Parish of Llandudno North Wales Rector's Letter July 2007

April 2008

By the time you read this, Easter Day will have come and gone, and yet we will still be in Eastertide. The resurrection of Christ was such a tremendous event and indeed is such a wonderful reality, that it simply can’t be contained in one day however important. So the Church gives us fifty days, ending on the Feast of Pentecost, to let the glorious truth of Christ’s resurrection sink in.

Actually, in practical terms, it can be quite difficult to celebrate even something as wonderful as the Resurrection for such a long period of time. After the excitement of Easter Day itself the rest of Eastertide may seem to be a bit of an anti-climax and we may be hard pressed to keep the sense of resurrection joy and wonder alive for a whole seven weeks. For one thing there aren’t enough Easter hymns to last for all that time without undue repetition!

I think that part of our difficulty here, is that we live in a culture which seldom allows us to linger over anything, certainly never for seven weeks! No sooner is Christmas over than Easter eggs appear in the supermarkets, and when people are walking around in t-shirts and shorts on hot summer days the shops are already full of autumn and winter clothing. We are constantly being pushed onwards from one new thing to another with hardly a moment to take a breath or get our bearings.

In her great wisdom, the Church urges us to slow down a bit, to take that breath, and to get those bearings. ‘You’ve had forty days of penitence’ she says, ‘now have fifty of celebration!’ So, let’s respond to that invitation and take time this Eastertide to allow the truth of the risen Christ to sink in to our hearts and minds. Christians have been called the ‘Easter People’. Let’s give ourselves time to discover what being the Easter people might actually mean.

What resources are there to help us to do this? The liturgy of Easter has a particularly joyful character with lots of ‘Alleluias’, there are wonderful hymns to sing and the Easter Candle shines at the front of church as a visible reminder of Christ’s conquest of the darkness of sin and death – all this can help us to keep that sense of wonder alive. The Sunday scripture readings have been especially chosen to help us experience the presence of the risen Lord. The first reading for every Sunday in Eastertide, is always from the Acts of the Apostles, and speaks to us of the presence of the risen Christ in the life of the early church. And each week the Gospel Readings tell us, in turn, of: Christ’s appearance to his disciples in the upper room offering them his peace (Easter 2); the risen Jesus walking to Emmaus with the two disciples explaining the scriptures and being made known to them in the breaking of the bread (Easter 3); Christ the Good Shepherd (Easter 4); His promise that he goes to prepare a place for us in his Kingdom (Easter 5); and the promise of the gift of the Holy Spirit (Easter 6). There is much to ponder on and to wonder at in these passages from the Bible!

In Lent and Passiontide we are used to keeping the ‘Stations of the Cross’ in which we try to follow Jesus on his ‘via dolorosa’ to Calvary. In recent years a similar ‘Stations of the Resurrection’ has been devised to help Christians appreciate the stories of Easter better. Maybe we can arrange to follow these at some point this Eastertide. Watch this space!

So, there is much to help us become Christ’s ‘Easter People’, to grow in the mystery of Christ’s presence with us and to share it with those we meet day by day. If Christ truly has risen then everything has changed and this must surely be reflected in the way we live. I wish you all the joy of the risen Lord this Eastertide.

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Fr John.

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Previous letters:

January 2007
February 2007
March 2007
April 2007
May 2007
June 2007
July 2007
August 2007
September 2007
October 2007
November 2007