ACS Scarborough Reports

see http://www.additionalcurates.co.uk for Holy Week visit of Fr Darren to Dulverton and St Saviour, Scarborough.

Father Darren's visit to the Church of St Saviour with All Saints, Scarborough and Dulverton Hall

Come over and help us

(We have had an excellent Holy Week and Easter at St Saviour, Scarborough with Fr Darren Smith and priest friend from Birmingham presiding and preaching. The post of parish priest is vacant and information for applicants can be found on the York Diocese web site. Fr Darren is General Secretary of the Additional Curates Society. Both priests have been staying with us at Dulverton Hall. Look out for photos and reports on the ACS site and in future ACS literature).

Gospel

Jn 20:1-9

On the first day of the week,
Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning,
while it was still dark,
and saw the stone removed from the tomb.
So she ran and went to Simon Peter
and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them,
“They have taken the Lord from the tomb,
and we don’t know where they put him.”
So Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb.
They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter
and arrived at the tomb first;
he bent down and saw the burial cloths there, but did not go in.
When Simon Peter arrived after him,
he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there,
and the cloth that had covered his head,
not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place.
Then the other disciple also went in,
the one who had arrived at the tomb first,
and he saw and believed.
For they did not yet understand the Scripture
that he had to rise from the dead.

Sermon

Father Darren Smith ACS General Secretary.

He was ordained on 29th June 1986 and was the Parish Priest at Saint Luke's, Kingstanding for 17 years.
Previously he was Assistant Priest at Saint Cuthbert's, Castle Vale, Birmingham and Assistant Curate at Saint Aidan's, New Parks, Leicester.

The story of the Additional Curates Society's origins is fascinating. It speaks about the changes in society in the middle of the nineteenth century in England, as well as the significant movement in the life of the Established Church at that time. We are in the throes of the Industrial Revolution on the one hand, and the Tractarian Movement on the other.The two are welded together in an interesting fashion by our lay founder - JOSHUA WATSON. We also reflect in our story the piety and generosity of prominent layfolk in the early eighteen hundreds. Joshua Watson was born on Ascension Day in 1771.
He worked in the family business at 16 Mincing Lane in the City of London and was a port importer. By 1812, he was able to retire and thereafter devote himself to good works. His achievements were considerable. He founded The National Incorporated Church Building Society which built new churches and The National Society which provided schools for the people moving to live and work in the new industrial areas. The Additional Curates Society was established to provide for the spiritual needs of people who were moving into the new industrial estates. The clear intention was that people in these new towns should have priests to teach the Christian Faith and minister among them providing the sacraments of the Church. Joshua was joined in his endeavours by a large number of people who shared his vision and generosity. In 1837, the subscription of £500, from King William IV, opened the fund and ACS was born. Joshua Watson numbered among his friends major Statues in the Oxford Movement; Newman, Keble, Pusey, and he married the daughter of Father Wagner. Joshua Watson and his companions set out to put into practical effect the ideals of the Tractarian Movement by ensuring that the Christian Gospel should touch the lives of the poorest in the land. The Priesthood was seen as a precious gift from God in the mission of the Church. The "apostolical succession" was important and from the beginning to this day ACS has insisted that grants be given only to priests licensed by the bishop and resident in the parish. In the early days grants were used to pay the stipend of the assistant curate - often in full. As the Church assumed responsibility for paying the stipend of a curate, ACS assisted in paying for housing, and more recently grants have been applied to help defray the cost to the parish of employing an assistant priest. Today the Church faces a new situation and new uncertainties. The great financial losses experienced by the Church Commissioners means that parishes are being faced with new financial burdens. The ACS will seek to relieve these burdens, particularly in the least affluent parishes of the land where these hardships will be most felt. Without doubt, many parishes would never be able to contemplate employing an assistant priest without assistance from ACS. Diocesan Bishops have always been pleased to call on ACS to enable them to place curates in parishes needing financial help. ACS has always sought to respond with generosity. Any parish may apply to ACS for a grant for an assistant priest. Grants are assessed by the Council and awarded on the grounds of the parishes' financial needs and the number of people living in the parish. The size of a grant is determined by the income of the parish and the amount of money available at the time of the application. The Council meets quarterly to consider new grants. Grants are awarded for the duration of the curacy. Grants are paid retrospectively and cease when the curate moves on to another parish. A new application has to be made by the parish when a new assistant priest is employed.

