This evening I took part in a wonderfully dark tennebrae service at St Giles. We used a very similar order of service to the one we wrote in 2003 the last time we were able to hold one in Tattenhoe.As the fifteen candles were slowly extinguished the building became steadily more dark - aided by the electric dimmer lights that weren't available five years ago. As the building plunged into darkness we heard a solid (single) bang representing the closing of the tomb...
The atmosphere at the end was suitably sombre and everyone left quietly...
You don't need to be jolly to be meaningful - sometimes you have to go right down into darkness - and stay there for a while...
I have to say I'm not keen on worship that is simply sombre for the sake of it - all these people walking round with serious faces - but sometimes you have to do misery properly - and that's what tennebrae is all about....
The flip side, of course, is that having dwelt on death, depression and failure you must also take resurrection seriously as well - you need both Good Friday and Easter Sunday.
