Benefice
Newsletter
1 April 2021
‘Are we there yet?’ A familiar cry from children on a journey to an eagerly anticipated destination – the seaside, a theme park or even perhaps grandma and grandpa’s house. I am writing this message on the Monday of Holy Week. We are on a journey which has seemed very long. At the beginning of Lent Revd Paula reflected that it has felt that Lent began weeks previously. We are now on the last stretch and soon we will reach our destination – Easter Sunday. What a celebration we will have. Some of us will be able to greet each other face-to-face* with the Easter acclamation, ‘Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed. Alleluia!’ (NB *We will be wearing masks and be suitably distanced.) But we must be patient; we have a little way to go yet.
Today, for those of us who are engaging with the contents of our Holy Week bag, we will have knelt with Mary at Jesus’s feet. On Tuesday we will pray that our faith will grow and that we might be transformed as the seeds we plant are transformed into sunflowers. On Wednesday we meditate on the betrayal of Jesus by Judas, and also by our own actions, or lack of action. Thursday is a day for focusing on love. Good Friday – a day of pain and desolation; a day of darkness. We must travel through ‘the valley of the shadow of death’ if we are to see the rising of the Son. Holy Saturday. We are nearly there. As we scratch off the black covering coating the cross to be found in our Holy Week bag, colour begins to emerge. The darkness of Good Friday begins to retreat.
It is important that we don’t rush through this most sacred of weeks – no breaking the speed limit. Jesus wants to travel with us. He wants us to get to know him better. He wants to speak into our hearts. We won’t hear him unless we find a few minutes each day to slow down and listen. My prayer is that you find this a truly Holy Week.
God bless
Here is the Zoom link for the Good Friday workshops organised for our children and young people at 10.30am on Good Friday. All are welcome to come along, whatever their age.
Follow this link, or use meeting ID 85491588474 and passcode 789868.
Our Easter Sunday services start at 9:15 at All Saints, and at 11:15 at All Hallows. Under the wardens' guidance, we will follow social distancing measures.
We will hand out printed folios, but feel free to download the attached order of service on your phone or tablet and use that instead.
A recording will be published later in the day on our YouTube channel.
Those who suffer in body, mind or spirit, among them Sue P, Roger P, Richard H, Tim C, Kay G, Oliver D, Cedric G, Pam B.
The housebound: Ruth S, Margaret O, Diana B.
The Church: the Porvoo Churches: Uppsala, Llandaff.
If you would like to add a name to our prayer list, please first obtain the consent of the person you wish us to pray for. Then tell Rev Christine whom to pray for and the reason why.
Those whose anniversaries fall on this week: Frederick Albert Lambert, Wendy Buckby, Elspeth Gordon, Ian Cox, Baby Kevin Thomas, Ernest Fensome, Baby Dodkins, Angela Pelling, Marjory Riley, Olive Butler, Graham Spencer, Michael Thompson, Rose Lymn, Benjamin Walker, George Arthur Goodwin Hacksley, Jean Butler, Sharon Keevil, Margaret Lucy Stephenson, Ricky David Biggs, Frank Edward Gadd.