grant Cordé, trumpet, is a high school freshman and studies trumpet with Sue Messersmith.
Will Royall, tenor, graduated from Winthrop University in Rock Hill, SC. He sings with the Charleston Men’s Chorus, Opera Charleston and Taylor Festival Choir. He is store manager for Royall Ace Hardware in Mt. Pleasant.
Notes on FIVE MYSTICAL SONGS (#1,2, & 5)
by Dr. Julia Harlow
Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958), one of the most important English composers of the 20th century, wrote symphonies, chamber music, opera, choral music and film scores. He was also an avid collector of English folk music and composed or arranged many congregational hymn tunes (including 22 in our present hymnal, Glory to God). Vaughan Williams composed the Five Mystical Songs between 1906 and 1911 and conducted the première in September of 1911. They are settings of poems by George Herbert, from his 1633 collection The Temple: Sacred Poems. All five of the Mystical Songs will be presented by the Charleston Symphony Orchestra and Chorus on April 28th and 29th at the Gaillard Auditorium.
George Herbert (1593-1633) was a Welsh-born English poet. He was born into a wealthy, aristocratic family; his father was Earl of Pembroke. George was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge and later served in Parliament. Having become disillusioned with a career in politics, in his late thirties he became a priest in the Church of England, and was rector of a small church near Salisbury. However, this quiet existence was short-lived as he died of tuberculosis only four years later. In 1633 Herbert finished a collection of poems entitled The Temple, which imitates the architectural style of churches through both the meaning of the words and their visual layout. The themes of God and Love are treated by Herbert as much as psychological forces as metaphysical phenomena. On his deathbed Herbert reportedly gave the manuscript of The Temple to a friend, telling him to “publish the poems if he thought they might ‘turn to the advantage of any dejected poor soul’, or otherwise, to burn them.” Fortunately, he did not burn them and they were published later that year.
There are many metaphors for Christ that have appeared throughout history, such as The Great Physician. In Easter, Herbert also presents the image of Christ as Master Musician. He draws a parallel of the lute’s strings (made of gut) and wood, to the “stretched sinews” of Christ’s body and the wood of the cross. The imperfect, struggling music of Herbert’s lute contrasts with the perfect resonance of Christ’s music in his sacrifice. In the last stanza, “all musick is but three parts vied and multiplied” refers to the triad as the foundational sonority for music (at least in Herbert’s time it was), and is also a Trinitarian reference. Herbert’s reference to “heart and lute” is also a personal one, as he was a fine lutenist and singer.
I Got Me Flowers is actually the second part of the poem Easter, above. The imagery of the first stanza makes reference to the strewing of flowers and palm branches before Christ on Palm Sunday, then the arrival of the women at the tomb with sweet ointments. In the second stanza the Sun and the East, the origin of those sweet perfumes, provide no contest with the miracle of the Resurrection. In the third stanza, though “we count three hundred” (365) days in a year, we miss the mark. There is only one day that matters, Easter Day, and that forever. In this lyrical song the choir only hums accompaniment to the soloist for the last part, then loudly joins in proclaiming the text of the final line.
Antiphon is often performed alone as a choral anthem and its exuberant joy is the climax of today’s Easter celebration. The accompaniment uses scales and parallel fourths in joyous cascade, evoking bells and change ringing. The text, “Let All the World in Every Corner Sing” was set to a new hymn composed in 1964 by American composer Erik Routley and is in our hymnal, Glory to God, #636. One example of Vaughan-Williams’ musical illustration of the text can be heard at the end of the second stanza, when the tempo slows and the notes prolong “But above all, the heart must bear the longest part.” An ‘antiphon’ is a recurring musical theme, a section of melody, which, by means of several reappearances, serves to bind the diverse sections of a piece into a cohesive whole. The “antiphon” in this piece is the music that accompanies “Let all the world in every corner sing, My God and King!” Please sit and enjoy this, today’s postlude.
SPECIAL OFFERING
Europe is facing its largest humanitarian crisis since World War II. The United Nations estimates up to 18 million people will eventually be impacted. Your gifts to One Great Hour of Sharing allow for an immediate response from Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA) when emergencies first occur, often responding to crises that never make it into the news.
“Meeting people at their point of need and inviting all into a dynamic relationship with Christ.”
Good Friday 2022
Find all Holy Week services here.
GOOD FRIDAY
Service of Tenebrae: Seven Last Words
Friday, April 15 at 7:00 p.m.
Prelude: “And Can It Be” (Dan Forrest, 2014), guest musician: Elise Pickford
Hymn: When I Survey the Wondrous Cross #223
Reading 1: Luke 23:24
Anthem: “Wondrous Love” arr. Christiansen, soloist: Clarissa Rider
Reading 2: Luke 23:43
Anthem: "Jesus, Remember Me" (Taizé chant)
Reading 3: Mark 19:26
Anthem: "Jesu, Word of God Incarnate” (Mozart)
Reading 4: Mark 15:34
Hymn: O Sacred Head, Now Wounded #221
Reading 5: John 19:28
Anthem: “Christ, We Do All Adore Thee” (Th. Dubois)
Reading 6: John 19:30
Anthem: “God So Loved the World” John Stainer
Reading 7: Luke 23:46
Hymn: Were You There?
