EASTER PEOPLE IN ALL OUR BROKENNESS 15/04/18

Deacon Christine Saccali

Christ is risen he is risen indeed. Christos Anesti, Alithos o kirios.

May God be on my lips and in all our hearts.

Isn’t it great that that resounding Easter cry is still ringing out and we hear it for the next 5 weeks until after Ascension as we reach Pentecost! This Eastertide has been a rather special time for our family with the safe birth of our first grandchild Elizabeth.

My son’s partner, Irini whose name means peace, said something wonderful and prophetic in the week before the scheduled caesarean surgery, what she said was “the date is all set and then we will meet her.” And boy (well, girl in this case) have we done so and we will begin to get to know her and she us. New birth and at an appropriate time of the year with life springing up everywhere this season.

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2nd Sunday of Easter 2018, John 20, 19-end

Revd. Canon Leonard Doolan

Most people I know enjoy a good read. Books will never die out. I know there is now kindle but nothing will ever replace that sense of connection you get when you touch a book’s pages, occasionally have to fumble to turn a page, forget the page number you stopped at, or find that your page marker has fallen out.

When we read a book we rarely expect to be told by the author that what you are reading is not the whole story. How frustrating would that be!

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Easter Sunday 2018

Revd. Canon Leonard Doolan

Alleluia! Christ is risen!   He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Today is Alleluia day – in fact the beginning of 50 Alleluia days leading through to Pentecost. The church has real stamina. We keep going. Most people think Easter is one day – the church keeps Easter for 50 days.

In fact it is more than 50 days – every Sunday is a day when we celebrate the resurrection, the Lord’s day. Every time we celebrate a baptism we celebrate the resurrection.  Every person baptized is an Alleluia person. Just think of that – each one of you here today is an Alleluia person. I’m so pleased that there are so many alleluias in church this morning.

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Palm Sunday 2018

Revd.  Canon Leonard Doolan

There is a telling little phrase in St. Luke’s gospel (9,53) where the author says ‘Jesus set his face to go to Jerusalem.’

It has a ring of determination to it – a planned or strategic decision. One wonders if there had been any conversations around this decision – had the disciples been given access to the details of the new direction? The little phrase has the resonance of what we would nowadays call ‘intentionality’.

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Passion Sunday 2018 John 12, 20-33

Revd. Canon Leonard Doolan

Many people travel to Greece, mostly now as tourists. The Greeks have also been great travelers, not so much as tourists but in search of work, or trade. A great seafaring nation, Greeks have always been in diaspora.

Our gospel reading this morning refers to Greeks. These are not visitors to Jerusalem, as if they were part of some pilgrim group, but Hellenes. They were ethnically Greek, and firstly Greek speakers, but were also Jewish. Why else would they have been in Jerusalem to worship at the festival?

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Third Sunday in Lent

The Revd. Tony Lane

I vividly remember just a few years ago turning on the TV one evening to watch the news.  The cameras were recording a debate in the Italian parliament, which concerned one of the many  scandals that surrounded the life style of President Berlusconi.   As one might expect the MPs were becoming somewhat excited, even agitated, but that sort of thing probably happens world wide.  What happened next however was certainly ‘not’ anticipated.

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Second Sunday in Lent

Reader Mrs Sherry Angelis

“Get behind me, Satan!”            Certainly, these are extremely harsh words coming from the lips of Christ Himself, especially when the recipient is Peter, one of the Lord’s closest disciples and one of the first building stones from which the Church itself is to be built.  Earlier, this disciple even boldly declares to his master, “You are the Messiah!”  Thus, Christ’s shocking command must have struck Peter to his very soul, since Satan is pure Evil and the supreme enemy of our most Holy God.

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Transfiguration Next Before Lent 2018

Deacon Christine Saccali

I don’t know if you have heard of the Malvern Hills in central England? The area is famous for its water as well as its beauty but Malvern is where I come from and where my father’s family originated. My dad used to say that the next highest land as you circled the globe on that latitude was the Urals located in the Soviet Union then.

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