Palm Sunday Notices [225]

Palm Sunday Service

Well, we might not be able to do the above this year but it will be amazing to be able to be together in Church once more, and uniting our worship with those joining in from home. Do collect a Palm Cross before Sunday (or after Sunday) and/ or as you come into Church on Sunday morning (after the clocks have leapt forward in excitement at getting back into Church together). Things will run very much as they did in the Autumn- hand-gel on the way in, wearing masks, no singing apart from a few Choir members, sitting socially distanced from each other, leaving through the South Door (railway line side). We can’t wait to see you then- and Bertie is literally unable to sleep with excitement. Which is why I get to do this message because he can’t string a word together let alone a sentence. Or an email. Bless him. Or it’s too much cheese keeping him up…

Details of everything you need for Holy Week are in the Booklet sent out in email 224.

Please do book in on Eventbrite if you’re coming to Palm Sunday or Easter Day at 9.30am. (You don’t need to print out a ticket, by the way). There is still availability for Sunday, and everything will be on YouTube, of course. Zoom coffee might start a little bit later than usual so people can get home from Church but it will be coming!

Here is the Order of Service for Sunday at St Paul’s:

Other News and Excitements

We are delighted to welcome back Russell Bignold’s stunning marquette model of Mary cradling her dead child, Jesus, into the Nave of St Paul’s for Holy Week. Here is a note on its production and meaning and some thoughts from me:

We are hoping to put a wooden cross in the Churchyard which people can then tie ribbon around- if you have any spare ribbon which you could donate, or if you have any contacts with local shops, please could you leave it in the porch or let Louise know.

Vanessa and Emmbrook Juniors are really grateful for the clothes donations this week- in total, £414 was raised for the School which is the best ever. Well done, everyone!

Email 221 featured a questionnaire on setting our values at St Paul’s and learning from the last 12 months- if you haven’t filled it in yet then please do because we’d love to hear your thoughts and ideas and we make better decisions when we make them together and we listen better to God when we listen to God together.

Any questions or thoughts or ideas about anything to do with Holy Week are gratefully received- the aim is to have as ‘normal’ a Holy Week as usual within the rules we must and should live under at the moment. It feels such a privilege to be able to be in the Church building since last Holy Week had to happen entirely from my study. We might not be able to have a full choir or sing hymns but we can have a small number of singers lifting our hearts and praise. We might not be allowed a full bell team but we can have more than one bell rung together. Like the coming of Spring, there are many signs of new life and new hope, this Easter and always.

Poem/ Reflection from John Sutton

Three Good Things by Jan Dean

At day’s end I remember

three good things.

Apples maybe- their skinshine smell

and soft froth of juice.

Water maybe- the pond in the park

dark, and full of secret fish.

A mountain maybe- that I saw in a film,

or climbed last holiday,

and suddenly today it thundered up

into a playground game.

Or else an owl- I heard an owl today,

And I made bread.

My head is full of all these things,

It’s hard to choose just three

I let remembering fill me up

with good things

so that good things will overflow

into my sleeping self,

and in the morning

good things will be waiting

when I wake.