Fr Marcus has produced the Stations of the Cross, which he hopes folk will follow on Good Friday at 12 noon.
Click here to view.
The Words, if people like them are attached, as are the images of the Stations from the lovely Nuns of Turvey Abbey.
Please circulate widely. Hope you find it useful.
Fr Rodney is offering a live stream service at 2pm.
And the Good Friday prayer guide from Fr. Jim is also attached.
Here is today’s prayer guide from Fr Jim.
The clergy gather separately on a diocesan Zoom meeting to renew their ministerial commitment.
Fr Rodney: Live-stream Eucharist at 8pm, via Facebook. We plan to Keep Watch by leaving the stream ‘open’ until 10pm. We will intersperse the Watch time with a Taize chant every 15 minutes or so. End the Watch with Compline at 10pm.
The Eucharist will be uploaded to this folder on YouTube, but not the watch.
Click these links from Fr Jim to download the prayer guides for Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday –
Tuesday in Holy Week 2020
My Dear Friends,
I hope and pray that you are managing to stay relatively sane during this most peculiar times, and that you are finding some strength both from the love you are giving and receiving, and from your faith. Knowing we are loved by God, and family and friends is a real blessing in times like this.
It may be that we are dwelling on feeling helpless when it comes to being close to other folk. That we are dwelling on all of the things we are not doing, that we usually do, and wondering if that will have a bearing on what others think, or how they cope.
The truth is that many, many things are beyond our control at the moment, and in many ways we need to try and be sufficient unto ourselves. We are loved because irrespective of what we can or can’t do, we are enough. God loves us, our family love us, our friends love us not because we always do such and such, not because we are funny, or wise, or helpful, but because we are who we are.
You are enough, and that is great. Bless you.
Having said that, it does feel very strange being at home during this Holy Week.
We are usually finding ways to Walk with Christ on a sort of Holy Week Pilgrimage, and focus deeply on our faith, and the great Passion of our Lord.
In many churches they have services every day this week, and they build in to a great crescendo of emotion, with preparation leading up to Maundy Thursday, The Agape Meal, and the washing of the disciples feet, the Last Supper, the Great Commandment to Love one another, and then the stripping of the sanctuary.
Powerful, deep and meaningful stuff.
For years I was in parishes that kept watch from the end of that service right through to the Liturgy of the Day on Good Friday, with some folk staying in church praying, while the rest of us went on procession around the town.
Then the great drama of the Reading of the Passion, and the death of our Lord. All of our emotions in turmoil as we ponder what that means for us and for the world.
It has always been my thought that the more we put in to Holy Week, the more real Easter will become.
But this year, we are having Holy Week stripped bear. We will not gather, I will not wash your feet, we will not witness one another’s tears as we reverence the Cross on Good Friday, we won’t even get together and shout loudly that Christ is Risen!, He is Risen indeed! Alleluia! On Easter Day.
I was very concerned when it began to sink in that we would all be indoors for the whole of this week, and Easter, and worried that it might lose some of its meaning.
But the readings at the Eucharist today include Jesus saying ‘Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life’.
What I think Jesus means is that we are likely to lose what we hold most dear. Whether that be things, possessions, status, pride or even rituals that we focus on because they make us feel good.
‘Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also’.
Maybe this year, instead of all of the ritual that is very emotional, but I for one truly love. Maybe instead of thinking ‘I will miss all of that liturgical drama’ we can focus not on ourselves, and what we are missing, but on God.
This year we can worship in Spirit and in Truth. It will be different, but it will also be truly glorious because it is never about us, and always about God.
Bless you,
Stay safe, and walk in the Light of Christ.
As ever,
Fr Marcus
Hello Church!
I’ve prepared some prayer materials to be used throughout Holy Week. These have been sourced through a compilation of prayers by a priest, Fr. Louis, who is in the parish just north of us. He is shut away in his chaplaincy flat, which I am told is not big enough to swing a cat in. And he is single, and lonely. Because of this, and his dedication as a man of prayer, and having tons of time on his hands, we have some great ‘stuff’ for Holy Week. And the Diocese of Europe sent it all the way back to us as a suggested resource for Holy Week. https://europe.anglican.org/main/latest-news/post/1555-coronavirus-prayer-reflection
It is well laid out, and best viewed on the computer screen as a pdf file. But it is huge – 96 pages. Not overwhelmingly so, great for the computer savvy, who are fast as a mouse on a wheel, and those who like praying from a screen. I’m getting used to doing that with other prayer sources. Just remind yourself to turn off the wifi, and internet for a bit so as not to be distracted. Oh, and remember to turn it back on again.
I have also cut it all up into manageable chunks in Word format. Just remember, that there are still other things I haven’t included that are good too….. like Stations of the Cross. So I’ve concentrated on daily and night prayer. The ‘3 Holy Days’ of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday will follow.
And the other priests have and will continue this week to do plenty of things that dwarf this effort of mine. But I have capitulated and gone on YouTube. The name of the channel is Costa Blanca Anglican Chaplaincy 1. I thought of calling it ‘Greatest Hits’ instead of 1, but that would be an untruth. Check it out, subscribe, and press like….. you can find it at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFrQOHgY_L8
Finally, here in Benissa we have lots of toilet paper, but printing paper and ink is on short supply – rather, I don’t know where to find it, and it isn’t stocked in the Grocery Stores. Perhaps we aren’t the only ones. But with this in mind I have created word document files, that cut the need for paper and ink right down. If you are keen enough, try printing on both sides, and using black draft to save on ink.
And because, well, some of us find it just plain weird using a computer screen, as opposed to the printed word. And we might want to place it in an area of the house that we do like to pray, ready for use. Louis has even given us a prayer and suggestions on creating a prayerful spot.
I am going to send all of this to you in one go. That’s because I have compressed things down enough, and, there is just too much stuff coming through our inboxes as it is. I am even contemplating a quiet day or more and switching the online world off. Great in times like this, but a real pain too!
Finally……… whew! Now that we have another 3 weeks, we can now proceed to get all we lamented not getting done in the first three weeks. I think it’s now about our pace, eating well (yes, we might want to lose some lbs now, but also remember you have a resistance to maintain), and thankfully, getting some sun for a change. Who would have ever thought that would be a problem in Spain. Oh well, it kept us indoors the first few weeks!
Click here to watch the video by Raymond Hodson
Thank you, Raymond.
Here is the link to Fr Marcus’s video for Palm Sunday – CLICK HERE.
There will also be a live stream of Eucharist from Fr Rodney Middleton from at 11am, Via facebook then uploaded on to youtube. It will not include Reading of the passion.
And between 6-8pm, Fr Marcus Will be on Pure Gold, with a Palm Sunday slot at 7pm.