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Good Friday Service

Good Friday Service

Date: 2012-04-03
Good Friday Service

Diakonia Council of Churches, which for 36 years has been working for a transformed society, presents its annual ecumenical Good Friday service at dawn on Friday 6 April starting at the Durban Exhibition Centre (DEC) before processing ,in silence, through the streets of Durban, to the City Hall.

The well-established tradition of the ecumenical Good Friday Service has become not only the flagship of Diakonia but also a major event in the calendar of the city, attended by thousands of people.

Each year, the service highlights a particular aspect of national suffering and injustice. The 27th service this year will focus on the need for new prophetic voices to speak truth courageously with love, as the God of justice does. The sermon will be preached by Revd Lauren Matthew, a minister of the Methodist Church of Southern Africa, who last year was appointed to the World Methodist Council as the youth representative.

It was in 1985 when the first Diakonia Good Friday service processed from the Central Methodist Church to the walls of Durban's Central Prison to pray for the treason trialists incarcerated there. Diakonia works for justice, human rights and reconciliation between all people, and with the troubled earth.

Meditative singing will start at 5:15am, where after the first part of the service will take place at 6:15am. The congregation will proceed through the streets of Durban in silent public witness.

The service will conclude approximately at 8:15am at the City Hall with the flowering of the Cross as an act of commitment by all present to listen deeply for and support new emerging prophetic voices.

Limited parking and street parking is available at the DEC with additional off street parking around the City Hall. Transport back to the DEC from the City Hall will be arranged for the elderly and the infirm.

Entry to the Good Friday service is free, with a collection being taken up during the service to support the burgeoning costs of this event. All are welcome to participate in this significant, multi-lingual Christian Easter event.

For more info, contact the Diakonia Council of Churches on 031 310 3500.