St Luke's Church Eccleshill - Articles from "The Link"

The Easter Anthems

Those who know and love the old Prayer Book will know that Cranmer provided an Easter alternative to the Morning Prayer canticles. He did it by putting together three bible verses about the Christ’s death and resurrection, and I think he wanted to answer this question: What real difference does Jesus’ resurrection make to us?

Answer: (1) it gives us victory over the power of sin in our lives, so we can be pure, (2) it removes the fear of death, and (3) it replaces this fear with confidence.

But spoken canticles aren’t much used in churches nowadays, and last year another cleric asked me for a sung version of the canticle?

Well, here’s one, and he and his congregation of 120 sang it last Easter Sunday, accompanied by a band. He says it went very well.

John Hartley

Christ our Passover has been sacrificed

Christ our Passover has been sacrificed,
so let's celebrate the Feast:
not with leavened bread made from wickedness,
using malice as its yeast.
Let's be purified
by his truth inside,
by lives which are sincere.
Christ is ris'n today,
so we join to say:
Alleluia! Christ is near!

Christ, once raised from death, now can die no more:
death has lost its final claim.
When he died to sin, he died once for all,
now he lives for God's own name.
We are dead to sin
and alive in him:
so death holds no more fear.
Christ is ris'n today,
so we join to say:
Alleluia! Christ is near!

Christ is truly raised from his earthly grave
as the first of those who sleep.
Death came by a man, so another man
brings our raising from the deep.
For in Adam all
are condemned to fall,
but Christ shall then appear.
On the last great day
we will rise and say:
Alleluia! Christ is near!

(1 Cor 5:7-8)

(Romans 6:9-11)

(1 Cor 15:20-22)