Easter joy

Beautiful Easter lilies in church

The church has been busy today. All morning the church was full, people hoovering and dusting, polishing the brasses, arranging flowers. All afternoon we were setting things up for the Easter services tomorrow.

It always seems strange to me, this busyness on Holy Saturday. Today is the day when we think of a world without Jesus, when we remember the day when Jesus was dead to us, when his body lay in the cold tomb. After the grief of Good Friday and before the joy of Easter this is a day when we don't know what to do with ourselves, a day of emptiness and loss. So the busyness of the traditional church clean-up seems odd.

But the thing is, we know how this story ends. We know what is coming. Unlike the disciples, we know that tomorrow our Lord and friend will rise again, will leave the tomb and walk among his friends. So knowing that of course we want to get things ready. Our dear Lord is coming - of course we want to make sure his house is looking spick and span!

Tomorrow at our 7am service we will proclaim the resurrection for the first time. Then at 10 we will celebrate together, our young people will hunt for Easter eggs, two people will be baptised, and we will sit down to lunch, in joyous celebration of the Easter mystery. I look forward to seeing you then.

Wishing you all a joyous Easter -

Mother Anna

Notices

In church this week Mother Anna will be away this week taking a much-needed break. There will be no midweek services this week but the café will be open as usual on Tuesday.

Thank you to everyone who worked hard to make our Holy Week and Easter services go smoothly, including everyone who read, sang, welcomed, served, stewarded or helped in a myriad other ways. Special thanks to everyone who turned up yesterday to clean and tidy up.

Electoral roll Still not joined or re-joined our electoral roll? The deadline for this year is Sunday 4 May. Forms are at the back - remember, everyone has to fill in a form this year, even if you have been on the electoral roll before.

Dates for the diary

·       Saturday 3 May, 5pm Vigil Mass

·       Sunday 11 May, children’s Sunday Club

St Aldhelm’s Day This year, St Aldhelm’s Day (25 May) falls on a Sunday in Eastertide. Because Easter always trumps saints we can’t celebrate our patron saint at the main service so instead the 9am service of Morning Prayer will be dedicated to St Aldhelm.