Regina Coeli

(On Thursdays I attend mass at St Saviour, Scarborough where during EASTERTIDE the Regina Coeli is sung/recited)

One Easter morning, St Gregory the Great was walking in procession when he heard angels chanting:

Regina coeli laetare, alleluia,
Quia quem meruisti portare, alleluia,
Resurrexit, sicut dixit, alleluia.

And he added the last line:

Ora pro nobis Deum, alleluia.

Other than this legend, the authorship of the Regina Coeli is completely unknown although it has been attributed to Gregory V, apparently without any reason. During Easter, from the Easter Vigil until Pentecost, it replaces the Angelus and is often sung in the following translation to the tune of "Jesus Christ is Risen Today":

Joy to thee, O Queen of Heaven. Alleluia!
He whom thou wast meet to bear. Alleluia!
As he promised hath arisen. Alleluia!
Pour for us to God thy prayer. Alleluia!

V. Rejoice and be glad, O Virgin Mary, alleluia.
R. For the Lord is risen indeed, alleluia.

O God who by the resurrection of your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, didst vouchsafe to bring joy to the whole world.
Grant that through his Mother, the Virgin Mary, we may obtain the joys of everlasting life.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen.

Twice in a month

(from magazine of St Martin on the hill, Scarborough)

I shall be celebrating Easter twice this month. Once according to the Western rite on the 12th. Once according to the Eastern rite on the 19th. I have been invited to share the Orthodox Triduum with the Coptic monks at the Monastery of St Athanasius at Langdale End.

The Coptic Orthodox Church is the national church in Egypt and Ethiopia. Its patron is the Evangelist St Mark and it claims to be the first church established outside Palestine.

St Antony was born in Egypt in 251 and became the father of Christian monasticism. He died in 356 and is buried in the cave in the Eastern desert where he lived and prayed for many years. Below the cave stands the first monastery of his disciples. St Athanasius was a contemporary of St Antony and following his contributions at the Council of Nicea in 325 he became the Coptic Patriarch.

The East-West divide in Christendom is narrowing and will one day be bridged. Anglican-Orthodox relations are well established and ongoing.

The Feast of Feasts in Orthodoxy is reckoned by the Julian calendar whilst in the West we follow the Gregorian calendar. This is why their date sometimes coincides with ours but at other time is one, four or five weeks later. This year it is just one week later.

The Church's Year, with its sequence of fasts and feasts, is something of overwhelming importance in the religious experience of Orthodox Churches. Hammond in 'The Waters of Marah' writes:

"Nobody who has kept the great Lent with the Greek Church, who has shared in the fast which lies heavy upon the whole nation for forty days; who has known the desolation of the holy and greatFriday, when every bell tolls its lament and the body of the Saviour lies shrouded in flowers; who has been present at the kindling of the new fire and tasted the joy of a world released from the bondage of sin and death - none can have lived through all this and not have realized that for Greek Christians the Gospel is inseparably linked with the liturgy that is unfolded week by week in his parish church. Not only among Greeks but throughout Orthodox Christendom the liturgy has remained at the very heart of the Church's life."

Even on Good Friday the Orthodox Church sounds a note of Resurrection. Calvary is always seen in the light of the empty tomb. The Cross is an emblem of victory. They agree with John Chrysostom: "I call Him king, because I see Him crucified".

We worship thy Passion, O Christ:

Show us also thy glorious Resurrection!

Empty Tomb

DELIA'S LENT REFLECTIONS John 20:9 Then the other disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in;  he saw and he believed.

Photo: Paul Smith, Colombia Up at 5.00 a.m.  sat in the dark awaiting dawn  over the  Scarborough sea. Too overcast  to see sun rise  but knew it  happened  because light  broke through  and gradually  flooded the  world outside  and the room  inside. By 6.00 a.m. day break was complete.

