Special events this week for Easter 2024: Wednesday 7:30pm at St Mary’s: Neil’s talk – Reflection on the way of tea – “why I do what I do”
Thursday 6pm at st Mary’s: Maundy Thursday bring and share meal
Good Friday: 10:00 walk of witness sets off from st Mary’s 10:30 service with Churches Together at Ash Wharf outside by the canal bridge 11:30 hot cross buns at the Chapel on wharf rd, all welcome Afternoon – st Mary’s open for prayer, craft and meditation
Saturday: st Mary’s open all day, come and help with church decoration, flowers team will be in 10:00-12:00 come and join in!
Easter Sunday: special Easter celebration service 10:30am at St Mary’s (Remember the clock go forward!)
On as usual this week: Chapel cafe 9:30-12:30 Little lambs 10:00-11:30 Chapelkids 11:00-14:00 (Friday cafe will be at chapel this week, not at st Mary’s)
All free to attend, all welcome, see you there!
Chapel Kids and friends will be going to visit Forest Kids Ash on 10th April. Text for more info! 07730609446
Local Easter Appeal: Would you like to add something special to our food parcels next week? We would welcome donations of Easter treats for the #AshVillagesFoodParcelsProject any time before 28th March. Thank you for your support! You can donate at St Mary’s or at The Chapel when we are open, or message us to arrange a time with our project team. 07730609446
It’s time to say thank you! We have had lots of lovely comments and feedback about the Churches Together Good Friday event yesterday. Huge thanks to everyone who took part and all who helped to make it such a lovely opportunity for worship and fellowship.
What happens on Good Friday?
The walk: We all set off from our churches, in Ash and Ash Vale, walking together and carrying the cross. This reminds us of Jesus carrying his own cross, through the streets of Jerusalem, on the day of his crucifixion. Thank you to everyone who took part in this very special walk of witness.
The service: We all arrive at Ash Wharf, welcomed by the worship team, and the open air service begins. This is a very special day for us all, as we gather together churches of different denominations and remember our Saviour, Jesus, giving up His life to save all of us. The clergy share the service, taking it in turns to lead, preach, and pray each year, so it is a real team effort. We would like to thank Luke, Natalie and the team for the music and PA system, and also to thank Bridges for powering the sound system for us. We always enjoy welcoming passers by to join in too – all are welcome.
Hot Cross Buns: After the service… the fellowship! What a joy to have a sunny day for this. Everyone gathers at The Chapel on Wharf Rd for hot cross buns and a cuppa, and a lovely opportunity to chat to friends old and new. We love welcoming the whole community to this, people of all faiths and none, and what a great opportunity to enjoy the Community Garden. Thank you to the hospitality team of volunteers from all the churches, who prepared and served the drinks and hot cross buns – and for doing all the washing up! We would also like to thank Co-op for donating 100 delicious hot cross buns. It’s a great community moment in our Easter calendar.
As we contemplate the Cross and look forward to the joy of Easter, may God bless you and keep you in His love and peace. We look forward to welcoming you on Easter Sunday for the 10:30 service!
The Cover Image this Easter is inspired by a new song “Come to the Table” by Matt Weeks which you can hear most Sunday’s at St Mary’s.
If you use social media, you may enjoy the ‘anniversaries’ that pop up every now and then, reminding you of what happened on this day in previous years. My timeline recently has been full of images from our early lockdown – our first Evensong in the carpark 2 years ago, ringing the bell, pancakes on the astroturf… It makes me realise that the last time we ‘did Easter’ the ‘normal’ way was 3 years ago! We had a few socially distanced people in church in 2021, but finally this year we are allowed to gather in greater numbers and celebrate with a shared feast.
You are warmly invited to join in with local Easter events at St Mary’s on Vale Rd, and at The Chapel on Wharf Rd.
Easter is our major festival of the year when we remember the death of Jesus and celebrate him rising from the dead.
Lent is the period before Easter when Christians remember the events leading up to and including the death of Jesus Christ. Last Sunday Neil spoke again about the opportunities to reflect together during Lent:
For our Easter 2022 issue of The Parishioner we have a poem to share with you, on the theme of the passion. This was written by Joanna Pearson, a talented poet who is also a member of Chapel Poets. We have some news from the Chapel Poetry for you too.
We had so much fun with the lost sheep trail at Half Term, we are doing another one for Easter!
Please pop an Easter Egg, Easter Scene, Easter Garden, Easter Wreath or even a knitted Easter Egg in your window or front garden in time for Easter Sunday, and leave it up for 2 weeks, so we can all enjoy finding them during the Easter Holidays. We have our Easter Trail web page ready to go, and will add all your trail locations to our list in time for Easter Day.
Email parishoffice@ash-vale.org.uk for the link or see below for zoom details. Hosanna!
Good Friday 2nd April: Stations of the Cross & Prayer
Follow the stations of the cross trail from The Chapel on Wharf Road to St Mary’s Church on Vale Road. Arrive at St Mary’s for a socially distanced opportunity for private prayer and reflection in church. (Open 10am onwards)
Easter Sunday 4th April: Zoom Service 10am
Email parishoffice@ash-vale.org.uk for the Zoom link or to book your seat in Church (spaces are limited) We look forward to celebrating the risen Christ!
It was just after 3pm on the 3rd April 33AD. The Roman Army Execution Detail noted that the first of the three prisoners being executed that day had just died. It was a bit of a surprise because normally a prisoner took much longer to die, but as the Detail had to remain until all the prisoners were dead it was probably more of “One down, two to go” feeling than anything else. In the meanwhile it was back to gambling to while away the hours until they could return to barracks; after all they were just Roman soldiers carrying out their orders.
The background to this? At the time the Roman Empire was busy being the Roman Empire. The Emperor Tiberius ruled in Rome and Pontius Pilate (a junior Roman Civil Servant) was the Roman charged with keeping order in the province of Judea. To keep things rosy he had cosied up to the Jewish Religious Powers and they to him, but being Pilate he had still managed to alienate others. Also in the frame was Herod Antipas (a son of Herod the Great) who was the Roman appointed Tetrarch of Galilee and Perea. So far so good.
Then along came trouble, a 30odd year preacher who had gone about preaching that the Kingdom of God was close at hand had come to town. The new preacher was accompanied by a band of rustics (including ex fishers, an ex tax collector and an ex zealot), he did not rail against the Roman Authorities but preached that one should love God and love one’s neighbour as one’s self. He had upset the Religious Authorities by declaring that the Temple was a place for prayer and worship and not a place for commerce. For the Religious authorities the question of the day was how to neutralise this threat without upsetting the status quo?
Herod Antipas had incarcerated a previous troublesome preacher (and cousin to the new one), then without trial the preacher had been beheaded, his head put on a platter and presented to a young dancer who had pleased the said Herod Antipas. This option was no longer available.
The preacher was detained by the Temple Authorities and after a confrontation was handed over to the Roman Authorities. The death penalty was demanded by the Temple Authorities and to avoid trouble this was granted by Pilate, which takes us back to the start of the article.
Epilogue: Pilate was removed from office 36AD, Tiberius died 37AD, Herod was removed from office 39AD, the Temple was destroyed 70AD and that rag tag army of fishers and others (excluding the zealot) spread the teachings of the executed man until in 313AD Christianity was recognised as an acceptable religion within the Roman Empire. Now THAT is a story!
Scrivener
PS. The date quoted above is believed to be the most probable, by many scholars.
