One of my favourite writers in the Church Times is Ronald Blythe, a Reader from a group of churches in East Anglia – Constable country. On Good Friday, he spoke of Charles Wesley who, on walking to church one day, felt for the first time physically as well as spiritually the warmth of Christ. This feeling has come over me several times. It is not a warmth one would feel on sitting in the sunshine, or by a fire, but a warmth coming from within and permeating throughout. Many of you may have felt this.
I write about our Holy Week and Easter celebrations. I thought that I must attend every service if I was to really experience Easter and I’m glad I did. I realised more than ever this year the myriad details there are to organise before our services, particularly this year when the South Cheltenham Churches were totally involved together and the understanding and the many rehearsals that came before the events.
The services were many and very different from each other but the binding force was the presence of Bishop Michael. We were so blessed in having him at all our services in one church or another. He truly bound together South Cheltenham Churches. And we thank him for that.
The services were so different – beginning with Palm Sunday, then the three evenings of the Stations of the Cross, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Eve and then our own celebration on Easter Day. All were very quiet and sacred, or very lively and exciting. It was during one of the services of the Stations of the Cross that I felt very strongly the Warmth of Christ.
The lively services, especially Easter Eve, were exhilarating and spiritually exciting and in all my church years, I have never had fireworks before and these were beautiful!
We thank all the clergy and lay worshippers who took part from all the South Cheltenham Churches. We appreciate the effort and the prayer it took to organise all this. And we realise the growing strength of South Cheltenham Churches together. It became manifest over this Holy Week and Easter. Having worked for this for several years we are glad to see people we now know joining together in prayer and worship.
Thank you, Paul, as leader of the South Cheltenham Churches, for everything you did to organise such a blessed Holy Week and Easter.
Audrey Turner