Holy Week and Easter

Holy week begins with Palm Sunday on March 29th.

We will walk from the Church into the garden where the palm crosses will be blessed.

(That's our PRIZE WINNING garden, in case  you missed it preciously,)

When we come back into Church members will read the Passion Gospel in dramatic form. (This is the sermon - it doesn't need another.)

On Maundy Thursday (April 2) at 6pm we will observe the Stations of the Cross.  

The 14 Stations (stopping points as we walk in imagination with Jesus to his execution) are a traditional catholic practice, though usually for Good Friday.  We will reflect on the path that Jesus trod and, with some newly written material, place ourselves, so to speak, as observers and ompanions as Jesus makes his last journey.

The Veneration of the Cross is also a traditional catholic (and Orthodox) service and observed on Good Friday at 9.30am. As its name indicates, it is focused on the cross itself as the instrument of Christ's death.

The Easter Eve Service of Light anticipates Christ's resurrection on the third day after his death. By tradition it is held at midnight - but we're all getting on and have to up again for the morning celebrations. 

(And, in any case, the Liturgical day runs from dusk to dusk so the Saturday evening is the beginning of Easter.) 

Light - whether bonfires of candles - symbolise that Christ is the Light of the World. The light that was briefly occluded by Jesus' death now shines more brightly than ever.

Easter Day can sometimes seem a bit of an anti-climax after the intensity of Holy Week.

Yet this is the central moment in the Christian year, for fulcrum on which the whole of Christian faith is balanced: that Jesus, who was dead is now alive. Death is not the end for God is greater even than death.

We would be delighted to welcome you to our celebratory worship at 9.15am on Easter day, Sunday 5th April.