Happy Easter

After spending yesterday being visible today I will be celebrating Easter, this is not just another holiday, a chance to get drunk as there's no work tomorrow, this is something really worth celebrating for Christians today is the day when we particularly remember and celebrate the resurrection of Jesus.  Although it was through the death of Jesus on Good Friday that we are forgiven it is through His resurrection of Easter Sunday that we know the sentence is served, it is through His resurrection that we are reconciled to God, that we are allowed into His presence, that we know we are adopted heirs, that we can call Him "Father"

I will be starting my celebrations at West Croydon Methodist Church, after far too long I am still to settle in any one local Church, this is one I have not visited since moving, maybe this will be the one, I pray that God will guide me to the congregation that he wants me to serve, and be served by.

It will be after church that I will be breaking my fast with a friend.

Advent Calendar XVIII

Oh Dear, Oh Dear, Oh Dear, I've done it again, I managed to miss posting on time.   My excuse ~ life!

EL Greco 1603

Yesterday was the forth Sunday in Advent, so it was the day when we really did have Four Candles.   We had a communion as part of our main Sunday morning service (we don't every week!) and our special Carol Service in the evening.   During communion I was put in mind of a post my friend (I was so tempted to type "Pal") Joey put up the other day about communion at his Church.    Well we are good Anglicans and so do it a little differently, we are given little broken pieces of white bread which we eat and then we drink the wine from a chalice, some will save the bread and dip it into the wine, but most of us parade past the ministers taking the bread and then the wine.

Christ on the Cross,  Eugene Delacroix,1853

Catholic Churches will adopt a similar process but use wafers rather than leavened bread as the host (I assume that this has something to do with transubstantiation). Baptist Churches will pass out the bread and then the wine in small glasses so the congregation can all drink the wine at the same time. However, it struck me that although we may have slight differences we are all very much united by this practice of sharing bread and wine.   It is the one bit of our services that unite us all.     This is what I think of when I say I believe in the Communion of Saints.  

All over the World at 12 O'clock on Saturday night Christians will be meeting together and sharing bread and wine, as we remember not only the birth of Christ but also His death and resurrection. Not only that He came to Earth fully Human, but also that He is fully God and that He has made our sins forgiven and won us eternal life.

Yes Christmas is great, but without Easter it is meaningless.. 

Advent Calendar ~ 14

Today is not only the 14th December it is also Sunday, and as these Advent Sundays are so important I assume that all of you will, like Lila, be going to Church today.

All joking aside I hope to make it to Church today, but I have to be at a runthrough for a concert this afternoon at 1:30 so it may get a bit tight.   We don't have communion services that often these days so I do like to try to get to them when we do.

This may be the time of year when we think of Christ's birth, but without his death and resurrection it would have been pointless,   Christmas only makes sense because of Easter.

"Adoration of the Shepherds" by Gerard van Honthorst, 1622

Matthias Grunewald ~ The Crucifiction of Christ