On the evening of Thursday 5th April, The Reverend Harry Ross, and about 20 parishioners, gathered around a table in the small hall to break bread and share wine in remembrance of the last supper of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Harry encouraged us to imagine what it must have been like to be at that original supper. How would Christ (knowing, as he did, everything that was about to happen to him) be feeling! What about Peter - so confident in his ability to stand up for Jesus, when he was told that he would deny he even knew Jesus that very night? What about Judas - when he realised Jesus knew that he was in the process of betraying Him? What about John - the disciple most sensitive to the nuances of Jesus or any of the other disciples - confused and, as yet, unable to understand what Jesus was telling them? We tried to imagine how they might be feeling as Jesus shared bread and wine and spoke to them of what was about to happen.
We then reflected on how the weaknesses of these men were also present in ourselves and prayed for forgiveness and help.
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Good Friday
On the morning of Friday 6th April, Peter Davies led a service of hymns, readings and reflection.
The hymns and readings traced the terrible events of the day on which Jesus was falsely accused, tried and crucified nearly 2000 years ago. The reflections were based on a series of carefully selected, recent actions or situations (such as “The Scottish School Teacher”, “The man who embezzled his employer” and “The death of Sam”) which chimed in with the Biblical events. The juxtaposition of these was very powerful and the congregation was moved to compassion, repentance, forgiveness and I’m sure in some cases action in their own lives.
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Easter Saturday Praise and Prayer
On Saturday 7th April Joyce Hunt led the Service of Praise and Prayer. One might imagine there was not much left to say before Easter after the powerful services of the previous two days! Indeed, Joyce said that they had considered cancelling Praise and Prayer this month but had a good reason for not doing so which would be revealed at the end of the service!
Joyce reminded us that nothing was known of what the disciples and those close to Jesus were doing on the day between the crucifixion (which we remember on Good Friday) and the resurrection (which we celebrate on Easter Day). However, she reminded us that Luke says of “the women who had come with him from Galilee” that, on the Thursday, after they had seen where the body was laid, “… they prepared spices and ointments”. But they could not anoint the body, as was the custom, because “On the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment”. (Luke 23 v 55, 56)
We were also reminded that on that day the chief priests and Pharisees were far from resting and praying as they, above all people should have been! (Does the expression “practise what you preach” come to mind?) In fact they were petitioning Pilot to put a guard on the tomb of Jesus because they were afraid that Jesus’ disciples would steal the body and pretend that Jesus had risen from the dead as he had said he would do. (See Matthew 27 v 62 – 66)
At the end of the service it was finally announced that it was one of our church warden’s – i.e. Margery Tasker’s - 80th birthday!
We went through to breakfast and to celebrate Margery’s birthday with a beautiful balloon, champagne and cake!
Happy Birthday Margery!
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Easter Sunday
On Sunday 8th April Harry was back (at the 9.00 a.m. and 10.30 a.m. services) to challenge us with an Easter message and help us to celebrate the miracle of Easter.
Thank you very much for joining us, Harry, for this – the most important celebration of the Christian year!
The 10.30 a.m. service was also made more special by the inspiring singing of the specially assembled choir who had been practising for weeks.
Finally Easter Day at St. John’s concluded with a 6.00 p.m. Easter Songs of Praise.
This was lead by Clive who furnished the congregation with the fascinating stories behind the songs that we sang. The songs were chosen for what they had to say to us now. It was good to have the opportunity to focus on the meaning of the words. The songs varied from, amongst many others, the traditional, such as “When I survey the wondrous cross” (17thC) and “O Jesus I have promised” (19thC) to the more recently written “Meekness and Majesty” (20thC) and “All My Days” (20thC) sung beautifully as a solo by Lucy Wright.
The service concluded with an epilogue on making “a come back” and of course, the most wonderful “come back" of all!
We departed for fellowship and Easter “goodies” in the hall after singing the final, timeless, hymn “Jesus Christ is Risen today” (words written 1708) which just goes to show that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13 v 8)
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A BIG THANK YOU to everybody who worked so hard over the Easter period in the absence of a vicar:- those who organised and prepared services, those who preached, those who cleaned, stripped and redecorated the church, those who donated or arranged the flowers (which were glorious), those who prepared food and drink, those who prayed, those who sang, all those who attended, those who offered lifts so that others could attend, and those who cleared up afterwards.
May God bless you all.
, we gave thanks not only for the building but also for all the diligent people who had been responsible for planning and building the church here in Birkdale.
