Sunday after Easter

The planning group at the weekend looked forward to our next First Sunday Thing in two weeks time on 1st May. The church will be reading the next bit of the Easter story that day - the risen Lord appearing to the disciples including Thomas. We noticed that God can operate behind our locked doors. We noticed a prayer set for the Sunday beginning Risen Christ, for whom no door is locked, no entrance barred: open the doors of our hearts... It is this theme we will be picking up.

Planning ahead

A small group of us will be meeting informally in St Michael's next Saturday (16th April) to sketch out ideas and plans for the First Sunday Thing for at least May and June. The gathering is open to anyone who wants to come along then or to offer us thoughts in the week before then.

Mother of the Tribe

This is the carving from Mua in Malawi which we looked at this morning. The Chewa sense that God is the 'mother of the tribe' is here made Christian; she has a cross on her forehead and Jesus' death is one of the things going on beneath her feet. Alongside the crucifixion, all sorts of ordinary parts of life (from a school lesson to an old man on a stick) are down there under God's protection as well.