Vicar's Letter for May	Archive
Jayne writes What joy it has been for those of us saying Morning Prayer early each day to exchange the tough readings and canticles for the Easter stories and Psalms of praise, and how wonderful it was to have such lovely sunny weather as we celebrated the joy of Resurrection and of our own renewed lives! Now we are back to wind and April showers and so we realise too how fortunate we were to have good weather for our Palm Sunday procession, waving palm branches made by children from Manor Park School and following a donkey who, true to his name, went off like a rocket from Parkgate to the Barncroft! Easter Crafts on Good Friday was also a lovely way to involve children, young and not so young(!), in decorating eggs for the tree of life in church, card making and Easter crowns, worn in procession on Easter Sunday. It has been such a joy to see the church so beautifully decorated and, as I remember a vicar from my childhood days putting it, shouting out that Christ is Risen! Thank you to all who worked so hard to enable us all to give glory to God in worship. Now our celebration continues as we reflect on the Easter stories and, with the disciples, await the promised gifts of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. As part of our celebration of Pentecost at the end of May we shall be hosting the United Service at St Cross and we have a visiting speaker who is an associate of the Northumbria Community. Many of us have appreciated the worship resources provided by this Community and the Iona Community and we have a monthly Celtic Eucharist. As a hospital chaplain I used to work closely with chaplains from a variety of denominations; in our worship and prayers together we found we drew upon Celtic prayers and music – these became a rich resource for us. It is my belief that Celtic spirituality can give us much too in our parish setting and in the Christian family here in Knutsford, and so on the evening of Pentecost Sunday we shall have a Celtic Service of the Word (not Holy Communion), and our speaker will give her reflections on Celtic spirituality. Please do see the details later in this magazine and come along! But before Pentecost, on Thursday 21st May we shall celebrate the Ascension with a Sung Eucharist at 8 p.m. You may, like me, have seen paintings which make the Ascension of Jesus into heaven look somewhat absurd – two feet seen below fluffy white clouds! It is a difficult thing to understand and to explain, but I have recently come across these words of St Augustine which may help us: "Christ is now exalted above the heavens, but he still suffers on earth all the pain that we, the members of his body, have to bear....While in heaven he is also with us, and we while on earth are with him. He is here with us by his divinity, his power and his love. We cannot be in heaven, as he is on earth, by divinity, but in him we can be there by love. He did not leave heaven when he came down to us..nor did he withdraw from us when he went up again into heaven....These words are explained by our oneness with Christ, for he is our head and we are his body....Out of compassion for us he descended from heaven, and although he ascended alone, we also ascend, because we are in him by grace....the body as a unity cannot be separated from the head." In the nine days between Ascension and Pentecost we are encouraged to pray for a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit. I am here reminded by a letter received recently from the Warden of Readers, that Julie Withers, our Licensed Pastoral Worker, is well on the way now to her Licensing as a Reader in 6 months time. Let us pray for her in her ministry among us and in her final preparations and study, and do join me in looking forward to the next step in her vocation. As we pray for Julie let us pray for ourselves that we shall recognize the work of the Holy Spirit within us and be bold in using our gifts! Finally I would like to thank you for your Easter greetings and for the help so many of you have given to me while I have been a bit incapacitated after my fall!

Vicar's Letter for May

Archive

Jayne writes
What joy it has been for those of us saying Morning Prayer early each day to exchange the tough readings and canticles for the Easter stories and Psalms of praise, and how wonderful it was to have such lovely sunny weather as we celebrated the joy of Resurrection and of our own renewed lives! Now we are back to wind and April showers and so we realise too how fortunate we were to have good weather for our Palm Sunday procession, waving palm branches made by children from Manor Park School and following a donkey who, true to his name, went off like a rocket from Parkgate to the Barncroft!

Easter Crafts on Good Friday was also a lovely way to involve children, young and not so young(!), in decorating eggs for the tree of life in church, card making and Easter crowns, worn in procession on Easter Sunday. It has been such a joy to see the church so beautifully decorated and, as I remember a vicar from my childhood days putting it, shouting out that Christ is Risen! Thank you to all who worked so hard to enable us all to give glory to God in worship.

Now our celebration continues as we reflect on the Easter stories and, with the disciples, await the promised gifts of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. As part of our celebration of Pentecost at the end of May we shall be hosting the United Service at St Cross and we have a visiting speaker who is an associate of the Northumbria Community. Many of us have appreciated the worship resources provided by this Community and the Iona Community and we have a monthly Celtic Eucharist. As a hospital chaplain I used to work closely with chaplains from a variety of denominations; in our worship and prayers together we found we drew upon Celtic prayers and music – these became a rich resource for us. It is my belief that Celtic spirituality can give us much too in our parish setting and in the Christian family here in Knutsford, and so on the evening of Pentecost Sunday we shall have a Celtic Service of the Word (not Holy Communion), and our speaker will give her reflections on Celtic spirituality. Please do see the details later in this magazine and come along!

But before Pentecost, on Thursday 21st May we shall celebrate the Ascension with a Sung Eucharist at 8 p.m. You may, like me, have seen paintings which make the Ascension of Jesus into heaven look somewhat absurd – two feet seen below fluffy white clouds! It is a difficult thing to understand and to explain, but I have recently come across these words of St Augustine which may help us:
"Christ is now exalted above the heavens, but he still suffers on earth all the pain that we, the members of his body, have to bear....While in heaven he is also with us, and we while on earth are with him. He is here with us by his divinity, his power and his love. We cannot be in heaven, as he is on earth, by divinity, but in him we can be there by love. He did not leave heaven when he came down to us..nor did he withdraw from us when he went up again into heaven....These words are explained by our oneness with Christ, for he is our head and we are his body....Out of compassion for us he descended from heaven, and although he ascended alone, we also ascend, because we are in him by grace....the body as a unity cannot be separated from the head."

In the nine days between Ascension and Pentecost we are encouraged to pray for a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit. I am here reminded by a letter received recently from the Warden of Readers, that Julie Withers, our Licensed Pastoral Worker, is well on the way now to her Licensing as a Reader in 6 months time. Let us pray for her in her ministry among us and in her final preparations and study, and do join me in looking forward to the next step in her vocation. As we pray for Julie let us pray for ourselves that we shall recognize the work of the Holy Spirit within us and be bold in using our gifts!
Finally I would like to thank you for your Easter greetings and for the help so many of you have given to me while I have been a bit incapacitated after my fall!