| It is one of those rare occasions this year when Good
Friday falls on 25th March. The 25th March has long been
the date of the Annunciation of the Angel Gabriel to Mary
that she was to be the mother of Jesus. Until the mid
1700's it was the start of the new year, for the
Christian Era, AD, began when Jesus started to exist
within Mary's womb. In the Western Church it became the
practice that when the 25th March fell between Palm
Sunday and the Sunday after Easter it was differed until
the Monday after the Sunday after Easter. So this year
the Western Church celebrates the Annunciation on Monday
4th April when there will be a 10.30 am Eucharist at All
Saints.
In the Eastern Churches the two days are kept together
when they fall together - so this year they will rejoice
that both the Annunciation and Good Friday fall on the
same day and so mutually inform each other. For the
Annunciation marks the beginning of God's acting to
overcome the evil Adam and Eve started with their
disobedience in the Garden of Eden. While Good Friday
represents the final victory over evil won through Jesus
death on the cross. There is a link here with that lovely
hymn we sing in Eastertide, Walking in a garden (New
English Hymnal 123) which speaks of the three gardens: Eden,
Gethsemane and where Mary Magdalen greeted the risen Lord
who at first appeared to her as the gardener.
Our great and generous God provides many rich themes as
signs of his work in defeating evil. So too there are
many ways in which we are called to act to repair the
damage done by sin and evil in the world. This is one of
the causes for rejoicing in the church in all its
diversity; for it is the co operation of these different
ways by different persons and different communities that
repairs the damage and builds the kingdom.
Holy Week and Easter is a rich time for attending to the
heart of our faith. If the victory of God is to manifest
itself in the life of the world it requires his people to
each make that particular effort to which they are called.
While inevitably our observance of Holy Week focuses on
the great themes of our faith, it provides an opportunity
for each of us to appropriate them in a way suitable to
our circumstances, to God's calling of us. I ho hope we
will all keep a good Holy week both by participating in
the Liturgy day by day as well as by our own prayer and
bible reading. This year I particularly suggest we all
spend an hour or so reading chapters 14 - 16 of St Mark's
gospel. May God guide our observance of this most Holy
Week.
Christopher Morgan – Jones
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