Entombed

The Tomb of Jesus Question: The tomb where Jesus was buried... Where is it?  What does it look like? Is there a picture of the tomb?  Can you visit the burial site of Jesus? Answer: It would be really nice if I could tell you that the photo below is of the tomb that Jesus once was laid in.  Though this tomb, well outside of Jerusalem, serves as a  great example of a first century burial place, that's all it is... a great example.

Note the track for the stone to roll in. Some of these  tombs had even larger stones and a steeper incline...  making it easy to close the tomb and very difficult to open.  The steel band, of course, was not part of the original  and now prevents the stone from being moved. Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean  linen cloth, and placed it in his own new  tomb that he had cut out of the rock. He rolled  a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb  and went away. (Matthew 27:59-60)

Easter Triduum

The Easter Triduum

Since Ash Wednesday, when Lent began, we have been preparing for Easter. But Lent, as many believe, doesn't end on Easter Sunday. It ends when the Easter Triduum begins - on Holy Thursday. The Triduum encompasses the three days - Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Vigil/Easter Sunday - when we celebration the death and resurrection of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

On Holy Thursday we remember the Last Supper. Jesus gives us the Sacrament of the Eucharist…

Then he took the bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body, which will be given for you; do this in memory of me." And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which will be shed for you. (Luke 22:19-20)

Jesus then washes the feet of his disciples as an example of the service to which we are all called. At the Holy Thursday Mass the presider, and oftentimes other members of the parish, wash the feet of all those present who wish to participate.

The only Masses celebrated on Holy Thursday are in the evening. No daytime masses are scheduled anywhere within our universal church except the evening mass, which marks the beginning of the Easter Triduum.

On Good Friday we remember the passion and death of Jesus Christ. It is a day of fasting and abstinence. There are a variety of services held on Good Friday, from the solemn Liturgy of Good Friday - where the Passion of Christ is proclaimed and the opportunity to venerate the cross given - to the Living Stations of the Cross. My parish has a Tenebrae service that is one of the most powerful Good Friday services I've ever experienced. Tenebrae is Latin for "darkness" or "shadows" and its purpose is to recreate the emotional aspects of the passion story through narration, meditation, prayer and song. With the telling of the story and the seven words Jesus spoke from the cross, candles are extinguished; one at a time after each time Jesus speaks from the cross until all candles are out and the church is in darkness. Then a loud noise is made to symbolize the earthquake at the time of his death. All leave in quiet and darkness. The light of Christ doesn't burn again until the Easter Vigil.

Easter Vigil is when we proclaim with fire and song that Jesus Christ, our Lord, has risen. The Vigil Mass is long, but is one of the most amazing Masses of the year - at least in my experience. Easter Vigil is when we welcome many who have been preparing to enter the Catholic Church into full communion with us.

Easter Sunday is just part of the story. To experience the fullness of the Easter story - the Easter Triduum - the passion, death and resurrection of our Lord, give yourself the awesome gift of attending the Mass of the Lord's Supper on Holy Thursday, a service on Good Friday and either the Easter Vigil or Easter Sunday Mass.

The Annotine Easter

My Ordo says today is 'The Annotine Easter'. What is that? you ask.



The Annotine Easter is the commemoration of the preceeding Easter.

If it falls in Lent it is transferred.

The origin of its institution seems to be the natural wish of those baptised at Easter to celebrate the first anniversary of their spiritual illumination.

Proclaiming the Resurrection

.....then and now !

During Eastertide we meditate and reflect on the life and work of the early church described in the Acts of the Apostles. We seek to soak up the enthusiasm, the energy, the zeal, the commitment, and the complete and utter dedication of the first disciples and apostles.

Many say: 'There can be no doubt that the early Church was surely blessed and anointed with signs and wonders and knew an unparalleled evangelistic zeal and courage. This was the Holy Spirit kick-starting the Church. Such signs, wonders and evangelistic zeal are not for today. Our job nowadays is to maintain the church and keep it plodding on.'

We refute this thinking. The Holy Spirit didn't simply kick-start the Church: the same Holy Spirit who worked in these early believers is the same Holy Spirit at work in us today.

