Passiontide, Holy Week, & Easter

Did you give anything up for lent? Perhaps you stopped eating chocolate, or perhaps you took up something new - I had been planning to read some new books as part of my lenten devotions, but with the arrival of my new baby in early March, I have achieved much less than I had hoped. Fortunately for me, and I think for many of us, Lent isn't really about how good we are at giving up treats, or how good we are at taking on new habits - Lent isn't really about how good we are, at all. It's all about how good Jesus is, and all that he's done for us. 

The last two weeks of Lent are, traditionally, called 'passiontide' and our focus is on how Jesus suffered (latin passio) for us. These reflections are not to make us feel miserable, but to help us understand the depths of God's love, and the extent to which Jesus can now identify with us. 

As we move into Holy Week, the week before Easter, we have a chance to reflect in some quite profound ways on Jesus' sorrows and sufferings - but it is crucial that we do not remain there. The christian hope is not an eternal Lenten fast, but it is an eternal Easter morning. 

Whats on in Holy Week:
Follow the journey of Jesus' last week of earthly life.

Palm Sunday: (A week before Passover, Jesus enters Jerusalem)
A special joint service at 10am in St Mary Nolton. There will be lots of music, a special joint choir, and palm crossed will be blessed, processed, and waived. Please note traffic restrictions are in place, enter Nolton Street from Brackla Street, against the normal 1-way flow. Please bring cake!

Holy Monday: (Six days before the Passover, Jesus is anointed)
Morning Prayer: 10am Nolton
Holy Communion: 19.30, Nolton

Holy Tuesday: (Jesus said: "The Hour has come”)
Morning Prayer: 10am Nolton
Holy Communion: 19.30, Laleston 

Spy Wednesday: (Jesus predicts his betrayal)
Morning Prayer: 10am Nolton
Holy Communion: 19.30, Brackla

Maundy Thursday: (Jesus celebrates the Last Supper)
Morning Prayer: 10am Nolton
Evening Prayer: 18.30, Merthyr Mawr
Holy Communion (with foot washing and stripping of the altar):
19.30 Coity, Coychurch, Newcastle

Good Friday: (Jesus is Crucified)
10.00 Good Friday Liturgy, Coity
10.00 Stations of the Cross, Penyfai
12.00 Good Friday Liturgy, Newcastle
12.00 Last Hour at the Cross, Laleston

14.00 A Special Ministry Area Service 'the Passion for Penybont'. With music from Bach, Faure, congregational hymns, and a dramatised reading of St Matthew’s Passion, 2pm Nolton

19.30 Words from the Cross/Tenebrae, Penyfai

Holy Saturday: (Jesus Lays in the tomb)
10.00 Morning Prayer and Litany, Nolton
14.00 Public Reading of St Mark’s Gospel, Merthyr Mawr
19.30 Ministry Area Service of Light, Coity.

Easter Day: (Jesus raises to life)
Holy Communion at
06.00, Nolton
09.30, Merthyr Mawr, Coity, Coychurch, Brackla  
11.00, Nolton, Newcastle, Penyfai, Laleston 
16.00 "Central at 4” in Nolton Hall.

Low Sunday (12th April): Two Joint Services in the MA this Sunday
9.30 Joint Service Merthyr Mawr
11.00 Joint Service Newcastle

Central@4 returns, running every Sunday - see you 18th January