Dear Friends,
There are always lots of things going on in our city, more than most of us can manage (or afford) to keep up with; at the moment, the much-shrunken Festival of Flowers, and very soon the Elleslie International Flower Show. These are not only for visitors to the city; they are also signs of the many layers of rich civic life that we can all enjoy. Some of those layers are musical, and our fine tradition of liturgical church music contributes to this. We are fortunate too that such touring groups as the Cologne New Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra sometimes come our way. They will play in S. Michael’s Church this evening.
Another very different layer of our civic life together is represented by the Christchurch City Mission, originating in and governed by our Anglican Diocese, but supported very widely by people of goodwill. The City Mission provides care and basic living and rehabilitation facilities for many in the city who simply can’t manage on their own.
The Mission began in Antigua Street, in this parish, and we have always had strong connections with it. Our weekly grocery offerings continue to be greatly appreciated, and through the Lenten Appeal we now have the opportunity to make our contribution towards the Mission’s daily running costs.
Every thirty to forty years throughout its history, the Mission has had to upgrade its facilities in order to do its work safely and well. At the moment it is embarking on a redevelopment that will set it up for the next thirty years, and citizens will be invited to contribute. Most of the cost has already been promised by major trusts and other donors, a sign that the work is widely valued. The appeal will go public soon, and any who plan to contribute will be welcome to view the present facilities.
I am pleased that, in a city which invests in a huge range of good things for its citizens, the most vulnerable are looked after too. We can be thankful that our Church is a catalyst in that concern.
The Gospel today is Luke’s account of the Transfiguration of Christ. From this experience of the glory of God on the mountain, Jesus and his friends were able to look backwards over the journey of their people, and forwards into hard times ahead, but to see them in a different light. Archbishop Michael Ramsey once said:
May God bless you all.When Jesus went up the mountain and was transfigured he did not leave behind the conflicts of his mission, the pains of humanity and the agonies he had yet to face. No, he carried these with him to the mountain, so that when he was transfigured all these were transfigured with him. It was the transfiguration of the whole Christ, in all that he suffered and was going to suffer. Glory for the Christian is never a glory ‘apart’. Human life, just as it is, is the stuff from which glory is made, by the bringing of situations, just as they are, into a new context in which they become changed from top to bottom. The implications of this for the times we live in are many.
Fr Peter Williams
Lent Readings: Week Two
Monday Daniel 9: 4–10 Luke 6: 36–38
Tuesday Isaiah 1: 10, 16–20 Matthew 23: 1–12
Wednesday Jeremiah 18: 18–20 Matthew 20: 17–28
Thursday Jeremiah 17: 5–10 Luke 16: 19–31
Friday Genesis 37: 3–4, 12–28 Matthew 21: 33–46
Saturday Micah 7: 14–20 Luke 15: 11–32
Stations of the Cross
This devotion to the Passion of Jesus is a way of re-enacting in our own country a pilgrim’s devotional progress through Jerusalem from the place of judgement to the sepulchre.
For this purpose, a series of fourteen pictures or carvings is set up around the church to help us call to mind the incidents of Christ’s journey. At each station we pause for meditation and brief prayers are said.
This is a devotion which may be undertaken by anyone at any time, but in Lent it is particularly appropriate for a group, as an act of worship.
