Holy Week And Easter Day Round-Up

What an uplifting time my first Holy Week and joyful first Easter Day at All Saints and St Andrew’s was.

The meditations and Compline during the first part of the week set the scene, as Jesus flitted in and out of Jerusalem.

Maundy Thursday, at All Saints, saw foot washing and as the altar was stripped an atmosphere so heavy with prayer that I was hesitate that I might break it by reading the Gospel to begin the Vigil, I needn’t have been.

The Children’s Service, at All Saints, on Good Friday was a joy and the children of the church made a fantastic job of their first Easter garden.  It is a service I always enjoy and having the opportunity this year did something slightly different, which worked a treat.  While the Stations of the Cross over at St Andrew’s was only marred by me placing my laptop on the carpet not realizing how plush it was, and hence at station 7 the laptop overheated and we had to continue with words alone until station 10.  In the evening it was a trip down to Bearsden Cross Church of Scotland were I was leading the Ecumenical Service I was slightly apprehensive about what I was going to do, not knowing how it might be received, it turned out I didn’t need to worry at all, they got it and more than one tear was shed.

Holy Saturday came along and the churches were decorated wonderfully by both groups of ladies, then in the evening ‘The Protecting Veil’ was finally unveiled.  An Easter Vigil was something new to All Saints and so I decided to take the opportunity to approach it from a slightly different angle.  Using John Tavener’s music ‘The Protecting Veil’ as a backdrop we meditated on the sorrow of Mary before turning to the joy of Easter with fire and light, it turned out to be powerful stuff especially the live music played by Sarah Harrington who is a cellist with the Scottish Opera, and Mary Stott’s reading of ‘Mother of Tears’ by Marie L Weldon.  If you are unfamiliar with this poem you will find it here.

Easter Day dawned to rain!  Nevertheless there were those who turned out to proclaim the risen Christ at the Preaching Brae in Milngavie (no not a place for the Covenanters, but rather for the cotton mill workers before they had a church) for an early morning service followed by rolling eggs down the hill before breakfast – I did manage a quick bacon roll before dashing back to All Saints for the 8am.  Back to St Andrew’s, the sun now shinning, and the biggest Sunday morning congregation I have seen there.  Included in their number was ‘J’ someone who had come along to ‘The Protecting Veil’ the night before at All Saints and had been on the phone to me later that evening asking about the Easter services, he had also turned up at the Preaching Brae, God is good.  Then it was back to All Saints to do it all again but differently!  With the Paschal Candle having been lit the night before it was processed round the church as the choir sung a version of the Excultet, here the children sprinkled the congregation with the water from the font using last weeks palm branches, and as is the custom at All Saints, everyone placed a flower in what had been a bare wooden cross the week before.  In a change to previous years however the cross was then processed out of the church, as Thine Be The Glory was sung with great vigor, to take its place in the garden as a witness to the risen Christ for all those who pass by.  The service was followed by  frantic rush by the children as they tried to find all the hidden eggs and more egg rolling.

All Saints - Easter Cross 2010

I was deeply touched when at the end of the service I was presented with a bouquet,  for me it had all been a joy and a privilege but on this my first Holy Week and Easter it was also good to know that the right note had been hit.  And while the flowers were for me, when I arrived home with them Hubby appreciated them too, for it let him know that although he hadn’t got to see me for a week it had all been worthwhile.

I also want the world to know that I couldn’t have done it without a host of people, those who read, led, decorated, sang, played (instruments), cooked, attended, built boxes, shifted furniture and encouraged – thank you one and all.

Unity Supper

For many years the churches in Bearsden have held a Supper in the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity and last night this years one took place.  It was of course my first one and it was an eye opener for a surprising reason.

The speaker was the Very Revd Sheilagh Kesting who was the first female cleric to be Moderator of the Church of Scotland in 2007 and is now Secretary of the Committee on Ecumenical Relations in the Church of Scotland.  She spoke mainly about the role that Baptism can play in uniting churches, which I struggled with chiefly because even within the SEC there is not a consensus on what Baptism confers upon the Baptized.  She also spoke primarily about the relationship between the CoS and RC’s and their current dialogue, which personally I felt slightly missed the focus of this week.  Nevertheless she spoke with conviction (although I did feel her overuse of the word exercise actually showed a lack of said conviction) and she gave us a lot to ponder on.  Will a Roman Catholic priest ever do a Baptism in a Baptist Church?