Regina Coeli

Used instead of Angelus until evening of Pentecost.

Joy to thee, O Queen of heaven: alleluia
He whom thou wast meet to bear: alleluia
As he promised hath arisen: alleluia
Pour for us to God thy prayer: alleluia

Rejoice and be glad, O Virgin Mary, alleluia
For the Lord is risen indeed, alleluia.

O God, who by the resurrection of thy Son our Lord Jesus Christ has brought joy to the whole world; grant that through his Mother the virgin Mary we may obtain the joys of everlasting life. We ask this through Jesus the Lord. Amen.

Via Lucis

Stations of the Resurrection

The Via Lucis (Way of Light) is an excellent compliment to the Via Crucis (Way of the Cross).
It consists of 14 meditations contemplating the risen life of Christ through appropriate scriptures and a set of pictures or sculptures e.g. those found in the sanctuary of Our Lady of the Rosary, Pompei, Italy. They are inspired by the spirituality of St John Bosco.

The Stations are:
1. Jesus rises from the Dead
2. The Disciples find the Empty Tomb
3. The Risen Lord appears to Mary Magdalen
4. The Risen Lord appears to Two Disciples on the Road to Emmaus
5. The Risen Lord reveals Himself at the Breaking of Bread
6. The Risen Lord appears to His Disciples
7. The Risen Lord gives Power to Forgive Sins
8. The Risen Lord confirms the Faith of Thomas
9. The Risen Lord meets His Disciples on the Shore of Galilee
10.The Risen Lord confers Primacy on Peter
11.The Risen Lord entrusts to His Disciples the Mission to the World
12.The Risen Lord ascends to the Father
13.Waiting for the Holy Spirit with Mary the Mother of Jesus
14.The Risen Lord sends the Spirit Promised to the Disciples

V We adore you and bless you O Risen Lord
R Because by your death and resurrection you have given life to the world

The Season of Easter

It can seem that once Easter Sunday has passed easter is finished, but the celebration continues for fifty days.

Next Sunday is traditionally known as Low Sunday or White Sunday which refers to the white baptismal garment of the newly baptised. Divine Mercy Sunday is a new feast also celebrated on this day. It comes almost as an opportunity in which anyone who missed out on celebrating the mercy of Christ in Holy Week has another chance.

After forty days we celebrate the feast of the Ascension of Christ who returns to the Father to send us the Holy Spirit. We spend the novena (nine days) between Ascension and Pentecost praying for the Spirit like Mary and the apostles in the Upper Room. On the fiftieth day (which is the literal meaning of the word 'Pentecost') Easter ends. On that day Christ's Passover is fulfilled in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

Our celebration of Easter resonates throughout the rest of the year: full of gratitude for Christ's passion, joy in his resurrection and, strengthened by the Spirit, we continue our Christian journey.

The Empty Sepulchre

John 20.1-10 (KJV)

20:1 The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre.
20:2 Then she runneth, and cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and saith unto them, They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him.
20:3 Peter therefore went forth, and that other disciple, and came to the sepulchre.
20:4 So they ran both together: and the other disciple did outrun Peter, and came first to the sepulchre.
20:5 And he stooping down, and looking in, saw the linen clothes lying; yet went he not in.
20:6 Then cometh Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulchre, and seeth the linen clothes lie,
20:7 And the napkin, that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself.
20:8 Then went in also that other disciple, which came first to the sepulchre, and he saw, and believed.
20:9 For as yet they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead.
20:10 Then the disciples went away again unto their own home.

Dulverton Sermon

The Easter Gospel according to John in this KJ version retains the old word 'sepulchre' and uses it 7 times in 10 verses. Other translations use 'tomb' or 'grave'.

As Lent began this year I was reading a novel by Kate Mosse called 'Sepulchre'. The chapters flip back and forth between 1891 and 2007. In 2007 a young woman has a Tarot card reading in Paris which leads her to an hotel on the edge of a wood outside a town in southern France. There she makes connection with a young woman of 1891 when the hotel was a private residence. The contemporary Meredith begins to find links between hereself and Leone who was staying at the house more than a century earlier. In the woods is a ruined sepulchre which links both their lives back another hundred years to dark events which occurred there. It is a mystery of murder, revenge, and obsession which continues to affect their connected lives across the centuries. It is a story of influences from beyond the grave but it is no gospel story.

