Saturday 4 April 2020

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Tomorrow is Palm Sunday, and we begin Holy Week, the most significant week of the church year for Christians. It will be a Holy Week different from any other and it will be especially poignant that we can't meet together on Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday. However, there is a wealth of material online for worship, prayer and reflection which we might like to use ourselves at home. Let us make time to read, pray and ponder afresh the story of Christ's suffering, death and resurrection. Although we cannot meet together to celebrate this central mystery of our faith, let us remember one another as we read and pray. We share our faith in Christ Crucified and Risen with Christians all around the world, past and present.

You might find some of the resources below helpful.

The Diocese of Europe, to which we belong, has put together material for prayer during the day to use in our homes during Holy Week. The link is here.

For Palm Sunday, YouTube versions of hymns, my recorded sermon (and written text) and intercessions by Hector, are here. Thank you to Hector for leading our intercessions and for putting all the material together so well. I'm sure we are all very grateful for his hard work.

For families who would like some activities for Palm Sunday there are suggestions at the bottom of this email. Francoise will be emailing out the Roots material for Junior Church families for this week.

I remind you that the Men's Group is meeting on zoom at 10.45am on Palm Sunday (tomorrow). If you have not received an email from David and would like to join in this group, please let me know.

Tomorrow at 11.30am, we are starting the first of our 'coffee times', again on zoom. We are invited to make our own coffee and then chat to others as we drink it! If you would like to join in, please email or let Sue Higson know. There will be 'coffee times' every Wednesday at 10am and Sunday at 11.30am. Please do join us!

There are many poems and reflections on the website here and here.

I will send out material for Maundy Thursday and Good Friday later in the week.

A Prayer

Lord Jesus Christ,
you humbled yourself in taking the form of a servant,
and in obedience died on the cross for our salvation;
give us the mind to follow you
and to proclaim you as Lord and King,
to the glory of God the Father.
Amen

I will be in touch again soon.

With love in Christ,
Helen