Dear Friends,

As I write this Easter letter to you today, the newspapers, without exception, carry the story of the life and death of one woman, Jade Goody, who died in the early hours of Mothering Sunday.

Although she was an unpopular character when her name first became widely known through publicity on 'Big Brother', the courageous way in which she has faced death so openly has touched the hearts of many people, and caught us up in her story, however unwillingly. Her final public appearance was at the baptism ceremony in the chapel of the Royal Marsden Hospital, at which Jade and her two sons were marked with the sign of the cross, and given new life in the water of baptism.

 

This morning I took the end of term Easter assembly at the Downs School. The children listened to various accounts of the Easter story from eye-witnesses who had been involved, and then responded with their own questions from what they had heard: why did God allow Jesus to die? What good did it do? Who moved the stone from the tomb where he had been laid? Did he really come back from the dead? If so, how? Is there really life after death?

 

Many of those same questions must have been in the minds of people who watched those events in Jerusalem unfold over 2000 years ago; and they will always be asked – just as some of the answers will always be given by those who have begun to see in the Easter story some light dawning after the darkness of Good Friday. For here we have the ultimate issue of life and death, and the enactment of the ancient human dream of immortality; Easter is about the life and death of each one of us.

 

A novel by Stuart Jackman written back in the 60's made a great impact on me when I first read it, and I continue to find it a powerful commentary on the gospel story. * In it, the author imagines the events of Easter set in a modern context, in which the story-teller is a TV news-reporter investigating for a Panorama-type programme, tracking down and interviewing all those involved in the story. He catches up with Cleopas, who, with his unnamed friend appears in Luke's gospel on Easter Sunday evening, walking disconsolately back to their home village of Emmaus. On the way, with heavy hearts, they discuss what has been happening in Jerusalem,  trying to work out the meaning of it all. A stranger joins them as they walk, and  apparently knowing all that has been going on, he explains to them why it was that Jesus had to suffer and die. It is only as the mysterious stranger says a blessing over the meal that they share on arriving at Emmaus that  Cleopas and his friend realise his true identity – none other than Jesus himself. And as the realisation dawns, all their questions seem to be answered:

 

            'All those bits and pieces of prophecy – the difficult passages that the priests spend half   their lives discussing – he just fitted them together like – well, like assembling one of those        do-it-yourself kits. Made the whole thing suddenly clear and sort of – well, inevitable.       Especially the resurrection; that's the final miraculous piece that makes sense of all the   rest. The Messiah is the conqueror of death – but unless he meets death face to face,how can he conquer it? If the Messiah is to rescue us, he must share in the fact of death; he           must die, as all of us have to die. We cannot share in the life of his kingdom  unless he          shares in our death.

            Of course, he could have used his power to avoid death at the end -no trouble at all. But it            wouldn't have helped us, would it? I mean, when it came to our turn to die, the fact that he       had arranged a last-minute rescue for himself last Friday afternoon wouldn't have made any          difference to us then.

            You don't conquer death by avoiding it; you conquer it by accepting it and breaking through          to life on the other side. Because he he has done that, we don't need to be afraid of death            any more.'

 

I'm not sure how much she understood of it, but I'm glad that Jade Goody had the strength of that

Easter story, symbolised in the sign of the cross at her baptism, to carry her through when her own time came. What other story could give such ultimate meaning and hope for any of us, when confronted with our own mortality?

May the powerful message of the Easter story give you comfort and hope this Easter-time.

I hope that you will come and celebrate new life with us.

 

With love,

Rosey

 

 

*The novel is called 'The Davidson Affair', by Stuart Jackman, first published by Faber in 1966, now out of print, but available on Amazon.

 

 

 

 

 

NEW LIFE AT WRAXALL

I hardly dare to commit these words to print, just in case......But in a spirit of faith and trust, I should tell you that the builders are due to begin work on the Cross Tree Centre in the churchyard at Wraxall early in April. It is wonderful that we have arrived at this point at last, and the fact that we have done so is thanks to a huge amount of hard work and generosity on the part of many people.

I should like to pay tribute to the dogged determination of the fund-raising committee, led by David Shattock; and to the countless hours spent on applying to charitable trusts by him and Peter Sapsed, and John and Margaret Stevens. A huge thank you, too, to Tony Wellingham, our Fabric Officer, whose advice and support for the project as an architect himself have been invaluable.

This is such an exciting development – indeed, a resurrection story of our own, with all the promise of new life for our community that this will bring. We give thanks to all who have been so generous, and to God, who has faithfully rewarded our efforts.