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre stands in Jerusalem, built over the traditional sites where our Lord was crucified and his body laid. As a pilgrim I have knelt at the place of the cross and crept inside the sepulchre the venerate the marble slab where the body was laid. From this sepulchre, for more than 2000 years, resurrection life has reverberated across the centuries in countless Christian lives. From beyond death this is a gospel story.

On 16th February 1977, Archbishop Janani Luwum of Uganda had a meeting with President Idi Amin, whose murderous regime he had opposed outspokenly. After the meeting, the Archbishop was driven away, along with two government ministers. Uganda Radio announced that the three of them had been arrested, and the following morning it was stated that they had died in a car accident. In fact, they had been shot on the orders of Amin. A funeral service planned for the following Sunday was forbidden by the government, and the Archbishop's body was not released. Nevertheless, thousands gathered at the cathedral and the service went ahead around an open grave. Standing over the empty grave, Luwum's successor, Archbishop Wani, repeated the message of the angel that was spoken on the first Easter day: "He is not here. He is risen." Yet another empty sepulchre speaking of resurrection life and power in the name of Jesus.

"The disciple whom Jesus loved.....went into the sepulchre, and he saw, and believed." So the love of God has drawn us too to the Lord's risen presence in places and people where he is not to be seen physically, but he is to be seen spiritually by those who believe. We have seen and we have believed. Christ is risen, he is risen indeed!

Our testimony to this faith and experience is in our baptism into his death and resurrection. We too are an Easter people. So today we replace the recitation of the creed with the renewal of our baptismal vows.

Holy Saturday

On Holy Saturday, the Church waits at the Lord's tomb, meditating on his suuefring and death. The altar is left bare, and the mass is not celebrated until after the solemn vigil during the night, held then in anticipation of the resurrection. Only then does the Easter celebration begin, with a spirit of joy that overflows into the following period of fifty days. The early church continued to fast through Holy Saturday.

The Easter Vigil

Some may think of the Easter Vigil as just a longer mass but this is only part of the story. There are things we do at the Easter Vigil that we do at no other time in the church year.

We light the new Easter Candle from a large fire outside to remind us that Jesus is our light in the darkness, we then process into the darkened church. We hear the great hymn of praise called the 'Exultet', in which we praise Christ for saving us. The hymn says that we would greatly prefer a fallen universe with Christ to a perfect one without him. 'O Happy fault which deserved so great a Saviour'. We hear more readings than usual on this night, recounting the history of our salvation. Most significantly we welcome new members into the Church and with them we all renew our Baptismal promises.

We need time to do all these things well, so we begin a fifty day season of feasting with this long liturgy that is packed with all the riches the Church has to offer.

Maundy Thursday

The Easter Triduum

The Triduum means 'three days', each from sunset to sunset. Each day tells a different part of the story of Jesus' saving action. The Church celebrates one liturgy each day with all three forming a single extended liturgy. There is no dismissal and blessing at the endof the Maundy Thursday mass and no formal beginning and end to the Good Friday liturgy. The three day liturgy concludes with the solemn blessing at the end of the Easter Vigil or at the morning mass on Easter Sunday. It is good to attend all three parts with the same parish community.

Maundy Thursday

The word 'maundy' comes from mandatum, or command, given by Christ at the Last Supper that we should love one another. This is remembered in the liturgy through the 'washing of feet' in imitation of Christ's humility and service at the Last Supper.

The liturgy also commemorate in a special way the institution of the 'Sacrament of sacraments', the Eucharist.

After the mass the Blessed Sacrament is taken to an altar of repose and reserved there to provide a focus of devotion for the faithful, watching and waiting with Jesus and the disciples in Gethsemane.

Queen to attend NI Maundy service

The Queen will break with centuries of tradition later when she attends the first Maundy Thursday service to take place outside England and Wales.

