Dear Friends
It was good to welcome numbers of people from across our team, and Penketh Methodist Church, to our communion service on Ash Wednesday at St.Mary’s. Being able to join together in person for this service once again was a real blessing after not being able to do so last year. If you have joined one of the team Lent courses being run by Sarah, Martin and myself, I hope that you are finding that helpful as well.
Looking ahead to Holy Week, there are a number of Team Services taking place:
| Maundy Thursday, 14 April | Communion | St.Paul’s | 7.30pm |
| Vigil | St.Mary’s | 9.00pm | |
| Good Friday, 15 April | Churches Together Service | Honiton Square | 12noon |
| Last Hour at the Cross | St.Philip’s | 2.00pm | |
| Easter Eve, 16 April | Vigil | St.James | 7.30pm |
May I encourage you to join in as many of these different services as possible and not just to attend services in your own church this year? There is a tremendous breadth of opportunities here to worship across our team, and indeed with fellow Christians at Honiton Square on Good Friday, so why not make the most of these and make your experience of Holy Week an even richer one? For those of you unfamiliar with vigils, the word comes from a Latin word meaning ‘awake’. On Maundy Thursday, we are invited to keep awake with Jesus as we remember his time in the Garden of Gethsemane in silent prayer interspersed with readings from John chapters 14-18. On Easter Eve, we are invited to keep awake with Christians throughout the world as we recall the mighty acts of God through Scripture in anticipation of his raising Jesus from the dead. And there is the lighting of an Easter fire outside as we anticipate Jesus, the light of the world, the risen one.
Finally, I want to mention our new team bible verse for this year. The core team of clergy, our ordinand, and local missional leaders sensed that we were being drawn to 1 Philippians chapter 3 verses 13b-14: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. It is not that we should, or can, forget the hurts and the pains of these past two years of Covid, but rather we felt that we don’t want to be held back by them as we seek to build back our churches as we emerge out of restrictions. I hope this verse may prove helpful to us all as we focus on what God has in store for us ahead in the coming months.
With my prayers and best wishes for very Happy Easter.
Jeremy Tear, Pioneer Team Rector
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