On Ash Wednesday we met at 7:30 for a service of imposition of Ashes and Eucharist. Father Stephen, in his address, pointed out that this was the service where we contemplate our own mortality, remembering that we are dust and to dust we will return, a solemn start to the Lenten season. Lent is followed by Passion tide and then by the promise of Resurrection. The first Sunday in Lent, a gloriously sunny spring morning, we found the church bare of any flowers and our Lenten purple in place. The Gospel recounted the story of the Temptation of Christ in the Wilderness. Father Stephen discussed the problems of temptation!  The choir sang 'Hide not thou thy face' Words from Psalm 27, setting by Richard J Farrant (died 1580) arr Greening, at both services.

early spring sunshine

Flowers in the churchyard, but not in the church