There will be something new at the center of the centuries-old service of Tenebrae, to be offered at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church on Good Friday.

The church is unveiling a newly crafted candleholder, or hearse, built by a group of local artisans to illuminate – and then darken – the sanctuary during its most solemn ritual of the year.

The Tenebrae evening service, which St. Paul’s has held sporadically in recent years, will begin with the wooden hearse in front of a bare altar, with all 15 candles lit. The service uses scripture readings and chants from the choir to trace the story of the final hours of Christ’s life through crucifixion and death to entombment. 

The candles are extinguished one by one until only the top one remains; when it is carried out of the sanctuary, the church settles into darkness and silence. Then a dissonant crash from the organ symbolizes the end. “It evokes the earthquake Matthew speaks about in the gospel, and the ripping of the curtain in the temple, and … the slamming shut of the tomb,” said the Rev. Eric Hungerford, rector at St. Paul’s. 

One small ray of hope concludes the service: the single candle is returned to the top of the hearse before congregants depart in silence.

The Good Friday service is somber by design, a stark contrast to Holy Week’s happy celebrations of Palm Sunday and Easter. Equal parts tragic and joyful, “The Holy Week liturgies are really perfect for times such as these,” Hungerford said. “With all the turmoil in the world, and coming out of a once-in-a-generation pandemic, Holy Week speaks to the changes and chances of human mortality and suffering – and that God is with us in the midst of these things, even in our darkest moments.”

Jonathan Nidock, a member of the St. Paul’s congregation, agreed: “Tenebrae is a very awesome and dark service in many ways, but we know that resurrection is just around the corner.” 

Nidock shepherded the commission of the Tenebrae hearse through for St. Paul’s. “We used to wing it with all kinds of candles,” he said, adding he thought the church’s music and storytelling deserved a better fixture to display the lights at the center of the ritual.

He enlisted a group of veteran Chestnut Hill craftsmen to complete the project. Former home contractor Ben Brown, now proprietor of a small woodshop; Dick Scheel, who ran an architectural millwork shop; and architect Thomas E. Beck, with church design in his portfolio, all contributed to the project.

Brown, who said he “never attended church ever in my life,” built his first church furniture years ago when he was hired to craft a shrine to the Infant of Prague inside West Oak Lane’s Carmelite monastery. “I had absolutely no idea what that would entail, so I went to Tom,” he said, and they put together a team to complete that elaborate project. 

The group began work on the St. Paul’s hearse last year. It is more than five feet tall and made of quarter-sawn white oak. Its triangular top, Hungerford noted, echoes the Holy Trinity, while a stylized cloverleaf forms the center. Holders for 15 candles notch the sides of the hearse.

The rector said the brand-new piece fit right in at the historic 1928 church. 

“It’s a beautiful complement to all the extraordinary work we have here at St. Paul’s, work done by German woodcarvers and Italian stonemasons in the 1920s,” Hungerford said. “We want to support our current-day craftspersons as well.” 

St. Paul’s Tenebrae service will be held at 7 p.m. Friday, April 7, in the church at 22 East Chestnut Hill Ave.