Journal: Two stations keep us moving along.

The first night saw us using images commissioned by St John's, bethnal Green and painted by Chris Gollon. The service was met with a number of comments and people were moved and shocked in equal measure.

The second (last night) was a more gently affair altogether and used easier images.

I wonder whether easier images are the best way forward though as it seems to me that we make our journey to the cross so sanitised and gentle - masking the blood, the pain, the sacrifice - making it acceptable and in doing so make it unreal.

The grotesque image, the painful tearing of life from the container that is the human body - how can we make it clean and acceptable? It is as awful and despicable as those who would portray the Shoah, or the atrocities inflicted by wicked men and women in Iraq or Syria, Palestine or Pakistan and mere 'local disturbances'.

The truth is this:
That Jesus, condemned by those He came to save,
Body broken by those whom He took on flesh to become one of,
Chose to do it all for me!
For those in whom I find the image of the invisible God is made visible and real.
See from His hands, His head, His feet . . .
What more needs to be said, seen, sensed
Ignored.

Lord, as I gaze upon the images of Your Passion,
In Your brokenness, I too am broken.
In Your death I find life,
In my life I find opportunity - a day returned from the dead that I might live.
Lead me to Your cross that I might marvel, be broken and find life

Holy Week 2016 @ St Francis', Leyfields

So how was your Easter?

The answer to this question was: Brilliant!

During the run-in to Easter I have been engaged with an absolutely great lent course which used the excellent Mustardseed stories to enthuse and encourage those who attended to look at what others are doing in terms of being missional and then, having realised it was something they could do, they got to thinking about how they could do it too. This is something that I wouldrecommend to every church in their journey towards developing a missional congregation:

Then Holy Week arrived and it got even better as:

Monday saw our little church do a wonderfully moving and challenging stations of the Cross service

Tuesday saw us engage in a most amazing Tenebrae service

Wednesday brought us together as a Parish and a Seder meal

Thursday brought the washing of feet and an amazingly gentle communion service

Friday saw something around 500 people turn out for the town centre act of witness 

Followed by a watch service and a sublime musical journey through the Passion in the shape of 'Lift High The Cross':

Saturday didn't exist but

Sunday did as Easter started with a dawn communion service followed by bacon roll and hot drinks 

and then the 10:30 Communion service (which, as ever, saw those present staying on for ages afterwards as we enjoyed each other's company - and as ever, the biscuits for the children (they get them when they come up for a blessing) had an Easter 'He is risen - the tomb is empty') theme.

All in all,  a great Easter

He is risen!

Stations of the Cross - Do WHAT?

If you come from a non-Church background like me, or are perhaps an evangelical or pentecostal type who finds the whole 'stations of the Cross' thing to be a bit of an issue then I have some great news for you: You can cease the distrust and have a think about embracing this amazing piece of liturgy for yourself as I can confirm that it is a safe practice.

Now my dear old Dad used to tell me that the stations of the cross were

like the stations on my Monopoly board and that this was what the religious people used to remember the way things happened when it came to the crucifixion.
That said, he was a bit of a wicked old worst and so he taught me that the first four stations were those surrounding this text - the Eleanor Crosses - marking the twelve places where Queen Eleanor's coffin rested on its thirteenth century journey from Lincoln to London.

 Of course I now know that Charing Cross and Waltham Cross are the only two legitimate crosses of the Eleanor kind and have also discovered that the church type 'stations of the Cross' and legitimate too.

And this is where I have to encourage you to seek out, and try, the experience of journeying from the comfort of your seat or knees (or whatever it is you find yourself on) with Jesus on His journey to the Cross and His sacrifice made there for all.

Those who live near me are most welcome to join us as we join Jesus as He is condemned to die and then follow Him as He takes up His cross and falls and is helped by Simon of Cyrene to come to the place of execution and from there to reflect upon that death.

When: Monday 30th March 2015  @  7:30pm

What: A gentle, reflective service.

Why: Because without the Cross there can be no Easter Sunday,

          Without the Cross there can be no sacrifice made for us

          Without the Cross the victory we claim is hollow, clean and lacking in so much.

If you can't join us - find somewhere this week - Holy Week - and make the journey with Jesus, the Christ, and remember that it was all for You!

Pax