Dear Friends,
Today marks Maundy Thursday and the beginning of our Easter Services with Holy Communion this evening at 7.30pm. It also happens to be the day I said I would make a decision about what to do over Easter Sunday. The current weather forecast on the Met Office (Which breaks the day down into hours unlike some phone Apps) says the weather will be dry and sunny but slightly cold. So today I have found myself struggling to come to a decision based solely on practical reasoning and have had to lean on prayer and tradition a bit too.
One of the traditions of Maundy Thursday in England is the presentation of Maundy money by the Sovereign to people who have served the church faithfully for many years. If you take time to listen to some of the stories of those who have been nominated, the acts of service have usually been incredibly selfless, not always glamourous, and regularly involved some sense of sacrifice, but all done in the name of Jesus. When we come to worship it is all about and for Jesus.
When we choose to follow Jesus we choose the way of the cross, a way that is not always comfortable, but a way that offers life and joy. The celebration of Easter is a chance to proclaim afresh the goodness of God with all our might. Following the darkness that has been this year we have an opportunity to witness to each other and the wider community, the wonder of the resurrection. It would be easy to say lets call the outside thing off, reduce our Sunday worship capacity to 80 and hide the celebrations inside the building. As I have contemplated that easy decision, I have found my heart troubled.
Now more than ever, I believe we need community. Now more than ever, we need to remain faithful. Now more than ever, we need to be witnesses to the hope of the resurrection. The idea of one service outside on Easter Sunday was not something that would logically be my first thought – the planning and logistics involved requires much more work, and then it all being weather dependent leaves everything far too last minute for me, but it’s something that continually kept coming up in prayer. My first job as vicar is to try to be as faithful as possible to the God who loves me, and then to serve you his people as wisely as possible.
With this in mind, I’ve taken the decision to go ahead with our Easter celebration at 10am on Easter Sunday outside. It might be slightly cold, but with the company of one another, blankets, warm coats (and yes even hot water bottles and flasks of tea) I believe our celebration of Easter will be a moment of great joy and witness.
I hope you will forgive my lengthy email explaining my reasoning, I hope to worship alongside many of you over the coming days and even on Easter Sunday, whatever decision you choose may you know the joy and love of our Lord Jesus Christ throughout these days of Easter.
Calum
(Should the weather forecast change dramatically between now and then, I will be in touch once more.)