Holy Week and Pascha at Twelve Apostles’
Holy Friday (3rd May)
8 pm — Matins of Great and Holy Saturday: the Lamentations Service
Holy Saturday (4th May)
9 am — Vesperal Divine Liturgy: Commemorating Christ’s Victory over Death
6.30 pm — Midnight Office
Great and Holy Pascha (5th May)
9 am — Matins & Divine Liturgy
Please note, on Pascha the distribution of the Light of the Resurrection, the Procession and the declaration of “Christ is risen!” will start at 9 am: you may wish to arrive a little before this.
Dear Friends
God is dead. And I continue my life without reference to him—my sufferings bring me such sorrow, my trials bring me much grief, my torments bring many injuries and pains. God is dead: we see all around us others suffering, struggling, doing their best to get by until death inevitably takes them. How can God exist?
And God becomes human for my sake, yet I do not care: “So what!” I cry out with indignance! He has come to mock me, to laugh at me, to belittle me. And he comes teaching repentance and forgiveness, yet what are these to me? Mere soundbites to beguile the foolish. And he comes healing and raising the dead, but these were probably faked—in any case, all of those still ended up dead.
And he chooses arrest, beatings and mockery, and I cannot so easily explain away my doubts. And I see him before me voluntarily ascending the Cross and I am drawn to him.
And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to myself.
John 12:32
Why does he do this, and why cannot I step away. And seeing him, perfecting his Creation, am compelled to say with the centurion,
Truly this Man was the Son of God!
Mark 15:39
And yet, God is dead. I have seen it, I have witnessed it, and for twenty centuries the Church has proclaimed it, Christ truly died. But the Church says something radical, something unthinkable, something which—if true—turns the whole world on its head. And I don’t want to countenance it, I don’t want to think about it, because if it’s true I must do something about it: Christ is alive. If it is true, if it is a reality, then the rest is true—the teachings, the preachings, the miracles—and I must repent, I must forgive, I must turn again to the living God.
And I want to ignore it, I want to maintain the death of God so strongly in my heart so that I may ignore him, but the evidence seems overwhelming. Over five hundred seeing him at one time (see First Corinthians 15:6), many of whom suffered persecution, imprisonment, torture and cruel death, along with twenty centuries of continuous witness from Christians lead me to the inevitable conclusion: God is not dead, God is alive and is calling me to turn to him.
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, we are being called to live a transformed life, a transfigured life, a life with the Resurrection at the centre. God knows our sufferings, trials and torments and he allows them as our crosses; his Cross shows that sufferings and all the rest will continue in the world but we may carry them alongside his Cross, that we may be co-crucified with him that we will co-rise with him.
Let us live this life in the world, a life of joy and faithfulness to the Resurrection, that we may make Pascha our own deliverance from death to life.
Come and see.
I wish to you all, to your families and friends, a joyful Pascha:
may the Light of the Resurrection shine in our hearts.
We serve a meal following the Liturgy on Sundays. All are welcome.
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Sermon
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God, Amen.
“This month shall be your beginning of months;” says the Lord.
“it shall be the first month of the year to you. Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying: ‘On the tenth of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household. … Your lamb shall be without blemish … Now you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight.’” (Exodus 12:2–3, 5, 6)
In this way, my brothers and sisters, the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron to institute the Passover, to institute Pascha. On the fifth day before the Pascha all the People of God were to acquire a lamb.
We too are acquiring our Lamb and he is “without blemish.” He comes to us, here to the heavenly Jerusalem, as our King—not as so many kings of the earth who bring war and oppression but comes with Peace: “Fear not, daughter of Zion;” says the Lord of Hosts, “behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt!” (Zacharias 9:9)
…
Read this Sermon, Christ’s Entry.
Archive of Past Sermons.
Services this week
Holy Friday (3rd May)
8 pm — Matins of Great and Holy Saturday: the Lamentations Service
Holy Saturday (4th May)
9 am — Vesperal Divine Liturgy: Commemorating Christ’s Victory over Death
6.30 pm — Midnight Office
Great and Holy Pascha (5th May)
9 am — Matins & Divine Liturgy
Please note, on Pascha the distribution of the Light of the Resurrection, the Procession and the declaration of “Christ is risen!” will start at 9 am: you may wish to arrive a little before this.
Attending Church
We meet at 3rd URC Scout HQ, Kings Rd, Chandlers Ford SO53 2EY. The Scout hall is behind and to the left of the URC Church. Come and See.
Can I help you?
I am here for you, you need only ask. Is there a way I can support your life of faith? Get in touch.
Can you help the parish?
Yes, absolutely. Offer yourselves to the Lord: pray! Make available to him all your talents and ask him how he would like you to use them — listen for his reply.
Your prayers!
With love in Christ
Fr Alexander
[email protected]