It is being held in St Patrick's Church of Ireland Cathedral in Armagh, Ireland's ecclesiastical capital.

The leaders of the four main churches on the island are to attend the traditional alms-giving ceremony.

It marks the final day of a three-day visit by the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh to Northern Ireland.
Representatives of the Jewish, Muslim and Hindu faiths will also attend the service, at which the Catholic Primate Cardinal Sean Brady and the Duke of Edinburgh are expected to give readings.

Maundy Thursday has been celebrated since the earliest days of the Christian Church.

The word Maundy is derived from Latin and refers to Christ's commandment at the Last Supper to love one another, before he washed the feet of his disciples.

The tradition of the sovereign giving alms to the poor stretches back to at least the 12th Century and there are continuous records from the reign of King Edward 1.

From the middle ages, the number of recipients mirrors the sovereign's years.

The Queen will present Maundy Thursday alms purses to 164 people - 82 men and 82 women.
These people come from all over Northern Ireland and are deemed to have made a significant contribution to church or community life.

The distribution of the alms comes in two parts. The red purse contains an allowance in place of food and clothing given in bygone times.

In the white purse there are Maundy coins, as many pence as the Queen is years old (82).

The coins are legal tender, but because they are so rare are sought after by collectors.

Pupils from local schools, who are known as Maundy children, will attend the Queen.

The Chapel Royal Choir and the choir of St Patrick's Cathedral will lead the worship.

Bishop uses shoe shine to replace foot washing

A Bishop has rolled up his sleeves to give shoppers a free, symbolic, shoe shine in place of the traditional foot-washing.

The Rt Rev Ian Cundy, Bishop of Peterborough, and more than 10 other clergymen and women from across the city gave shoppers' shoes "a bit of spit and polish" in Cathedral Square, reports the local online news service Peterborough Now.

The session, which took place on Maundy Thursday was held to represent a modern version of Christ washing the feet of the 12 disciples at the Last Supper.

Diocesan Mission Enabler the Rev Tim Sledge, who took part in the event, explained: "The message of Easter is that God has given us a free gift ñ his love ñ and the promise of a new start in life.

"He offers to clean us up and set us on our feet again."

"So we're giving people a free, but symbolic, gift by cleaning their shoes."

The bishop, who sat in the line up of clergy members for the full hour the session lasted, added: "This is a good way of telling people about Easter, particularly the washing of the feet.
"Hopefully, people will visit their local church on Easter Sunday, too."

People of all ages sat in front of the shoe shiners to have their footwear cleaned.

The Archdeacon of Northampton, a former Royal Marine, said he had enjoyed polishing shoes.
He added: "People from the marines have a very clear purpose, and so do we with doing this.
"We are polishing shoes today, because it's a bit cold for washing feet."

The Wounds of Christ

In the Roman Catholic, Anglican, and some Protestant churches, the ceremonial lighting of the Paschal candle is one of the most solemn moments of the Easter Vigil on the Saturday evening before Easter. On Maundy Thursday of the same week, the entire church is darkened when all the candles and lamps are extinguished. Then, at the opening of the Easter Vigil, a new fire is lit and blessed. This represents the risen Christ, as a symbol of light (life) dispelling darkness (death). The Paschal candle is the first candle to be lit with a flame from this sacred fire, representing the light of Christ coming into the world. Typically, the worshipping assembly then processes into the church, led by the candle. The candle is raised three times during the procession, accompanied by the chant "The light of Christ" to which the assembly responds "Thanks be to God". Following the procession, a leader chants the Exultet, which concludes with a blessing of the candle:

Accept this Easter candle, a flame divided but undimmed, a pillar of fire that glows to the honor of God.

(For it is fed by the melting wax, which the mother bee brought forth to make this precious candle.)

Let it mingle with the lights of heaven and continue bravely burning to dispel the darkness of this night!

May the Morning Star which never sets find this flame still burning: Christ, that Morning Star, who came back from the dead, and shed his peaceful light on all humanity, your Son, who lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen.

