Special Services

Christmas Eve

At 5:00 p.m. we celebrate a family service at which the children perform a nativity play. At 10:30 p.m. we hold a carol service, using a form from Christ College, Cambridge, before the traditional Christmas Eve Eucharist. These services are among the most heavily attended of the year.

Ash Wednesday

After our popular Shrove Tuesday dinner of crepes, joke-telling and funny hats, Lent begins with the imposition of ashes and celebration of the Eucharist on Ash Wednesday.

Palm Sunday

The two services begin in the parking lot with prayers and chanting. We then process into Church with a hymn. The congregation participates in a dramatic reading of the Passion Gospel.

Maundy Thursday

We remember the Last Supper with an agape supper and Eucharist. Following is the stripping of the altar, a Great Watch and an all-night vigil when we keep watch with Our Lord until daybreak.

Good Friday

At noon and 7:30 pm we gather for the Good Friday service, followed by Stations of the Cross led by the youth in an outdoor procession.

Easter Eve

The Great Vigil of Easter starts outside the church with a fire to burn the palm crosses for next year’s ashes. We then light the Easter Candle from this fire, and carry it into the darkened church. Each participant lights a tallow, and the service continues with a gradual increase of light and readings from Holy Scripture. New members may be baptized at this service as we rejoice in the Risen Christ.

Easter Day

The miracle of Christ’s Resurrection is greeted with a joyful brass ensemble and special choral music augmented by strings, woodwinds. After services the children have an Easter egg hunt, while the congregation enjoys a festive coffee hour.

Jesus Loves Little Children Sunday

St. Aidan's Preschool children lead the congregation in a lively song on “Jesus Loves Little Children Sunday”

Every spring we celebrate the gift of children in our lives…In particular the children and families who attend St. Aidan’s Preschool. At this very special service, the children lead us in music and praising God. The liturgy is child friendly and gives us the opportunity to thank all the School Teachers and Staff as well as the Preschool Board.

Taize

We are blessed by our choir at our 10:00 service and many special

Our Taize service models the daily prayer of the monastic community of monks in Taize, France, which was founded in 1940 by Brother Roger. At Taize, contemplative prayer is the center of its life of worship. Thousands of visitors flock from throughout the world to the monastery seasonally to participate in the beautiful musical and canting tradition there. At The songs use simple words and melodies, sung again and again, until the words and melody penetrate the heart as prayer. Through melodies and words, silence and contemplation, we experience God in community with others using our hearts and souls.

Evensong

Evensong is a traditional nighttime service with music, including hymns and anthems. St. Aidan's Choir blends the voices of adults, Pepperdine choral scholars and children to celebrate this expressive form of evening prayer that goes back hundreds of years in the Anglican tradition. In England, it is celebrated every evening, usually at 5:00 pm, in most large cathedrals and some churches. It is similar to Taize in that they are both musical services, but Taize is much more contemplative with chanting and periods of silence. In the past we have done both types of service at St. Aidan’s.

The Concert of Lessons and Carols

In the Old English Tradition, this Anglican Advent Service celebrates the birth of our Lord and features the Choir and Children's Choir accompanied by instrumentalists and hand bells. "Lessons and Carols" began at King's College in Cambridge, England on Christmas Eve, in 1918 at the end of W.W.I. The service consists of nine carols and nine brief lessons that, "follow Christ's journey and the loving purposes of God." Lessons and Carols has remained virtually unchanged over the years.

The Blessing of the Animals

 

Statue of St. Francis on the church grounds

St. Francis of Assisi, whose feast day is October 4th, was the son of a prosperous family. He decided to embrace a life of poverty following his encounters with beggars and lepers. In order to spread the ideals of a lifestyle of strict poverty, St. Francis founded an order of monks, the Friars Minor, which flourished in the Middle Ages and is still active today throughout the world.

St. Francis is remembered for his exhuberant love of creation, and for his joyous celebrations of nature in poetry. The “Blessing of the Animals” is a day honored at St. Aidan's each year in October on this Saint's Day. Children bring a great variety of pets…everything from turtles, gerbils and iguanas to German Shepherds, whippets and Persian cats.