Minister’s Letter – Easter 2024
How quickly Christian festivals appear in our churches calendar! It really does seem like yesterday was Christmas, and as I write this we are in the middle of Lent. In two weeks’ time we begin the most important Christian festival that Christians all over the world celebrate and that is of course Easter Sunday, where we celebrate and honour our Lord’s glorious resurrection.
But before we can celebrate that “glory” we need to go through the mixed painful emotions that holy week brings. Holy week begins on Palm Sunday, March 24. During holy week we experience the emotions that the disciples must have experienced, and with them we experience the highs and lows of that tumultuous week.
We, along with the disciples, go from adulation on Palm Sunday through to the Garden of Gethsemane, to the Last Supper, to denial and betrayal. Without holy week, without Good Friday, the most holy day in the Christian calendar, there can be no Easter Sunday.
By the time you read this Easter letter, I will, along with the Aston Churches Together team, have taken the Easter story to a number of primary schools, which we do most years. I always enjoy performing in these assemblies as its interesting to see the reactions of the children and the staff as we act out part of the Easter message, and proclaim the greatest story ever told.
And by doing this every year, it keeps the Easter story alive, and depending on what our particular take is on the story, I always come away with new perspectives on what Easter means.
Yes, at Easter, as we tell the children, we do have Easter eggs, hot cross buns, Easter flowers and all the good things that we associate with Easter and of course we celebrate new life that is Easter.
But above all we recognise that Jesus Christ was crucified for the sins of the world. He defeated death so at Easter we can proclaim Christ has risen, He is risen indeed!
Happy Easter.
Yours in Christ.
Peter
How quickly Christian festivals appear in our churches calendar! It really does seem like yesterday was Christmas, and as I write this we are in the middle of Lent. In two weeks’ time we begin the most important Christian festival that Christians all over the world celebrate and that is of course Easter Sunday, where we celebrate and honour our Lord’s glorious resurrection.
But before we can celebrate that “glory” we need to go through the mixed painful emotions that holy week brings. Holy week begins on Palm Sunday, March 24. During holy week we experience the emotions that the disciples must have experienced, and with them we experience the highs and lows of that tumultuous week.
We, along with the disciples, go from adulation on Palm Sunday through to the Garden of Gethsemane, to the Last Supper, to denial and betrayal. Without holy week, without Good Friday, the most holy day in the Christian calendar, there can be no Easter Sunday.
By the time you read this Easter letter, I will, along with the Aston Churches Together team, have taken the Easter story to a number of primary schools, which we do most years. I always enjoy performing in these assemblies as its interesting to see the reactions of the children and the staff as we act out part of the Easter message, and proclaim the greatest story ever told.
And by doing this every year, it keeps the Easter story alive, and depending on what our particular take is on the story, I always come away with new perspectives on what Easter means.
Yes, at Easter, as we tell the children, we do have Easter eggs, hot cross buns, Easter flowers and all the good things that we associate with Easter and of course we celebrate new life that is Easter.
But above all we recognise that Jesus Christ was crucified for the sins of the world. He defeated death so at Easter we can proclaim Christ has risen, He is risen indeed!
Happy Easter.
Yours in Christ.
Peter