This candle is traditionally the one from which all other lights are taken. In most cases today the candle will display the Greek letters alpha and omega (the beginning and the end), together with the year indicated at the base. Five grains of incense in red are embedded in it to represent the wounds of Jesus Christ (from the nails in each hand and foot and the spear in the side).
It is also used at baptisms to light the candles that represent the light of Christ. For that reason, after the Easter season, it is frequently found near the baptismal font.

The candle remains lighted at all worship services through the season of Easter. Throughout the remainder of the year, the Paschal candle is lit at all services that include baptism and for the worship services surrounding death (funeral, Mass of Repose, and Mass of Requiem) as a sign of the hope of the resurrection into which Christians are baptized.

In the medieval church they often reached a stupendous size. The Paschal candle of Salisbury Cathedral was said to have been 36 feet tall. Most commonly today, the candle is approximately 2 inches in diameter and 27 to 39 inches tall.

Easter Candle

John 20, 19-31

When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained." But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord." But he said to them, "Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe." A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe." Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!" Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe." Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.

Easter Saturday

Let's get one thing clear. Today is Easter Saturday. Last Saturday was Holy Saturday leading into Easter Eve. It is a simply point but it seems to be beyond most of the general public and those who write and speak in the media in particular. Saturday in Easter Week makes it even clearer or Saturday in the Octave of Easter.

Easter Saturday

Easter Saturday is the Saturday after the Christian festival of Easter, also called Saturday in Easter week. It is sometimes confused with Holy Saturday (Easter Eve, or Low Saturday), which is the day before Easter Sunday.
The date of Easter Saturday changes from year to year, following the changing date of Easter. For the year 2007 the date of Easter Saturday is 14 April.


Eastertide

Eastertide is the archaic English term for what is now called the Easter Season. Eastertide began on Easter Sunday and continued until Pentecost in the Christian liturgical calendar, thus spanning a total of seven weeks. Some denominations — most notably the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican churches — formerly included the succeeding two weeks as well.

The first eight days of the Eastertide are commonly referred to as the Octave of Easter.

Until 1970, the Roman Catholic calendar labelled the Sundays following Easter Sunday as "Sundays After Easter," the first such Sunday traditionally being called Low Sunday (although now it is more commonly known as Divine Mercy Sunday), the next Sunday the "Second Sunday After Easter", the Sunday after that the "Third Sunday After Easter", and so on. The fifth Sunday after Easter was sometimes called Rogation Sunday, or "the Sunday before the Rogation days". On the Thursday after the aforementioned Sunday, forty days after Easter Sunday, is the feast of the Ascension, and the Sunday falling three days after this was known as the "Sunday After Ascension" (formerly "Sunday with the Octave of the Ascension") and less commonly as the "Sixth Sunday After Easter." Pentecost is the next Sunday, followed by Trinity Sunday, and four days after the latter, the feast of Corpus Christi, which in many places can be celebrated on the following Sunday. The calendar week (Sunday through Saturday) beginning on Trinity Sunday was deemed the last week of the Easter season, which thus encompassed nine weeks. (Check this, because the pre-Vatican II calendar had Paschal time as ending on the Saturday after Pentecost.)

This holiday is apparently based upon the Jewish festival of "Shavuot" (Weeks on Hebrew) and the counting of the "Omer". This begins immediately after the start of Passover. Each day is counted and after 7 weeks have past (49 days) the important holiday of Shavuot is celebrated on the 50th day/ This was one of the three major Jewish holidays in which a pilgrimage was made to the temole in Jerusalem, were sacrifices were made. Early (Jewish) Christians apparently included this ritual in Christianity, hence the counting of 49+1 day from Easter, which was originally celebrated according to the Jewish date for Passover - 14th of Nissan

His Resurrection and mine

Today's Gospel (John 20.1-9)

Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him." Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the cloth that had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead.

Today's Dulverton Sermon ("He saw and he believed")

Today is not only about what happened in a Jerusalem garden two thousand years ago. It is about what is happening here in this Dulverton chapel this morning. It is also about what will happen when I die.

I particularly like today's gospel because it tells us about the first of a long line of disciples who came to believe in the Risen Lord without actually having seen him.

