Our Easter Journey...
This
was going to be the first Holy Week that really meant something to us as a
family and we looked forward to experiencing it in our New
Church. Previous Easters consisted of a long weekend, a holiday from work
and a trip to the garden centre.
Palm Sundays procession was the start of an emotional experience for both of us and taking home the palms and putting up the Holy Week posters we really felt we were playing our part as Christians. Consequently, we decided to attend as many services as we could during Holy Week and we even went so far as to highlight which services we could attend on the Pew leaflet.
As the week went on we realised the enourmity of what we were taking part in and were glad that we had decided to experience the daily service of events.
The
Watch at St Lukes really led us through Jesus's
last steps and both of us felt humbled by what we had experienced. It was
also our first visit to St Lukes. Jesus's light
really did shine upon us!.(or was it the new lighting system?)
The Passover Celebration,the stripping of the altar, foot washing and the Watch were extremley moving services and helped us understand what Jesus went through in those final days. The Watch certainly felt like we were watching the last few hours of a loved ones life. It was a truly emotional and draining experience for us both. The serenity and intimacy of the Lady chapel during the Watch made it all the more personal.
On
Good Friday Tomos attended the workshop in St
John's Hall and throughly enjoyed himself making a cross, doing some paintings
and planting some flower seeds.
That afternoon we attended the Devotions at the Cross service. This really
brought home a sense of loss to us. The portrayal by Helyn and Peter really
brought the story to life which made it all the more emotional and personal
knowing that Jesus had died for us. We left Church sad but we knew that the
worst was over and happier times were ahead. The refreshments afterwards were
greatly appreciated!.
Saturday evening we felt a great sense of relief as the new Paschal Candle was lit during the First Mass of Easter. We felt very uplifted as we all followed Father Graham into Church and hearing the first ringing of the bell, seeing the altar dressed and the beautiful Easter flowers.
Easter
day at last arrived, our posters were unfolded to show "He is Risen"
and we looked forward to a joyful service. We weren't disapointed!. It was
nice to see so many people in Church enjoying the happy atmosphere and the
Sunday School presentation. We handed
in our Smartie Tubes full of 20p pieces. The collection plate must have weighed
quite a bit today!.
We found the whole week has certainly been a Life changing experience for us as a family and with Luke's forthcoming Baptism and Confirmation it's made it all the more important that we saw at first hand the events of Easter. We would like to thank everybody who has helped us through Holy week and explained the various stages of the services. We couldn't have done it without you. Can we also take this opportunity to thank you all for the warm welcome you've given us since we started attending the services at St John's.
Diolch yn Fawr!.
Dawn, Luke & Tomos Surrey (April 2005)
(A condensed version of this story
appears in May's Compass Magazine)
