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Exclusive: Bertie breaks his silence [228]

A message from our very own reporter

Dear friends, thank you so much to all of my friends who have enquired into my wellbeing since the dramatic and frightening events on Friday. I am, as Gertie said in the last email, absolutely fine- a bit sad, but my little mousehole is a long way from the site of the fires and it was only my 7th best emergency Cheese larder which was affected by the smoke. And my sorrow on Friday was balanced by my joy on Sunday when I got to see so many of my friends again. I had a couple of days off to re-calculate how many cheese rounds I can order this month and store safely- and I have spent all day working through the notes in Fr Richard’s insanely tidy and yet bizarrely illegible handwriting (does anyone know what that’s about?) so I can exclusively reveal…

Holy Week

Here is the Overall Booklet which has all of the info you need to join in with the next few days, which are (to quote Fr Richard) the most important in the history of the world. And he did History at University and everything so he knows what he’s talking about:

Maundy Thursday is tomorrow- the order of service is here

and the key things to note are 1) an organ piece at 7.30 which is very much part of the service, 2) please bring along an empty bowl and a bottle of water (whether you are at home or in Church) to replace the traditional and beautiful footwashing, 3) the Watch will go on as usual until about midnight, so do bring a blanket and, if you want, things to help you stay focused, 4) also, bring along an instrument to beat or whirl as we enter into the holy Triduum

Good Friday sees a range of services at 11, 12, 2 and 3.30. Here is the Order of Service for the 2pm Service:

And here is the Order of Service for the All-Age event at 11am on YouTube, which Cara is leading:

And don’t forget the lovely Easter Eve Service at 8pm on Zoom- and do volunteer to read if you know you’re coming because otherwise Richard will make me do it and I always find those long words quite tricky. The OoS will be on a Powerpoint so you don’t need to print anything out or download it or anything.

Also, my friend Peter reports that people who couldn’t get to the Stations of the Cross in Church this week can join in online: Stations of the Cross – St Paul’s Parish (spauls.co.uk)

And in other news this week…

We’ve made the front page of the Wokingham Paper. But not entirely in a good way…

The latest update from Bishop Hall and Madagascar is here:

An update from The Link Visiting Scheme, who were recently the winners of a prestigious High Sheriff Award:

Lovely to talk to all of you again- greetings from the Holy Week Control Centre. I get to follow the Order of Service and control Richard and Cara through an ear-piece, which is great fun, but a tiny bit stressful, especially when the camera is on. See you soon, dear friends. I can’t, can’t, can’t, can’t wait for the Easter Cheese hunt on Sunday- it will be such fun, after the Easter cow has hidden her treasures in the night and I get to look round the Churchyard to see where she has hidden them. My favourite day of the year.

Yours etc,

Bertram

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