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Easter Message From Revd Anna Harwood Vicar of Ruscombe, Twyford and Hurst
As I listen to the news and watch the reports of people receiving the vaccine, I have been struck by the amount of smiles and looks of sheer delight on their faces as they leave the vaccination centres. I heard the actor Hugh Bonneville describe how, in his volunteer role welcoming people to one centre, he could see the joy and hope on the faces of those coming along, thanks to the experience of just being out and about meeting other people again. This has all made me think about the word ‘hope’. So many of us at the moment are looking for signs of hope: some have remarked to me, ‘Roll on the spring!’ as we look forward to the flowers appearing and the leaves growing on trees. In the life of the Church, Easter is when we focus on the word ‘hope’. We believe that hope lies at the very heart of the Easter message.
I wonder: how do you judge the story of Easter? If it is true, then we can claim that it shines a light strong and bold on the darkest of all human experiences and the bleak separation of death. It is a story of hope in the belief that this life is not all there is, and that Jesus’s death and resurrection bring hope to the world, even at the darkest of times. Claiming the promises of his death by seeking God’s love and forgiveness within the Christian Church is a way for us all to find hope and healing in the darkest places. I pray that we will all see signs of hope in the months ahead.
THRU-Christ online services @THRUchrist.org.uk www.thru-christ.org.uk
On that first Easter morning, as the women approached the tomb of their friend Jesus, their hearts must have been heavy as they grieved for one so beloved. This loss and sense of grief, which we have all witnessed so much in the last twelve months, means that when the pandemic is over, we will need to come together as a community to mourn our losses and remember the departed. But the miraculous part of the Easter story is that hearts moved quickly from the initial shock of realising the tomb was empty to what must have been overwhelming and astonishing joy and hope to find that Jesus had risen from the dead. To my mind, the resurrection is the boldest claim of the Christian Church. For the first believers it must have been this that set them apart from the rest of the world they lived in. It certainly drew others to come and see what it was all about. 20 rg10 March/April 2021. To advertise please call 0118 907 2510 or email nikki@rg10mag.com
