In 2022, General Convention approved the trial use of alternative Good Friday liturgical texts, and Bishop Shannon has authorized those texts for use in Vermont this year. The texts were developed in the Diocese of Texas by the Rev. Dr. Dan Joslyn-Siemiatkoski, an Episcopal priest who is now the director of the Center for Christian-Jewish Learning at Boston College.
Approved by General Convention as Resolution 2022-D058, the alternative texts are currently under review by the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music. They are commended for use on Good Friday in our diocese by Bishop Shannon and the Diocesan Liturgy Commission, chaired by the Rev. Kim Hardy, but they are not required.
According to the resolution’s explanation, the goal of the alternative liturgical texts is “to provide a theologically positive accounting of the Jewish people in the Good Friday liturgy. In a time of rising antisemitic violence and rhetoric in the United States and globally, our Jewish partners are looking to Christians of good will for responses. Addressing the problems within the Good Friday liturgy, which historically has been a source of Christian rhetorical and physical violence against Jews, is one concrete way of responding.”
Watch Joslyn-Siemiakoski discuss the alternative texts on YouTube.
Download the trial liturgy as a pdf or as a Word doc and the updated Gospel as a pdf or as a Word doc.
