A little taster of our parish magazine for March. This is the article I shall include to encourage all Christian people to give time to God this Easter:
Holy Week, together with Christmas, is the most important moment in the Christian kalendar. This is the week in which we relive the most important moment of history when Jesus Christ atoned for our sins on the cross, defeating death and leading us to the promise of life everlasting. What a joyous message we proclaim!
But we cannot simply roll up on Easter Sunday claiming the crown of forgiveness in a nonchalant manner having spent the weekend with friends! Our faith demands much more than that of us. For Easter to have any meaning at all we must walk with Jesus every step of the way. Yes we must make devotion our number one priority throughout this holiest of weeks! To do so will involve sacrifice but also great joy as we are lifted up by the good news of the Gospel.
Without doubt Holy Week is the jewel in the crown of the liturgical year. It is a real roller coaster of emotions which encompasses the joy of the first ever Mass on Maundy Thursday alongside the foot washing and procession to Gethsemane. It allows us to watch with Christ in the darkness of a prayer soaked night. It forces us to watch as he suffers and dies for our sins when we acknowledge that it was for us that he went to his death. And then there is the emptiness of waiting. Finally we gather for that magical first Mass of Easter when the paschal candle is prepared, the resurrection announced and great joy bursts out across the world!! How could we miss a moment of this drama? How could we not make the time to be with Christ this year?
As we Anglo-Catholics find ourselves at a crossroads in history, facing annihilation in our own communion but being offered new life in another, this Easter takes on a special significance. The themes of death giving way to life, of sacrifice and suffering coming before the promise of heaven, the waiting between death and the joy of new life….all find an extra significance! But they also remind us that we only ever walk where Christ has led and that in our darkness there is always hope and glory.
So as we live through this unsettled and troubling period, facing the sad reality that the Church of England no longer wants us unless we will water down our faith, let us do so with pride and in number! And let our song go out before us- ‘We are an Easter people and Alleluia is our song! This is our faith. This is the faith of the Church. And we are proud to profess it in Christ Jesus Our Lord!’ A song that can never be extinguished for the victory is won!
The ‘A word’ in Lent?! I would have thought that Dr. Tilby would have taught you better!
it is not being used liturgically but in looking ahead to the feast!
Fr. Tomlinson, Indeed this is my First & Compelled Response to ANY BLOG!! – so from a “Laity Point of View” in these Difficult Times, You are a “Light in the Darkness”, who Encourages, Helps and Guides – St. Therese of Lisieux and St. Paul gave us “LOVE”; Let us Call to Mind St. Matthew, Chapter 28, Verse 20 ” Lo, I am with You ALWAY Even unto to the End of the World” – Let us NEVER EVER FORGET the Sign of this Love in “Our Time” and in this World NOW”……
p.s. A Rose is Sign of LOVE!!!
“So as we live through this unsettled and troubling period, facing the sad reality that the Church of England no longer wants us unless we will water down our faith”
Nicely and heart bleedingly written, but oh do cheer up Fr Ed. That is far from a foregone conclusion. The HOB bishops’ vote on religious civil partnerships [a contradictory term if ever there was one, will probably give us an indication of whether the CoE bishops will stand with the Communion or slide off into TEC-style squidgy bishops.