Magazine letter April 2023
Holy Week – Easter is not a one off event, it is not like Christmas, it is inseparable from what went before. The services of Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday and Good Friday are an essential part of what makes Easter so special. Without any one of them the story is incomplete.
Palm Sunday (2nd April) – Palm Sunday begins Holy Week: it is a day of contrasts, we remember the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. We rejoice with the crowd of that far off day, processing and waving palm crosses. And then we hear again what happened next.
Monday-Wednesday (3rd – 5th April) – To help us in our journey through this week we are having a 20 minute service of meditation in St Matthew’s church room on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday at 5pm in Holy week.
Maundy Thursday (6th April) – Maundy Thursday is an important feast day; it recalls Jesus’ Last Supper, and his commandment to his disciples that they love one another. And it celebrates that command in the action of Jesus himself – the washing of the disciples’ feet. After the service the altar is stripped and the church left bare and undecorated in readiness for Good Friday. A short vigil is kept as Jesus is remembered in the Garden of Gethsemane. The Maundy service is at 7.30pm at All Saints’, Compton.
Good Friday (7th April) – Join us a walk of witness in Compton from the wayside cross to the church, starting at 10am at the cross, followed by a short service at 10.30am in the church.
It has long been the tradition of the church to keep watch during the last three hours Jesus hung on the cross (12 noon – 3pm). We do so at St Matthew’s, Otterbourne, accompanied by beautiful Passiontide music, and inspired by words, pictures and film. Come for as long, or as short a time as you like.
Easter Day (9th April) – This is the principal service of the Christian year. Each church in the benefice will be having their own all-age communion service at their usual times – with, of course, the Easter egg hunts afterwards.
William