Lent and Easter Worship and Services 2012

Lent and Easter Worship and Services 2012

Dear Friends,

Now is probably a good time to be thinking ahead about

what you intend to do for Lent this year.

The Clergy of St. Paul’s, St. Thomas’ and the parish of Bardsley

have put together a programme. You are warmly invited to

take part: a chance to discover more about the Christian

Faith, and to get to know our Church of England neighbours

better.

On Ash Wednesday (22 February), we propose to have two

services, with imposition of ashes: at St. Paul’s at 9:30 am; at

St. Thomas’ at 8 pm.

During Lent, three informal courses will run in parallel: at

St. Paul’s, St. Thomas’, and St. Cuthberts. They will explore the

readings for the Easter Liturgy, the service which normally

takes place on the Saturday before Easter. These well-known

readings from the Old Testament, have been read by

Christians as speaking about the great Christian and Easter

themes of resurrection and salvation.

The course at St. Thomas’ will be take place on a Tuesday at

1pm. This is the only daytime course. It will give people

enough time to pick children up from school afterwards.

The course at St. Cuthbert’s will take place on a Wednesday

Evening as part of a short service at 7:45 pm.

The timing of the course at St. Paul’s is still to be decided, but

is likely to be either on a Thursday night or a Sunday evening,

as part of a service akin to Evening Prayer or Evensong. It

would be interesting to see if anyone is interested in reviving

the church’s old tradition of an evening act of worship on a

Sunday: a quieter service, without Holy Communion and

without younger children. This is still to be discussed at PCC

so do let Nick, or PCC members if you might be interested.

Holy Week will begin with Sunday morning services for Palm

Sunday (1st April) as usual, commemmorating Jesus’ entry

into Jerusalem on a donkey.

On the Wednesday there will be a service of Stations of the

Cross at St. Cuthbert’s at 7:30 pm. Traditionally there are 14

stations of the Cross, each one depicting a moment or an

encounter on Jesus’ journey to the Cross.

On Maundy Thursday (5th April) there will be a service at

St. Thomas’ at 7:30 pm, remembering Jesus’ Last Supper with

the disciples, and his institution of Holy Communion.

On Good Friday, there will be a service at St. Paul’s at 10 am,

remembering Jesus’ death on the Cross.

On Easter Eve, a religious film will be shown at Holy Trinity,

Bardsley.

On Easter Day, services will take place as usual.

This promises to be an interesting and varied programme,

and we’d like to offer you all a warm invitation to take part.

Do keep your eye out for more details.

Yours in Christ,

Nick