Easter

Holy Week 13-19th April 2014

Palm Sunday
    
    9.30am     Choral Communion
    Readings    Epistle  Philippians 2:5-11
    Gospel  Matthew 21:1-11
    Hymns  12  640  766  820

    10.45am    Donkey Parade from Mariners
    11.00am     Eleven - Informal Worship

    6.00pm     Evening Prayer
    Readings    Old Testament  Isaiah 50:4-9a
    New Testament  Matthew 21:1-11
    Hymns  640  521  205  340
    Psalm  22 verses 9-16

Tuesday of Holy Week
    8.00pm    Taize Worship
    & Passion Reading at All Saints’ Stone

Maundy Thursday
    8.00pm    Benefice Communion
    & Altar Stripping at All Saints’ Stone

Good Friday
    11.00am    Children’s Easter Garden
    & Picnic

    2.00pm    Good Friday Worship
    Music, Readings and Meditations

Easter Eve
    8.00pm    Easter Fire at All Saints’ Stone

Out of the darkness: Spring’s hope

As Spring brings the promise of new life around us, David Frith looks at the hope for our future promised by the life of Christ

Hazel, celandines, aconites, snowdrops. Can you make a link between these four plants? Perhaps for you, as for me, they are – as early
flowering plants – signs of hope that the winter, however long, dull, cold and wet, isn’t going to last forever. So we look out for them in our garden or in the country and are cheered a little when we see the first yellow hazel catkins in January, or emerging snowdrops in February.

It’s a natural tendency to seek for new signs of hope when all is dreary round about us, in our lives as well as in the natural world. How cheering it is when we see those earliest spring flowers, or gradually realise that the evenings are getting lighter! A particular favourite of mine is a winter honeysuckle which comes out in mid to late January (very early January this year!) and gives a lovely sweet scent at a time of year when we least expect such fragrant blessing.

It’s possibly easier to spot hopeful signs in nature each year because we can identify the repeating patterns of the seasons, but the early
harbingers are the most sought and welcome. So for the gardener, the first strawberries in summer or the first blackberries or plums in autumn are more special than the subsequent bulk of the fruit and vegetable harvest.

Spotting signs of hope in our lives can sometimes be harder, especially if worries or problems are weighing in on us.

Read more: Out of the darkness: Spring’s hope