Colour Supplement

Articles by Christians around the world

Sunday 29 April 2007

 

Easter at St. Andrew's

by Sue Goodman of St. Andrew's Church

 

 

Celebrations started on Palm Sunday, and the sun was shining as we processed round the outside of the Church, singing and holding palms aloft. We welcomed Dick Acworth to St Andrews for the first of several services this week. After preaching, he handed out nails, to keep by us during Holy Week as a personal reminder of Jesus' suffering.  He invited us to bring them back on Good Friday and return them to the foot of the cross.

 

On Palm Sunday evening we started our local ministry group 'Journey through Holy Week' evening services.  David Fayle and Julian Lawrence took them, and Father Julian reflected on the Latin inscription placed on Jesus' cross –  Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum.  He gave four linked homilies on Jesus, Nazareth, King, and the Jews, illuminating the universal elements in each of these themes and how they are relevant to us in Holy Week today.  The services were a penitential meditation at Holy Trinity on Palm Sunday, followed by a Eucharist in each of the other LMG churches - All Saints on Monday, St Andrews on Tuesday and St Peters on Wednesday.

 

On Maundy Thursday we again welcomed Dick Acworth to St Andrews.  He preached on Jesus as the servant King, a theme dramatised in the foot-washing ritual.  The service ended traditionally by stripping all the celebratory finery from the altars and the sanctuary, after which the congregation moved silently into the Lady Chapel to begin the Watch.  Compline was said late in the evening to bring the day to a sombre close.

 

Good Friday is always melancholy.  Katherine Smith led Stations of the Cross, using material based on her book "The Way of the Cross".  We started the hour in the Lady Chapel, as in the Garden of Gethsemane, and moved quietly around the church, finishing at the foot of the nave cross.  The Solemn Liturgy for Good Friday followed, in a church devoid of all decoration.  People in the congregation returned their nails to the foot of the cross, as a mark of the human suffering borne by Jesus, and left the church in downcast mood.

 

By Saturday evening, Easter Eve, we knew that "something extraordinary is happening".  The Easter Vigil is a re-creation of the path from the darkness of the Good Friday tomb to the glorious light of Easter morning.  Easter fire and the new Paschal candle dispel the gloom, and with renewal of our baptismal vows and being symbolically sprinkled with fresh water we can face the Resurrection with joy.

 

Easter Sunday is the best day in the Church's year, celebrated with music, flowers and Easter eggs – and sunshine, this year!  The nave cross has moved aside, and is draped in white to remind us of the victory of God's love, and an Easter garden blooms at the altar.  Dick Acworth led the 10am Eucharist with characteristic enthusiasm, and instead of preaching a sermon he told a story-with-a-message which appealed to young and old alike.  There really was something for all ages to celebrate, and we wished each other a joyous Easter and echoed Dick's favourite phrase – "See you some more".

 

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