MONTHLY UPDATE FROM SIMON

April 2025

Dear Friends

At last Easter is on the horizon!  It feels particularly late this year, although it can be as late as the 25th April.  Personally, I’d be delighted if the various branches of the Church could get together and agree to celebrate it every year on the first Sunday of April.  But I don’t see that happening in a hurry… 

I hope you all have a wonderful Easter, however you’re spending it.  The school holidays will precede it this year, and I’m sure that many of you will be taking the opportunity to go away.  If not, you will no doubt be hoping for some warm spring weather and the chance to get out into the garden or up on the Downs.  I’m reminded of the Mole, in the opening pages of ‘Wind in the Willows’, abandoning his spring cleaning and burrowing his way to the surface of the ground in order to sniff the fresh air once again.  Here’s the relevant passage:

“He scraped and scratched and scrabbled and scrooged and then he scrooged again and scrabbled and scratched and scraped, working busily with his little paws and muttering to himself, ‘Up we go! Up we go!’ till at last, pop! his snout came out into the sunlight, and he found himself rolling in the warm grass of a great meadow. ‘This is fine!’ he said to himself. ‘This is better than whitewashing!’”

But Easter is not just about the joy of spring, wonderful though that is; it’s a celebration of Christ’s victory over death.  It’s an opportunity to renew our sense of hope, especially in the wake of such a long and doom-laden winter.  It’s a way of defying all that is corrupt and evil in the world and affirming our belief that despite everything, all shall be well.  I’m fond of this prayer of Desmond Tutu, which was born out of his lifelong struggle against injustice and discrimination:

Goodness is stronger than evil;

Love is stronger than hate;

Light is stronger than darkness;

Life is stronger than death;

Victory is ours through Him who loves us.

Churches exist to celebrate Easter and to keep alive the hope that flows from it.  They face due east towards the sunrise.  Their spires and towers invite us to look up towards heaven.  Their chancels (where the choir sit) are sometimes, as at Harting, built at a slight angle, suggesting the tilt of Christ’s head as he died on the cross. Their bells and candles, their flowers and stained glass, all speak of the beauty of holiness and the joy of the resurrection.

But churches are also places to which we can bring our questions and our doubts.  St Thomas famously doubted that Christ had been raised.  The disciples on the Emmaus Road were slow to believe what the stranger told them.  Mary Magdalene mistook Christ for the gardener.  Uncertainty, bewilderment and scepticism are all part of the Easter story.  But it is out of such things that faith is born, just as winter gives way to spring.  That is part of the miracle of resurrection, and it is my hope that you will experience it for yourselves.  Do come and share in our Easter worship.

With my prayers and best wishes,

Simon

Bible Reading Resources

If you would like encouragement in reading the Bible, the Bible Reading Fellowship (BRF) produces excellent daily notes.  The most widely used is called New Daylight, each issue of which provides four months of daily readings and comment, with a team of regular contributors drawn from a range of church backgrounds. 

If you would like to read a wise and balanced introduction to the Bible, I can recommend a book called ‘How to Eat Bread’ by Miranda Threlfall-Holmes, who is the Archdeacon of Liverpool.  Its three sections explore the different ways in which the Bible has been read and interpreted down the ages.  Perhaps a few of us could form a group to read and discuss the book together in a relaxed way.

Confirmation/First Communion

If any of you, adults or teenagers, would like to be prepared for Confirmation at some point this year, please do contact me.  Alternatively, you may have children (Key Stage Two and upwards) who are too young to be confirmed, but who would like to receive Communion.  If so, they can be prepared accordingly.  God’s table is open to all!

VE Day 80th Anniversary: Thursday 8th May

Many of you will no doubt be taking part in VE Day celebrations early in May.  Lots of national and other large-scale events have been planned over the bank holiday weekend.

The actual anniversary will be on Thursday 8th May, and at 6.30pm that evening, churches and cathedrals across the country are being asked to ring their bells in celebration.

Our own wonderful bellringers here in Harting will be taking part that evening, and before they do so we shall be holding a short service in church to which you are all warmly invited.  The service will begin at 5.45pm (to conclude by 6.25pm) and will include the singing of ‘Jerusalem’ and ‘I vow to thee my country’.  It will be a good old patriotic celebration!

After the service, while the bells are being rung, we invite you to enjoy fish and chips and a cup of tea (or a glass of wine) in the Law Room.  Winston Churchill famously refused to impose rationing on fish and chips, even during the darkest years of the War.  We will need to order them in advance, so if you’d like to reserve a portion, please sign the list that will be placed at the back of the church.