The Church was full of the most glorious flowers as we came together on a beautiful sunny morning to celebrate the resurrection of  Our Lord. A full church sang traditional Easter Hymns and joined in the festal Alleluias as we declared


                                                     Christ is Risen!

                                              He is Risen indeed! Alleluia!

But our Joy was tempered with sadness about the events in Sri Lanka, and our thoughts and prayers with those who died or were wounded and their relatives.

The Choir sang 'This Joyful Easter Tide' as the anthem,

We left the church wishing each other a very Happy Easter, which we also wish to all our readers across the world.

Some pictures

On Thursday evening at 7:30 we held the first of our Easter services, the Eucharist of the Last Supper.

This service marks the end of Lent, and starts in a celebratory style, the Gloria is sung and bells are rung, but as the service proceeds the tone becomes more serious and it ends with the stripping of the alter and the Gethsemane Watch at the Easter garden. The garden was prepared by a flower arranger and was candle lit for the vigil.

The Choir sing an antiphonal psalm and the congregation leave in silence.

On Good Friday there was a said Mattins at 11:30 am. In the afternoon at 2 pm there was a service of readings and music in contemplation of the Cross. This year we had, in addition to the Gospel readings, some poems continuing the theme of sacrifice and salvation. Interspersed were Good Friday Hymns and music. The Choir sang the spiritual  'Where you there', O Saviour of the world' setting by John Goss, and 'Ah Holy Jesu'

On Easter even the Service of Easter vigil, combining the lighting of the Pascal Candle, the renewal of baptism vows and the first mass of Easter  took place starting at 7:30. The new fire was used to light the Pascal Candle outside the church and the congregation lit their own candles from the Pascal Candle. The light was brought into the Church and the service began. This liturgy, incorporating the renewal of baptism vows, dates from the very early church, and ends with the first Eucharist of Easter 'Christ is Risen!!'

The first of our Services this was a contemplation of the stations of the cross, with readings and hymns. This was followed by a short service of Compline. This contemplative evening service was a great start to our Easter dedications.

This afternoon the choir and a number of friends and visitors joined together in the Church to rehearse the Crucifixion with our two guest soloists, Peter Webster (baritone) and Martin Ridley (tenor) . After an hour and a half of singing, we repaired to the rooms for a cup of tea and reconvened in Church at 6:00 pm where a good number of people had gathered to hear the work sung.
Not a Service, but not a Concert either, this performance marked the beginning of  our Holy Week Journey towards the Cross and on Sunday the joy of the Resurrection.

Some excellent playing by Joanna Chivers on the Organ, and wonderful singing from our Soloists with a powerful chorus, combined with the moving work of Stainer, including some congregational hymns, was very well received by the congregation. A fitting start to Holy Week

Continue this journey with us

Wednesday 7:30 pm            Stations of the Cross

Thursday 7:30 pm               Maundy Thursday Service and Gethsemane watch

Friday     2:00 pm                A good Friday Meditation with Music and Readings

Holy Saturday   7:30 pm      Easter Vigil with lighting of the new fire and first Mass of Easter

Easter Sunday    8:00 am     Said Eucharist

                           10:00 pm   Sung Eucharist for Easter Day


All are welcome at all these services.

Martin Ridley and Peter Webster

The Choir

Singers of all ages took part

This morning we had our Palm Sunday Liturgy, with a procession around the church, a reading of the Passion Gospel from St Luke, and a Eucharist.
This year we started in Church, where Father Stephen blessed our palm crosses  and then we followed Father Stephen around the outside of the Church, while singing 'All Glory Laud and Honour' As we came around the back of the church, we were met by the Junior Choristers and Sunday School members waving palms and shouting Hosanna! We returned to our places and heard a reading of the Passion from St Luke's Gospel. This was followed after a short reflection with the Liturgy of the Eucharist.
The Choir sang Ave Verum corpus in the setting by WA Mozart as the anthem.

There was coffee after the service on the rooms.

This morning our 10 am service was Matins. We are out of sequence this month, as this is the second Sunday of April, but as next week is Palm Sunday we have swapped around and had Matins today.

As we are in Lent, the canticles were The Benedicite in the setting by Lloyd, and the Jubilate Deo in the setting by Stanford in B flat. In addition, instead of the prayers we recited the Litany.

With readings from the King James Bible from the Old and the New Testament, this was a long service, and Father Stephen decided that rather than preach a sermon, he read a short passage from a 7th century Coptic writer as a thoughtful introduction to the last 2 weeks of Lent.

There was coffee after the service.

Next week, Palm Sunday, there will be a procession with Palms, and a reading of the Passion in our Eucharist. Following the service the Annual Parish meeting will be held.

In the Afternoon at 3:30 there will be a rehearsal for The Crucifixion by John Stainer, all singers are welcome to join us. The Performance will be at 6:00 pm and we hope that you will join us to hear this work and begin the Journey of Holy Week.

Lent changes our usual services around a bit, and today was our family service, not next week as today is Mothering Sunday (hence Father Stephen's fetching pink robes rather than the Lenten purple) and he also advised us that today is Refreshment Sunday and The Feast of the Annunciation!  Busy day.

The gospel reading was about the Angel Gabriel telling Mary she would give birth to the Saviour.  In his sermon, Father Stephen asked the Mums in the congregation how they had felt when they found out that they were expecting a child.  Our Mums were a little shy, but eventually we heard "terrified", "relief", "daunted", and "excited".  Dads were generally pleased!  However Mary was perplexed.

Parenthood is an adventure. The children present were told that today was a special day and asked what they had given their Mum. They were even more shy than the adults, but there was a murmur of cards and flowers.  It was suggested that maybe they would like to do the washing up after lunch.  We want to say "Thank you" to our Mums because they put themselves out for us.

We also give thanks for our Mother Church today, the Church throughout the world.  It also speaks of the timelessness of God which nurtures us, like our mum.


Next week after the service, Hilary will be selling her hand made jewelry in the Parish Rooms.  All the profit will go to St Mary's, so come and buy some early Easter presents.  Jewels have fewer calories (in fact none!) than chocolate and last a lot longer!