Dear Friends,
What an incredible Easter weekend we have had!
It started quietly on Maundy Thursday with a small group – 11 disciples gathered in a room (I only realised later the significance of that number!) – participating in the actions of washing feet, sharing the last supper, and remembering Jesus last night with his disciples.
Then on Good Friday we were led in a beautiful and powerful reflection on the events of Jesus’ passion. Thank you so much to Steve, and to Miriam Downey, Christopher Krousoratis, Lauren Smith and Megan Williams who put so much work and thought into that service. Thank you, too, to James and the choir for your beautiful singing, and to James, Kelly Tsang and Eric Tsoi for your playing.
And again, on Sunday – there was more incredible music! Thank you so much!
And the Community Easter Egg Hunt (pictured here) was also wonderful!
Thank you to Katrien and Saskia Blackburn, Mitchel Joyce-Griggs, Ciru, Daniel and James Nganga, Charo Paynter and others who helped organise the event. We estimate there were 60-70 people here from around Kingston. Steve invited people to go in and experience the church and a couple of families stayed for the service. A lot of those who came were Playgroup families – so it was lovely to have a chat with them as the children looked for eggs.
One mum, whose daughter was too young to understand what was happening and how to look for eggs, said her daughter had received “a basket of kindness” – so many other children had given eggs to her! There were lots of expressions of thanks to the church for having hosted the event – and for the emphasis on kindness and sharing.
In the bulletin on Thursday, I included the words of this poem Look there! the Christ, our Brother, comes by John Frederic Bennett, and the last verse sums up Easter Sunday – after the whole weekend of reflection and celebration – for me.
Grace and peace and “Joy! joy! joy to the heart” – to you – “and all in this day’s dawning!”
Belinda
Look there! the Christ, our Brother, comes
Look there! the Christ, our Brother,
comes resplendent from the gallows tree
and what he brings in his hurt hands
is life on life for you and me.
Good Jesus Christ inside his pain
looked down Golgotha’s stony slope
and let the blood flow from his flesh
to fill the springs of living hope.
Good Jesus Christ, our Brother died
in darkest hurt upon the tree
to offer us the worlds of light
that live inside the Trinity.
Look there! the Christ, our Brother,
comes resplendent from the gallows tree
and what he brings in his hurt hands
is life on life for you and me.
Joy! joy! joy to the heart
and all in this good day’s dawning.
Joy! joy! joy to the heart
and all in this good day’s dawning.
John Frederic Bennett was born March 12, 1920 in Pittsfield, Mass. He earned a B. A. from Oberlin College in 1942, an M.A. from the University of Wisconsin in 1950, and a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin in 1956. He was a poet and an English professor at Indiana University (Jeffersonville), Beloit College, Rockford College (Illinois), and St. Norbert College. This hymn is #196 in the Episcopal Hymnal 1982.