EASTER IS UPON US AGAIN!! 2009.

I recently realised I had not written anything since Epiphany, and here we are with Easter upon us!! Easter is much later this year, and with the weather a little better than it was last year, and all the Daffodils etc out, it feels more like Easter.
With the turn of events this year, it has been hard to focus on Lent, but Andrew and I have tried changes in diet, in a bid to view things at a different angle, and not falling into the trap of thinking of it as "Give up Chocolate time"!
God has been good to me, with the way my official days off have fallen. As a result, I have been able to be off work from Good Friday right through to the following Wednesday!! Due to working late, I missed the Maundy Thursday Holy Communion, but yesterday, I was able to take part in a couple of very moving events. In the morning, we had the Exploration of the Cross at St. Lukes, which involved the image of the cross laid out on the floor, and we were given a choice of different stages and hands on experiences. There was a chance to paint our hands red and mark a hand print on the paper cross image, and to imagine that there really was blood on our hands, and then to wash our hands. We also had an opportunity to paint a stone red, to wash it and to place it on a cairn in the centre of the cross. This was all so we could imagine if it was blood, and if we were Pilate washing his hands of our Lord's blood. We also had a confession corner with the scripture relating to Peter's denial and kneelers set out, where we could bring to god all the times we have denied him. All this was interspersed with scripture readings, and an opening and closing liturgy relating all the events to the present day, and Jesus being with us now, in Norwich.
In the afternoon, I and a few from our church took part in the silent Walk of Reconciliation in the city. After a short service in Chapelfield Methodist church, we walked in silence and followed the cross it the Cathedral. People did stop and look at us, but who knows if they understood what it was about. One man shouted out the word, "JEWS!" to which a woman in the procession retorted "Jesus was Jewish!" We had a very moving point in front of the Forum where nails were driven into the cross, and the sound of banging echoed against the big building. Then the cross was stood up, and that in itself was very powerful, it really felt like Jesus was being crucified for us personally, in Norwich. The walk culminated in a service of Evensong in the Cathedral, which was packed full, so we really raised the roof with our singing!
Next port of call for us, is the Confirmation at the Cathedral this evening, when we will be supporting a number of people from St. Lukes as they make the commitment to follow Jesus.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Another Christmas is over, and it seems as if Christmas has already gone away into the dim and distant past. The New Year has arrived, and whilst Christmas itself has become a bit old hat, what people did over New Year, is still a subject of conversation. To Andrew and myself, it was very important that we were simply together when the clock struck twelve (as some of you will know, Andrew was very ill a year ago, and spent the first nine days of 2008 in Hospital). We tried keeping ourselves awake on New Years Eve, watching a DVD of "Ivor the Engine" (a fun Christmas presesnt I got from Andrew) but by 11.30 p.m., we were exhausted and went to bed, so we were asleep by midnight!
New Years Day was spent chilling out and walking in our much loved local Catton Park, before we had to face going back to work and getting back down to the nitty gritty of things. We all blithely say "Happy New Year" but we wonder what this year actually holds for us. We hear all the depressing stuff in the news about all the dreadful things happening in Zimbabwe under Robert Mugabe's regime, and every week in church, we are praying for peace in Iraq, the Middle East, Afghanistan and the Congo Region. Madeleine McCann has still not been found, the family have been given a number of false hopes that have lead nowhere. Also there are big changes afoot in the world as Barack Obama gets sworn in as the first coloured Pesident of the U.S.A. Then there's the financial climate, and what it's going to do for Andrew and myself personally, and everyone else. We hear on the News that the credit crunch is likely to affect us for the next four years, so it's all doom and gloom.
As I type this, it is "Twelfth Night" or the Season of the Epiphany, which is the actual time when the Wise Men (or the Magi) visited the the Christ child in Bethlehem. We had a very lively pre-Epiphany service on Sunday, where the children acted out the story of the journey of the Magi, from the point of view of "Sandy the Camel". My next port of call will be to dismantle the Christmas Tree and put all the decs away in the loft. I am reminded here, of a sermon we had some years ago from Rev. Pam Goddard who was an assistant curate at St. Lukes Church. She told us that now that the decorations were put away, they were no longer there to sidetrack us, and that we should focus our minds fully on Jesus, and the purpose for which he was born to us. Let this be our prayer to each and everyone who trusts in him.