SPECIAL OFFERING
Europe is facing its largest humanitarian crisis since World War II. The United Nations estimates up to 18 million people will eventually be impacted. Your gifts to One Great Hour of Sharing allow for an immediate response from Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA) when emergencies first occur, often responding to crises that never make it into the news.
“Meeting people at their point of need and inviting all into a dynamic relationship with Christ.”
Maundy Thursday 2022
Find all Holy Week services here.
MAUNDY THURSDAY
Community Communion Service
Thursday, April 14 at 7:00 p.m.
Area churches and choirs come together for a community communion Maundy Thursday service at Second Presbyterian Church of Charleston. Rev. Dr. Sidney Davis of Zion-Olivet Presbyterian will preach and the New Tabernacle Fourth Baptist and Second Presbyterian choirs will sing. Rev. Dwight Hudson (New Tabernacle Fourth Baptist) and Rev. David Washington (Old Bethel United Methodist) will participate in the service and Rev. Darwin will officiate at communion.
Hymn of Praise: I Love the Lord, Who Heard My Cry #799, soloist: Joel Dettweiler
Invocation: Rev. Hudson
Offertory Anthem: "Wondrous Love” arr. Christiansen, soloist: Clarissa Rider
Scripture: Matthew 26:6-13
Sermon: “She Showed Him Compassion”, Rev. Sidney Davis
Communion Hymn: An Upper Room #202
Circle of Atonement
Benediction: Rev. Darwin
SPECIAL OFFERING
The Maundy Thursday Special Offering was received for Star Gospel Mission, Charleston’s oldest Christian charity.
Their mission is to transform lives through Jesus Christ by compassionately providing resources for people experiencing hardships. Each year, donors and volunteers help the mission serve hundreds of men facing homelessness as well as several hundred lowcountry families needing assistance with utilities, food, and other urgent household needs. Give here.
“Meeting people at their point of need and inviting all into a dynamic relationship with Christ.”
Palm Sunday 2022
Find all Holy Week services here.
PALM SUNDAY
Worship Service from Palm Sunday, April 10 at 10:30 a.m.
SPECIAL OFFERING
Europe is facing its largest humanitarian crisis since World War II. The United Nations estimates up to 18 million people will eventually be impacted. Your gifts to One Great Hour of Sharing allow for an immediate response from Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA) when emergencies first occur, often responding to crises that never make it into the news.
“Meeting people at their point of need and inviting all into a dynamic relationship with Christ.”
Easter Egg Hunt 2022
Community Easter Egg Hunt
Saturday, April 16 at 9:30 a.m.
Wragg Square in front of Second Presbyterian Church
342 Meeting Street
Easter Egg Hunt in the park in front of Second Presbyterian Church in partnership with Greater St. Luke AME Saturday, April 16th at 9:30 a.m. Enjoy games, refreshments, and fellowship ahead of the egg hunt, which will begin promptly at 10:00 a.m. and include a scavenger hunt for older children.
Small prize and peanut-free individually wrapped candy donations to fill the eggs will be accepted through April 13. Thank you!
Invite your friends, family and neighbors! Everyone is welcome!
Parking available at the corner of John and Elizabeth Streets.
Easter Lilies
Easter lilies are now available for order for $15 each. If you would like to make a donation this Easter season to honor a loved one or to the glory of God, please complete the order form below and submit your total donation online, place in the offering plate on Sunday, or deliver it to the church office.
Forms must be submitted by Wednesday, April 13, 2022 in order for memorials to be published.
Easter Lilies Order Form
Palm Sunday 2021
Find all Holy Week services here.
PALM SUNDAY
Virtual Palm Processional
Palm Sunday sermon: “The Beginning of the End”
Livestreamed Worship Service from Palm Sunday, March 28 at 10:30 a.m.
Easter is a time when we have enjoyed record participation in our Sunday service as well as our highest giving during the offering. Please consider giving cheerfully and generously this joyous season, whether in person, online, or by mail.
“Meeting people at their point of need and inviting all into a dynamic relationship with Christ.”
Holy Week 2021
Our usual Holy Week services will be offered in the sanctuary masked and socially distanced and also livestreamed. Join us as we journey to the cross together for services on Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday.
PALM SUNDAY: Worship Service Sunday, March 28 at 10:30 a.m. Watch the virtual palm processional here. Thanks to everyone who sent in photos and videos.
MAUNDY THURSDAY: Communion Service Thursday, April 1 at 7:00 p.m.
GOOD FRIDAY: Service of Tenebrae Friday, April 2 at 7:00 p.m.
EASTER: Festival Communion Service Sunday, April 4 at 10:30 a.m.
Easter is a time when we have enjoyed record participation in our Sunday service as well as our highest giving during the offering. Please consider giving cheerfully and generously this joyous season, whether in person, online, or by mail.
“Meeting people at their point of need and inviting all into a dynamic relationship with Christ.”
At-Home Easter Egg Hunt
This year, Easter egg hunt bags will be put together for preschool and elementary aged children for an at-home egg hunt March 27. We are in need of candy (peanut-free) & small prize donations, which can be dropped off in the education building by March 21. Please contact Jordyn if you are able to help stuff eggs or deliver bags the week of March 22.