Dear Friends,

What a strange month March has been! The weather is superb and the gardens are beautiful. It is difficult to imagine that it is not already summer, but the wise are nodding their heads and advising that we shall pay for it!

Yet, as we have been enjoying this wonderful spring weather, so there is a heaviness in the air as we wait anxiously for news from Iraq – and amid this strange juxtaposition of the beautiful and the intensely ugly, we prepare to celebrate the most solemn and the most joyful festival of the Church’s year, Easter.

Holy week starts on Palm Sunday as we celebrate Jesus triumphant entry into Jerusalem. Then we work through the events of the week, remembering how, in a few short days, the crowd that had hailed Jesus with loud cheers and waving palm branches, cried out for him to be crucified. On Maundy Thursday we celebrate the last supper Jesus ate with his disciples before going out into the garden where he was betrayed and taken prisoner. On Good Friday we walk the way of the cross with Him and spend time in Church during His last hour on the cross. We remember how he paid the price for our sins, taking them all to Himself that we might be reconciled to God.

Good Friday is a terrible day - a day when all the sadness and horror of our world seem to be focused on this one man. But just as the good and bad have been so sharply contrasted in our minds this month, so the hatred and betrayal, the sorrow of Good Friday, gives way to the glory and joy of Easter morning. The tomb is empty and our Lord is alive!

Into the awfulness of a world full of hate, misunderstanding, persecution, hunger, greed and fighting, comes the promise of a new day. The resurrection is a reality, good can and will come from evil Our Lord has promised us that. Sometimes it seems there is always a price to pay for the good things, just as the weather ‘forecasters’ nod their heads and tell us we shall pay for the sunshine of March with storms in April. The death of Jesus was the price He paid to redeem the world.

I hope that you will share as many of the Holy Week services with us as you can, Easter is a great and glorious feast, made all the more remarkable and splendid when it is contrasted with the sufferings that went before.

I wish you all a glorious and joyful Easter

Yours in Christ

Jo Spray

All who suffer, particularly those in repressive regimes

Our service men and women and their families

All Christian people as they celebrate the glorious resurrection of Christ.

Thank you to everyone who helped with and supported the March coffee morning at The Grange, another enjoyable and successful occasion which raised £297 towards Church funds.

The church will be decorated for Easter on Saturday 19^th April. If you would like to donate a lily or other flowers at Easter in memory of a loved one and you haven’t yet let me know, there is still time, but I do need to order them soon

Anne Claypole White

15^th May - Talk by Mr. Rob Spray.

Both meetings start at 2 pm in the Manor Room.