We have appreciated a richness of worship as we have journeyed through Holy Week culminating in the joy of Christ’s resurrection on Easter Day. After the celebration of Palm Sunday, remembering Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem, the mood changed as we focused on the words of Jesus as he suffered on the cross, which was the theme for the ecumenical services held at St Paul’s during the week. Andrea led the service and preached on Tuesday on Jesus’s words addressed to his mother and to his beloved disciple John, both of whom were standing at the foot of the cross when others had fled. ‘Dear woman, here is your son,’ and to the disciple, ’Here is your mother’. They both understood who Jesus was and in a way this could be seen as the start of the family of the church as they cared for each other in the days ahead.
St Andrew’s moving Eucharist on Maundy Thursday saw the stripping of the altar and on Good Friday morning we shared with folk from the other churches in the ‘Walk of Witness’ stopping at 4 places en route for a reading, prayer and a hymn, followed by hospitality and and hot cross buns at the Allander Evangelical church. In the afternoon we had our Good Friday Liturgy of the Lord’s Passion with moving and reflective words and music, as we reflected on the crucifixion.
‘Were the whole realm of nature mine,
that were an offering far too small;
love so amazing, so divine,
demands my soul, my life, my all’.