John was younger than Peter and this may account for his ability to outrun him to the tomb. Nevertheless, when he got there, after glancing inside he stood back to allow Peter to enter first. Perhaps already Peter was being perceived as leader of the apostles. The gospel writer tells us what Peter saw but not how he reacted, except by silence. Whereas when John entered and saw the same scene we are specifically told about his reaction - "he saw and he believed" that the grave had been unable to hold his divine Lord who had risen from the dead. The grave clothes lay undisturbed in place, and still folded as they had been the previous evening on the Lord's dead body. He was risen. His body had not been stolen otherwise the clothes would not have remained as they were found early on the morning of the first Easter day.

We are told that John was the disciple Jesus loved. Jesus loved all the disciples so there must have been a special quality to our Lord's love of John and John's love for him. My guess is that it was the special nature of the love between them which gave John the eyes to see and the mind to understand the meaning of what he found in the empty tomb. Love can often grasp truth when the intellect alone is left groping and uncertain. None of us can understand Jesus as a living and personal friend unless we bring to him our heart's love as well as our eyes and our minds.

The Church could not have come into existence apart from this loving conviction among believers that Jesus was risen from the dead. The Acts of the Apostles is sometimes called "The Gospel of the Resurrection" because there isn't a sermon in it in which the resurrection isn't central to the preacher's message. The Church in each successive generation can only continue by the faith of new believers perceiving the reality of Jesus risen and alive at the heart of Christian experience and evangelism.

Today there are five place where we can see and believe:

1. In the Community - "where two or three are gathered I am in the midst".

2. In the Eucharist - "this is my body, this is my blood".

3. In the Word - "you are my disciples if you continue in my word".

4. In the Other - "as much as you do it to the least you do it to me".

5. In the Ministry - "he who hears you hears me".

Back in the late fifties Michael Ramsey conducted university missions at Cambridge, Oxford, and Dublin. In February 1960 the mission addresses were published as "An Introduction to the Christian Faith". His final word to the series of addresses was "The Christian lives as heir of the Resurrection. He sees the world and faces its troubles in the Resurrection perspective. Saintly men and women often show us what this means On the one hand they are not remote from the suffering of the world: they have a keener sensitivity to it. On the other hand they bring to bear upon it a sort of heavenly serenity and peace which gives strength to others and sweetness to bitter places. This blending of sensitivity and serenity is the mark of the saint; he lives out the meaning of the Resurrection".

Alleluia. Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. Alleluia.

Christmas and Crucifixion go together

Book of Common Prayer Collect for the Feast of the Annunciation of the Lord
(also concluding prayer of the Angelus)

We beseech thee, O Lord, pour thy grace into our hearts; that, as we have known the incarnation of thy Son Jesus Christ by the message of an angel, so by his cross and passion may we be brought unto the glory of his resurrection; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

It has been revealed that this year's BBC "Songs of Praise" for Easter was recorded straight after the Christmas programme in Lichfield Cathedral. Low lighting, evergreen displays and candles for Christmas were removed and the windows were back lit to reflect a sunny day. Congregation members shed their winter coats. The bishop says "it wasn't a deliberate deceit but it gave an air of unreality to the Easter programme". That may be so but Incarnation and Redemption are two sides of the coin of God's love for mankind manifest in the life death and resurrection of Jesus.

The Feast of the Annunciation, as this year, often falls in Lent and frequently in Passiontide which is no bad thing for reminding Christians of the unity of God's plan for the world. Mary the mother of our Lord in her 'yes' to God at the Annunciation was also consenting to be drawn deep into the Passion and Death of God's Son too. It was a total commitment not only to be "Mother of God" but also "Our Lady of Sorrows". We honour Mary at the crib and we honour Mary at the Cross.

The old man Simeon's words were truly prophetic when he said "This Child is set for a sign that will be contradicted" and to Mary "A sword will pierce your soul too".

Father, as Your Son was raised on the Cross, His Mother Mary stood by Him, sharing His sufferings. May Your Church be united with Christ in His sufferings and death and so come to share in His rising to new Life. (Opening Prayer for "Our Lady of Sorrows" on 15th September).