Dear Siblings in Christ,
Our online worship service for Good Friday should now be available as video or audio on the website. This is a Tenebrae Service, a service of shadows, as we journey with Jesus to the cross, and finish in darkness.
When we started making these videos a few weeks ago, we had Adrian Pell playing the (digital) piano with no vocals. Now we have vocals to all the songs. I’d like to thank Elizabeth Storey and Adrian for their gift of singing and Neil Hepplethwaite for his singing and guitar playing. I would especially like to thank Adrian for honing his movie editing skills as he balances out the various soundtracks and merges them together; he worked very hard this week with three services. Just wait until year hear the music for the Easter service!
This week, as we experience the events of Holy Week, our lives are far from normal, and so as we hear the familiar story of Jesus’ journey to the cross, different aspects will give us pause for thought. I am conscious of all the information that is available to us, the bias of various news sources, and how misinformation is quickly spread on social media. As I listened to the crowd calling for Barabbas, and saw how quickly the crowd turned against Jesus, I wondered what I would have been shouting. In the confusion, would I have been carried along? And so, I pray for clarity and the ability to listen to new perspectives, so that I do not miss what God wants to do in our midst.
David Welbourn, from Museum Street, wrote about some of his thoughts this Holy Week. Maybe we have missed the reality that whatever their [the disciples] normality meant to them before the palm procession, the dislocation they were about to encounter was far from their normality. Each responds in a unique way to the shattering of their lives. For some, fear and anxiety marked the days to come. … What will you learn afresh of the Easter story, as you confront it with more uncertainty and confusion than you have ever done before? You can read his full article here.
May you have a sacred Holy Triduum.
I am keeping you in my prayers. May God’s peace be with you all,
In Christ
–Pastor Joan
Joan’s Jottings are written to the churches at Museum Street, Landseer Road and Chantry where Joan is the minister, and shared here for all to read.