Good Friday in Houghton Regis

Good Friday's liturgy centres on Jesus’ Passion (his sufferings) and Death on the Cross for our salvation. In order for us to enter more deeply into this great mystery, the “Celebration” is marked by deep silence. 
The act of Veneration of the Cross, when a wooden crucifix is unveiled before the congregation, is replaced at All Saints' by veneration of a Relic of the True Cross of Jesus, usually kept at St Thomas' Church.

On Good Friday and on the following day, by a most ancient tradition, the Church does not celebrate the Sacraments, except for Confession and the Anointing of the Sick. Holy Communion is distributed from the store of Blessed Sacrament reserved consecrated on Maundy Thrusday.
The church remains stripped of all decoration. It continues bare and empty through the following day, which is a day without a liturgy: there can be no adequate way of recalling the being dead of the Son of God, other than silence and desolation. But within the silence there grows a sense of peace and completion, and then rising excitement as the Easter Vigil draws near.

​Photo ​Copyright: All Saints' PCC Houghton Regis