Good Shepherd Sunday

We failed to put up our weekly message over Easter but we did make plans for the 3rd May at St Nicolas’ when we’ll be savouring lots of different aspects of Psalm 23 (‘The Lord’s my shepherd’) which may well be the best known passage in the Bible; it is the Sunday when the church reads about Christ as the Good Shepherd.

Our pattern established in January seems to be working well for all ages, and is intended to allow people to take part in things or not as they wish. Feedback and suggestions are always welcome.

There will be a quiet half hour prayerful Communion service at 9.30 for those who want to come to this instead of or as well as the First Sunday Thing. After this people will be setting up, giving others lifts and so on.

The First Sunday Thing will then begin at 10.30 with refreshments and the opportunity to get involved in activities going on in the different corners of the church for those who wish to do so. Among them will be art group, a drama group, a music group and a teaching group each of which already has ideas about how to explore the images of the Psalm.

After half and hour the different activities will be brought together for a short act of worship.

First go at St Nicolas'

There had been various forms of speculation about how the First Sunday Thing would go when it moved to St Nicolas' for the first time. In the event everybody fitted in, included the cat which slips into St Nicolas' from time to time and found the doors of the church standing wide open on a Spring day very welcoming. The 9.30 quiet Communion service was actually better attended than it had been at St Michael's. The 10.30 First Sunday Thing used not only the whole building but also the churchyard as people assembled and took part in the Palm Sunday procession in and out at the beginning and end of the service. The drama took place in the middle of the choir with people sitting all the way round (which meant they could feel part of it rather than seeing everything as spectators in front of a stage), and it would be interesting to have feed back on this way of sitting for the service.

Palm crosses

The whole of Holy Week is in the crosses we give to each worshipper who comes on Palm Sunday; our next First Sunday Thing falls on Palm Sunday so everyone who comes will be given one then. They are made of palm leaves just as it was palm branches which were waved by the adoring crowd welcoming Jesus into Jerusalem on the Sunday. They are fashioned into crosses just as the crosses stood on the hill on which Jesus was executed on the Friday.

The importance of 5th April

Holy Week (the eight days from Palm Sunday to Easter Day) is the most significant part of the whole Christian year. It matches day for day the last week of Jesus’ life from entering Jerusalem, through Last Supper (on Maundy Thursday) and crucifixion (on Good Friday) to resurrection. It allows us to follow the events which are covered by about a third of the Gospel accounts. So the First Sunday Thing on Palm Sunday, which will include activities relating to different parts of Holy Week, is an opportunity to touch the heart of what this is all about.

Palm Sunday

The First Sunday Thing moves to St Nicolas' for the first time on 5th April. Plans are in hand for the different activities at the beginning to illustrate or explore the events from Palm Sunday to Good Friday; there will even be a table from which to sample the sorts of Passover food which would have been shared at Jesus' Last Supper. The simple service which will follow will be based on a Palm Sunday procession.

Teach us how to pray

During the Last Sunday Thing last Sunday a small group of people looked at the Lord's Prayer. They wrote simple sentences to say what it menat to them. During the short service at the end two of them read the version of the prayer which they had created.

Our Father in heaven hallowed be your name.
Holy Father we are your children and we worship and love you above all others.

Your Kingdom come.
We welcome your presence in our lives.

Your will be done on earth as in Heaven.
May we follow your example and try to reflect your will.

Give us today our daily bread.
Thank you for all that you give us and help us to share with others.

Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.
We have done wrong, you forgave us, we must learn to forgive others.

Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.
Dear Father lead us away from doing wrong and show us the right way.

For the Kingdom the power and the glory are yours now and forever. Amen.
Yesterday today and always, so be it.

Our third go

Ninety people came together in St Michael’s yesterday morning, and it was the first time some of them had been there on a Sunday morning. One regular from St Nicolas’ proved quite a hand at the Youth Group’s Wii; she even thought it might be worth her investing in one herself in the same way some Old People’s Homes have done as she regrets the sports in which she is no longer able to take part. A few others joined together in creating a sketch to illustrate the Bible story of the day: Jesus won the talent competition when it was discovered that he could throw himself off a high building and be caught by angels, but he spoilt it by refusing to become a celebrity by doing so and preferring to go off and get stuck into a ministry which would lead to his death.