From the vicarage - May 2006

I write to you this month in the wake of a truly joyous celebration of Easter.

Easter is the chief feast of the Christian faith and this year we seemed to keep it with even more joy than last year. Somehow the church seemed even more beautifully prepared this year than last and the atmosphere in our worship felt more relaxed. Perhaps that was in part due to Easter falling more in Springtime and rather longer after Christmass. As always the church worked hard and worked together to prepare the building and the worship so well. It was a truly team effort.

All of this activity helped tell the story of Jesus’ death and resurrection.

In Holy Week we are presented with the depth of Jesus’ sacrificial love. This is shown chiefly in his death on the cross; but it is also shown in his example and command to brotherly love as well as his institution of the Eucharist and ministerial priesthood. Having celebrated these great gifts we come to celebrate Jesus’ victory over death – and not just his victory but our own sharing in that victory. This is why Easter is so much a celebration of Baptism. In Baptism we die and rise with Christ, we come to share his death so that when we come to die ourselves (or when he returns – whichever is sooner) we will share his risen life.

The season of Easter closes with a call to look away from ourselves and to reflect more on our mission to others. At the end of April we will be thinking of Jesus’ Ascension and anticipating the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. These events are more of a beginning to the church’s mission to the world than the closing of the Easter story; the church is sent out in the power of the Holy Spirit and at the command of the Risen Christ to take his love to the world.

May our joyful celebration of Easter draw us out of ourselves and inspire us to take our joy to others!

Fr Paul

To-day’s Thought
(and tomorrow’s!)

Come now, insignificant man,
fly for a moment from your affairs,
escape for a little while from
the tumult of your thoughts,
put aside now your weighty cares
and leave your wearisome trials,
abandon yourself for a little to God
and rest a little in Him.
St. Anselm of Canterbury, died 1109