The eye opener was the age profile of those who attended.  The small group for All Saints brought the average age of the hall down, I really hadn’t expected that.  That got me to thinking, are younger people less interested in Church Unity, or just not interested in listening to someone talk about it while they eat cold meats and various salads in a Church Hall?  And if the Unity Supper had been pizza’s with a different kind of presentation on Church unity would the people who had attended last night not have come along while the group from All Saints (I know they would still go out for a pizza) looked over-the-hill?

Inside A Metaphor

This week sees The Week of Prayer For Christian Unity, and last night saw a joint service at one of the churches which are part of Milngavie.  Now I say part of Milngavie as the church is situated outside the town with easy directions, striaght ahead at the lights when you reach the end of the road turn left the church is at the next junction – simple.

Well yes, however, almost as soon as the houses end the road turns from two lanes of tarmac into a single track pot ridden road with high banks and over hanging trees, more akin to a farm track than a road.  So along it I bumped – along with the snow ‘Baby’ isn’t too keen on copious bumps and just to make sure I know she doesn’t like them she likes to bump my lower back about so I am not too keen either.  However the bumps soon became secondary, I am sure that on a bright spring day with dappled shade and ‘Baby’s’ roof off I will grow to love this road, but last night was the first time I had traveled along it and it was dark, very, very dark.  Not only was there overhanding trees, not only was it single track with no passing places, not only was it bumpy, not only was it dark, but there were also dips which would suddenly appear like a dark chasm in the headlights, twist and turns as the road climbed, and oh yes a ford!  When I reached the ford I started to wonder if the simple directions weren’t so simple after all I had now been driving along this track for a couple of miles, had I missed a turning?  I was convinced I hadn’t seen a turning and there was no way I could have turned ‘Baby’ around even if I had so having tentatively made my way through the water I kept going.  Finally the road came to an end and before me was the left turn onto a tar maced single track road, but as it was at the top of a particularly steep bit and on a bend I had to rely totally on the belief that no one would be driving along the road without their lights on and with a quick prayer had to just go for it.  The last bit was like being on a motorway compared with what had gone before.  Once the car was parked it was then a case of negotiating an unfamiliar path with steps in the pitch black through the graveyard.  Of course once I got into the quaint church I was told that no one uses that road at night and that it is known as the death road as dead bodies have been found on it, apparently not due to car accidents, and that the locals all swear that it is haunted and that anyone who comes to the church at night brings a torch.

Gathered and worshiping together, celebrating our different traditions and rejoicing in our common faith it struck me of how much my journey to get there was like the journey to Christian Unity.  The Body of Christ in Milngavie have had their fair share of risk taking, sudden surprises, difficulties and temptations to turn back, but the bonds of love and fellowship in Christ are stronger still and the service wasn’t a mere nod in the direction of ecumenism.

I don’t see Sunday evenings journey to the service in Bearsden being quite so metaphorical.

ABC

No I am not learning my alphabet over again, despite the new things continuing.  This ABC is the Association of Bearsden Churches and last night I attended my first meeting.  Ecumenical activities always amuse me, you can quickly tell the ones who are just doing it because they think they should be (often the clergy) and those who are genuinely excited by and wishing to engage in ecumenism, this meeting was no different.

Now don’t get me wrong with what I am about to say, there seems to be a lot going on and apparently the events are well supported.  Also I am all for sharing ideas and I don’t get all precious about my ideas and am more than happy for other people to use them if they think they might work, however …

I had taken along my idea about doing something for next years International Peace Day which I blogged about here.  The idea was met with great enthusiasm, good stuff I thought.  Then the dreaded question as to where it might be held was asked.  A moments silence before I replied All Saints would be happy to host it due to our position at the Cross with its shops and lots of people passing by.  I was also aware that several other things were in the pipeline that weren’t going to be held at All Saints, one of them despite being at the end of this month still wasn’t organised and I didn’t want this idea to end up getting lost and another year passing by with nothing done about it.

How disappointed I was to then hear the inital ’good, that’s sorted’; quickly change to well we could also hold it in this church and that church and the best one in response to my suggestion that one thing that could be done was people could come in and light a candle was: ”Well we can always get candles and can hold it too, we don’t just need to do it at one place.”   Well no we don’t, but it is hardly an ecumenical venture when the same thing is happening at three or four churches in an area of around 1 square mile!  We shall see what transpires.