Good Friday Reflective Service – 35-Minute Script
Highfield Community
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1. Arrival (before start – silence or quiet music)
(People arrive in silence or with very gentle instrumental music. Cross visible at the front. Lights slightly dimmed.)
VIDEO: Good Friday It is Finished
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2. Welcome & Setting the Tone (2 minutes)
Leader:
Good morning, and welcome to Highfield on this Good Friday.
Today we gather in a different way.
We’re not here to rush.
We’re not here to explain everything.
We’re here to remember… and to reflect.
Good Friday invites us to slow down,
to sit with the story of the cross,
and to listen — not just with our ears,
but with our hearts.
There will be scripture, song, silence, and words to reflect on.
You don’t need to do anything special.
Simply be present.
Let us begin.
(Brief pause)
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3. Opening Hymn (4 minutes)
Hymn: When I Survey the Wondrous Cross
(or My Song Is Love Unknown)
(Sing slowly, without introduction.)
ViD: Nails (hold your nail)
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4. Scripture Reading – The Journey to the Cross (3 minutes)
Reader:
A reading from Luke 23:32-43.
This is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
(Short silence)
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5. Poem – Part One: At the Foot of the Cross (2 minutes)
Leader (slowly):
We have come quietly,
as people do when words feel too small.
We have brought questions we couldn’t leave behind,
and burdens we carry even when we try not to.
The cross stands before us —
rough wood, raised high,
a place of pain we would rather avoid,
yet cannot turn away from.
Here hangs the one who healed the broken,
who welcomed the outcast,
who spoke of love like no one else.
Now silent. Now still.
We look up, and we wonder:
How did it come to this?
How did love end here?
And yet…
something tells us this is not the end of the story,
even if today
we cannot yet see how.
(Silence – around 20–30 seconds)
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6. Reflective Song or Music (3 minutes)
Song: How Deep the Father’s Love for Us
(or instrumental worship piece)
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7. Scripture Reading – The Darkness (3 minutes)
Reader:
A reading from Mark 15:33-39.
This is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
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8. Poem – Part Two: In the Darkness (2 minutes)
Leader:
The sky grows heavy.
Darkness creeps in,
not just above us,
but within us.
This is the hour of confusion —
when prayers go unanswered,
when heaven feels far away,
when hope holds on by a thread.
We hear the cry from the cross:
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
- Words we have whispered ourselves
in quieter moments.
Here is a Saviour
who does not stand distant from our pain,
but steps fully into it.
Who knows betrayal.
Who knows loss.
Who knows the weight of suffering.
Love does not explain itself today.
It does not defend itself.
It simply stays.
And in the darkness,
that may be enough
for now.
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9. Guided Silence (3 minutes)
Leader:
We’re going to sit in silence for a few moments.
There’s nothing you need to do.
No words to find.
Just be here…
at the foot of the cross.
(Silence – resist the urge to end it early.)
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10. Video Reflection (3–4 minutes)
(Video plays: reflective, cross-focused, minimal words.)
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11. Short Spoken Reflection (5 minutes)
Leader:
Good Friday is not comfortable.
It asks us to stay with pain rather than rush past it.
To look at the cross and resist the temptation
to jump ahead to Easter morning.
At the cross we see love —
not love that avoids suffering,
but love that enters it fully.
Jesus does not shout from the cross.
He does not demand.
He does not come down.
Instead, he stays.
He stays with the broken.
He stays with the doubting.
He stays with those who feel forgotten.
And perhaps today,
before anything else,
that is what we need to know.
That, in our darkness,
in our questions,
in our waiting,
love stays.
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12. Hymn of Response (4 minutes)
Hymn: O Sacred Head, Sore Wounded
(or The Power of the Cross – reflective tempo)
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13. Scripture Reading – The Meaning of the Cross (2 minutes)
Reader:
A reading from the prophet Isaiah 53:3-6.
This is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
VID: Forgive Good Friday
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14. Poem – Part Three: It Is Finished (2 minutes)
Leader:
The words are spoken at last:
“It is finished.”
Not a cry of defeat,
but of completion.
Not the end of love,
but the cost of it.
The work is done.
The curtain torn.
The way opened
through sacrifice and grace.
And yet we are left waiting —
between death and resurrection,
between sorrow and hope,
between Friday and Sunday.
The cross remains.
The tomb lies ahead.
The silence lingers.
So we do not rush away.
We sit with what has been given.
We hold the weight of love poured out.
And we leave this place quietly,
not because nothing has happened,
but because everything has.
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15. Closing Silence (2–3 minutes)
(No blessing. No dismissal)
Silence is kept.
Soft instrumental music may begin after a minute)
People leave quietly when ready.
