This year, Easter Day falls on 27th March. The week leading up to it, which begins with Palm Sunday on 20th March, is very special in the church year, and is known as Holy Week.

Holy Week begins with Palm Sunday, the day when the Church remembers the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. The gospels tell us that He had gone up to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover, and that when He entered the city the crowds gave him a rapturous welcome, throwing palm fronds into his path. On this day churches worldwide will distribute little crosses made from palm fronds in memory of Jesus' arrival in Jerusalem.

The next highlight of Holy Week falls on Maundy Thursday. Maundy Thursday focuses on one of the final acts concerning Jesus to be related in John's Gospel – the washing of the disciples’ feet by Jesus. The ceremony of the ‘washing of the feet’ of members of the congregation came to be an important part of the liturgy (regular worship) of the medieval church, symbolising the humility of the clergy, in obedience to the example of Christ.

‘Maundy’ is an unusual word, and relates to this medieval practice of foot washing. In the Middle Ages, church services were held in Latin. The opening words of a typical service on this day are based on the words of Jesus recorded in John 13: ‘A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another’. In Latin, the opening phrase of this sentence is ‘mandatum novum do vobis’ The word ‘mundy’ is thus a corruption of the Latin ‘mandatum’ (or command).

In England, in by-gone years, as an affirmation of humility, the monarch would wash the feet of a small number of his or her subjects. This has now been replaced by the ceremony of the 'Maundy money', in which the Queen distributes specially minted coins at cathedrals throughout England.

Good Friday is the day on which Jesus died on the cross. It is the most solemn day in the Christian year, and is widely marked by the removal of all decorations from churches. In Lutheran churches, the day was marked by the reading of the passion narrative in a gospel, a practice, which lies behind the 'passions' composed by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 – 1750). Both the St Matthew Passion and the St John Passion have their origins in this observance of Good Friday.

The custom of observing a period of three hours' devotion from 12 noon to 3 p.m. on Good Friday goes back to the 18th century. The 'Three Hours of the Cross' often take the form of an extended mediation on the 'Seven Last Words from the Cross', with periods of silence, prayer, or hymn-singing.

Lent ends with Holy Saturday. The Eastern Orthodox churches hold the ‘Paschal Vigil’ – a late evening service, which leads directly into the following Easter Day.

As I write this, we are just about to enter the season of Lent. It begins on Ash Wednesday (9th February this year) and ends on Easter Sunday and is a time of reflection and a time of renewal, a time when Christians throughout the world think about what Jesus did for us in going to the Cross.

Lent is a season of soul-searching and repentance. It is a season for reflection and taking stock. Lent originated in the very earliest days of the Church as a preparatory time for Easter, when the faithful rededicated themselves and when converts were instructed in the faith and prepared for baptism. By observing the forty days of Lent, the individual Christian imitates Jesus’ withdrawal into the wilderness for forty days.

During Lent, as an act of discipline people often give up something that they enjoy. By denying ourselves something we enjoy, we discipline our wills so that we are not slaves to our pleasures. This year I have decided to give up biscuits, and since I eat nearly a packet a day, I should have lost several pounds by the time Easter comes which should have a good effect on my physical well-being! But more importantly, if every time I feel tempted to reach for a biscuit I turn to prayer instead then my spiritual well-being will have been nurtured and strengthened too.

And so may the time of Lent be a time of reflection and renewal for you all.
Revd. Ken Tombs

Baptisms
January
23rd......Sophie Jane Poyser
.............Luke Christopher Poyser
.............Aiden William Mills

Cremations at Breakspear Crematorium
January
13th......Kenneth Johns, aged 79
17th......Elsie Hawkins, aged 83
25th......Edith Garside, aged 91
27th......Evelina Sandy, aged 88

February
15th......James Mann, aged 77

Burial at Greenford Park Cemetery
February
10th......Doris (Dolly) Boyns, aged 84 (following service in St Giles’ Church)

I am sure that this ‘thought for the day’ (taken from a book by Eddie Askew) will speak to you, as it did to me.

We would all like to change things, to make life feel more comfortable and less of a problem.

“If only things were different . . .”
“If only I could change my world I’d be happy . . .”
“If only I had other friends life would be so much easier.”
“If only . . .”

There was once a Muslim teacher, a man who had lived all his life faithful to his beliefs. He said that when he was young he had prayed for the strength and courage to change the world. But however hard he tried nothing much seemed to happen. As he got older he changed his prayer and asked only for the power to change the people around him, but even that seemed hard to do. Now he is an old man and says that he simply prays to God for the grace to change himself.

That is where change begins. Not in trying to shake the foundations of the world but in looking at ourselves with open eyes – realising that if we want to change anything we have to begin with ourselves. Jesus said, it is no use criticising your neighbour because he has a speck of dust in his eye, if your own eye is full of it.

Change begins with me. Change in the little things – the way we see each other, the way we react to other people. Change can begin today. And, amazingly, when we begin to change, so do other people.
(from ‘Slower than Butterflies’ Eddie Askew, published by The Leprosy Mission)
Mavis Boyes


FROM THE U.R.C. REGISTERS
Cremations at Breakspear Crematorium
December
14th......Nora Ellis, aged 85

January
12th......Gwen Hutchison, aged 93 (after a service at the URC taken by the Revd. Ken Tombs)

February
11th......Helen Moon, aged 80 (Quaker meeting for worship and cremation, followed by a memorial service in the U.R.C. lead by Alan Cassingham)

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