Good Friday is a day of introspection and reflection. This is particularly evident in the evening service many congregations hold on Good Friday. Often called the Tenebrae (from the Latin for “shadows”) Service, we often omit a sermon and instead read various portions of the passion, interspersed by prayers and hymns, turning down the lights after each reading until we are in almost complete darkness at the end of the service and depart in silence, filled with a sense of the sacrifice Jesus makes on our behalf and longing for the hope of Easter morning. One of my favorite hymns sung at various times in Lent but especially at the...

As I shared in a post last year, my best friend from childhood, Luke, was the son of a Greek Orthodox priest. As both of our dads were clergy, and as we both spent lots of time therefore at church, we also had a lot to talk about when it came to the faith. I remember very clearly learning for the first time – I must have been seven or eight – that Luke’s family celebrated Easter at a different time from when we did. Not always, but usually, and it made me really curious. As it turns out, and as I learned with the help of Luke’s parents, Orthodox Christians – including Greek and Russian and other members of the Orthodox faith –...