Holy Week and Easter 2022 at Salisbury Cathedral
We welcome all to join us throughout Holy Week this year, and to celebrate the resurrection of Christ at Easter.
Sacred music over this period is some of the most beautiful and moving music ever written, with over 30 services taking place in the Cathedral, and the Holy Week concert at 19:30 on Wednesday 13 April.
Sung by the Cathedral choir, the concert features Allegri’s famous Miserere, with its soaring top Cs, choral music by Byrd, Sanders and Poulenc, and organ solos by Bach, Demessieux and Howells. The evening ends with a performance of Lo, the full, final sacrifice, written by the English composer Gerard Finzi, who lived and worked in Aldbourne, Wiltshire prior to WWII, later moving to Ashmansworth, near Newbury where he died in 1956. During the war years Finzi opened up his home to German and Czech refuges, a sobering echo of what is happening in this country today.
Moving through Holy Week, the appearance of the Cathedral will also reflect the events that unfold in the course of the services. The building, which is stripped bare on Holy Saturday, bursts into life on Easter Day – a chance to see some wonderful floral art and celebrate anew.
On Maundy Thursday hundreds of clergy and lay ministers from across the diocese will gather in the Cathedral for the Eucharist of the Chrism, at which the Acting Bishop, the Right Revd Karen Gorham will bless the holy oils used in worship – the oil for the anointing of the sick and dying, the oil for the signing with the cross at baptism, and the oil of chrism, also called myrrh or myron, which is used for confirmation and at the ordination of priests, and represents the Gift of the Holy Spirit. These oils will then be carried out to parish churches across Wiltshire and Dorset.
See a full breakdown of our services during Holy Week 2022 below:
PALM SUNDAY
Sunday 10 April
10:30 Eucharist with Procession of Palms
16:30 Choral Evensong
On Palm Sunday, our 10:30am service will be The Eucharist with procession of palms from Choristers’ Green. The service starts outside the Cathedral before processing through the West Doors to continue to the service. The livestream of the service will begin when the service enters the cathedral, and will therefore start at around 10:45am.
MONDAY OF HOLY WEEK
Monday 11 April
17:30 Choral Evensong
19:30 Service of Reconciliation sung by the Chamber Choir
TUESDAY OF HOLY WEEK
Tuesday 12 April
17:30 Choral Evensong
19:30 Sarum Tenebrae: A Service of Shadows
WEDNESDAY OF HOLY WEEK
Wednesday 13 April
17:30 Evening Prayer
19:30 Concert: Lo, the full, final sacrifice (tickets through the Cathedral website)
MAUNDY THURSDAY
Thursday 14 April
11:00 Eucharist of the Chrism and Re-affirmation of vows
17:30 Choral Evensong
19:30 Eucharist of the Lord’s Supper
21:00 Watch of the Passion
GOOD FRIDAY
Friday 15 April
10:00 Family Service at St Thomas’s Church
12:00 The Good Friday Devotion
13:30 The Liturgy of Good Friday
Please note the Family Service on Good Friday is at St Thomas’ Church, not the Cathedral. St Thomas’ is a short, 6 minute walk from the Cathedral.
HOLY SATURDAY
Saturday 16 April
10:00 Meditation (until 16:30)
16:30 Evening Prayer
EASTER DAY
Sunday 17 April
04:00 The Easter Vigil Readings
05:00 The Easter Liturgy
10:30 The Eucharist with Blessing of the Easter Garden
15:00 Festal Evensong
