Vicar’s letter April	Archive
Jayne writes I have come apart to spend some time reading and praying during this Lenten season. I am here at St Deiniol’s residential library for a 24 hour reading break and I find that I have been given the room named after Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Consequently the books on the shelves in my room all relate to him and his writings and so I am becoming reacquainted with his letters from prison, first read while I was in training for the ministry about 30 years ago. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German Lutheran pastor and theologian. He was also a participant in the German Resistance movement against Nazism. His involvement in plans by members of the German Military Intelligence Office to assassinate Hitler resulted in his arrest in April 1943 and his subsequent execution by hanging in April 1945, shortly before the war's end. Like others who have been imprisoned for their beliefs he was able to rise above the surroundings of his prison cell, finding an inner freedom that many of those who are physically free never find! His writings are an inspiration and with the approach of Easter I have found the following quotations to share with you: Writing to his parents on Easter Day April 1943... “I’m so glad to let you know that even here I’m having a happy Easter. Good Friday and Easter free us to think about other things far beyond our own personal fate, about the ultimate meaning of all life, suffering, and events; and we lay hold of a great hope.” His fiancée Maria Von Wedemeyer tells of how Bonhoeffer lived by church holidays and seasons and she describes one of the happier prison visits thus: “The fact that I brought a sizeable Christmas tree all the way from home created great hilarity with both the guards and Dietrich. He remarked that maybe if he moved his cot out of his cell and stood up for the Christmas season he could accommodate the tree comfortably. It ended up in the Guards’ room where D. was invited to enjoy it. He teased me about it often and complained that I had not brought an Easter bunny for Easter…About Advent he wrote, ‘A prison cell, in which one waits, hopes, does various inessential things, and is completely dependent on the fact that the door of freedom has to be opened from the outside, is not a bad picture of Advent.’ At St Cross on Good Friday we shall be reflecting upon how the death of Christ on the cross opens for us the way to freedom - freedom from all that would hold us in chains. We may be held captive by the wounds that have been inflicted upon us in the past, by our own sin, wrongdoing or sense of unworthiness, and ultimately by our fear of death and dying- these are the chains that can bind us and from which Christ longs to set us free. As we celebrate on the Day of Resurrection, the rolling back of the stone from the tomb and Jesus our Risen Lord bursting forth, let us pray for grace and courage to roll back the stone within our own hearts, to open the door to Christ and to welcome him anew with open arms. As we have welcomed the long awaited Spring let us greet our Lord on Easter Sunday with joy and love and hope.

Vicar’s letter April

Archive

Jayne writes
I have come apart to spend some time reading and praying during this Lenten season. I am here at St Deiniol’s residential library for a 24 hour reading break and I find that I have been given the room named after Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Consequently the books on the shelves in my room all relate to him and his writings and so I am becoming reacquainted with his letters from prison, first read while I was in training for the ministry about 30 years ago. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German Lutheran pastor and theologian. He was also a participant in the German Resistance movement against Nazism. His involvement in plans by members of the German Military Intelligence Office to assassinate Hitler resulted in his arrest in April 1943 and his subsequent execution by hanging in April 1945, shortly before the war's end. Like others who have been imprisoned for their beliefs he was able to rise above the surroundings of his prison cell, finding an inner freedom that many of those who are physically free never find! His writings are an inspiration and with the approach of Easter I have found the following quotations to share with you:

Writing to his parents on Easter Day April 1943...
“I’m so glad to let you know that even here I’m having a happy Easter. Good Friday and Easter free us to think about other things far beyond our own personal fate, about the ultimate meaning of all life, suffering, and events; and we lay hold of a great hope.”

His fiancée Maria Von Wedemeyer tells of how Bonhoeffer lived by church holidays and seasons and she describes one of the happier prison visits thus:
“The fact that I brought a sizeable Christmas tree all the way from home created great hilarity with both the guards and Dietrich. He remarked that maybe if he moved his cot out of his cell and stood up for the Christmas season he could accommodate the tree comfortably. It ended up in the Guards’ room where D. was invited to enjoy it. He teased me about it often and complained that I had not brought an Easter bunny for Easter…About Advent he wrote, ‘A prison cell, in which one waits, hopes, does various inessential things, and is completely dependent on the fact that the door of freedom has to be opened from the outside, is not a bad picture of Advent.’

At St Cross on Good Friday we shall be reflecting upon how the death of Christ on the cross opens for us the way to freedom - freedom from all that would hold us in chains. We may be held captive by the wounds that have been inflicted upon us in the past, by our own sin, wrongdoing or sense of unworthiness, and ultimately by our fear of death and dying- these are the chains that can bind us and from which Christ longs to set us free. As we celebrate on the Day of Resurrection, the rolling back of the stone from the tomb and Jesus our Risen Lord bursting forth, let us pray for grace and courage to roll back the stone within our own hearts, to open the door to Christ and to welcome him anew with open arms. As we have welcomed the long awaited Spring let us greet our Lord on Easter Sunday with joy and love and hope.