When the weather is good we will be holding out Family Mass outdoors.In this photo the gospel reading is split up into several scrolls planted in compost as we thought about the parable of the mustard seed. If the weather bad there will be a family service on Zoom.
Dear everyone,Normally we would be off to the shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham for the first weekend in May. Like last year, we won’t be able to male our annual pilgrimage this year. May will still be the month of Mary. I have just finished some collective worship for Ark St Alban’s Academy. One of the interesting things I noted was that Mary is mentioned more times in the Qu’ran than in the Bible. Another thing in noticed as I was preparing another collective worship video was that this year Eid and Ascension will probably fall on the same day.The collective worship that I wrote about Mary used the story of the annunciation, and particularly Mary saying “yes” to God. We easily underestimate the bravery of Mary in that story. In Britain today we are used to unmarried mothers, but in Mary’s day life for an unmarried mother would have been very difficult. Mary had no guarantee that Joseph would agree to marry her under the circumstances.When I was at university I remember a modern hymn “Where are you bound, Mary, Mary.” The lyrics were Where are you bound, Mary, Mary? Where are you bound, Mother of God? Beauty is a dove sitting on a sunlit bough,beauty is a pray'r without the need of words.Words are more than sounds falling off and empty tongue: let it be according to His word. Mary heard the word spoken in her inmost heart; Mary bore the Word and held Him in her arms. Sorrow she has known, seeing Him upon the cross - greater joy to see Him rise again. Where are we all bound, carrying the Word of God? Time and place are ours to make His glory know. Mary bore Him first, we will tell the whole wide world; let it be according to His word. This might not be the sort of song that we sing at St Alban’s, but the words are profound in their simplicity. The first verse is about the annunciation but reminds us that our words should not fall off an empty tongue. Words are powerful and should be used wisely, not to hurt, undermine or diminish a person but to show love, compassion and build a person up.The second verse reminds me a little of the Stabat Mater and speaks about how Mary held Jesus in her arms, and her suffering at seeing her child die. Yet the verse goes on to the glory of the resurrection.The last verse tells us that here and now we have to bear Jesus in our hearts and proclaim Jesus and his kingdom to the world. We need to day Yes to God, just as Mary did.Ascension and Pentecost also fall in May this year. It will be too difficult to have a full choral Mass on Ascension day itself and I suggest we celebrate the Thursday with a simple Mass but make more of the Sunday after Ascension.I remember producing a very fiery video for Pentecost last year. This year we should be in church for Pentecost so less fiery video but let us hold then fire of the Holy Spirit in out hearts.Looking to the future I hope that we can arrange a PPC meet with Abi and Damien from Parish Mission Support. They can help us think about how we can move forward, restoring and revitalising what we already do and plan to grow our church. Two parts one is analogous to our National Lottery Heritage Fund Grant, conserve, restoring and revealing out hidden treasures. We should also look at our newer initiatives like the family mass on Saturday and think about how this can grow.
<div>Easter is approaching fast as I write this letter. First, I’d like to give you the services for Holy Week and Easter. Clearly it will be different this year because of the pandemic and the necessary restriction in place. I hope that this arrangement of services has both enough familiarity to give us comfort and enough difference to give us a fresh view of Holy Week. Maundy Thursday Mass will be a simple said service at 6pm. There won’t be the usual feet washing but we will have a short period of music from Taizé to reflect on Jesus’ example. Jeanne Conard-Jones , Jobe Baker and the violinist Edwin Podolski have recoded Erbarme dich Bach’s St Matthew Passion for us to use as we strip the church or ornaments. </div><div>Erbarme dich, mein Gott, Um meiner Zähren willen! Schaue hier, Herz und Auge Weint vor dir bitterlich. Erbarme dich, mein Gott.Have mercy, my God, <span style="font-size: 1rem;">for the sake of my tears! </span><span style="font-size: 1rem;">Look here heart and eyes weep bitterly Have mercy, my God.</span></div>They are words put into Peter’s mouth as he repents his denial of JesusThe sacrament will be reserved in St Patrick’s chapel but there will not be the usual vigil in church. You may, of course spend time at home watching and waiting. You may wish to join the Baptist church for Tenebrae at 7:30.Good FridayThere are also some changes to Good Friday. Stations of the cross will be on Zoom. As we are not in church and so need to have a single service we will split stations of the cross into two parts. Part one at 12 noon will be stations 1-11. We wait till the third hour when Jesus died to complete stations 12-14Instead of Ante-communion in the morning we will celebrate the liturgy of Christ’s death and burial at 6pm in the evening. At this hour we look back over the events of the day and reflect on the body of Christ in the tomb. This liturgy normally invites us to venerate the cross and an icon of Jesus in the tomb with a kiss and scattering to flower petals, unfortunately we will not be able to do either of those this year.Easter SundayThis year we won’t have the Easter vigil on Saturday evening but will incorporate the Liturgy of Light into our 10am Mass.All of this needs to have new liturgies written, music arranged and videos made and edited. So, I will be taking the advantage of the fact that St Alban’s academy’s is having 2 weeks holiday after Easter and having a rest (stayacation seems to be the new word). Fr Andrew will be Presiding at Mass on the 11<sup>th</sup>. During these 2 weeks there will be no Zoom Evening Prayer.So much for the practicalities this year. Easter is the main festival of the Christian year, remembering our christian hope. We need hope, it’s been over a year since the first lockdown: Covid-19, though reduced in Britain is still a real threat, and across Europe there is a third wave of infections. Hopefully success of the vaccination program will dull the effects of any third wave in Britain but there is still a long way to go. There was darkness and death before the first Easter and there will be more darkness and death before this pandemic is over. Let us not loose our hope when we have setbacks and remember that the ultimate victory is Jesus’.
