On Great and Holy Friday, we served in the afternoon Vespers of Holy Friday with the Rite of Entombment, in which we first sang "Noble Joseph" and carried the Plashchanitsa/Epitaphion, the cloth icon of the crucified Body of our Lord, and placed it in the symbolic "tomb."
In the evening, we served the moving and beautiful Matins of Holy Saturday with the Lamentations, and processed with the Plashchanitsa/Epitaphion around the church, placing it again in the tomb, after which parish girls, representing the Myrrhbearing Women, decorated our Lord's Body with flowers.
Many thanks to Sergey for these lovely photographs of the Matins service!
