Pastor Peter
Happy Easter everyone! I hope that you have a special weekend – whether you’re away or staying home in Christchurch. I hope, too, that you are able to have some moments to pause and reflect on Easter and how it all fits into our lives as a Christian festival, remembering the events which are arguably the key foundational moments for the life of the church!!
If you’re around over the weekend, remember that we have a Family Friendly Weekend planned – with a couple of church services (with opportunities to catch up) and IBY also have some activities on Thursday evening and their Big Day Out on Saturday.
Our Services
Good Friday morning: A Stations of the Cross Small Group walk in the neighbourhood (eg a local park) – OR join us at 51 Ilam Road at 10.00 am for our walk through Ilam Fields and Ilam Gardens. The plan is for a short walk (around 45 minutes) with stopping off places to share a reading and a short prayer together, reflecting on Jesus’s journey from Gethsemane (his arrest) to Golgotha (his Crucifixion).
There’s a Guide and Readings Sheet attached on this link:
SERVICE LINK
So, get together with others from your Ilam Group – OR– you’re welcome to join the group at 51 Ilam Road, but the start time is 10.00! (Not 10.30)
Easter Sunday: We’re meeting at Ilam School again – a great chance to be together and catch up after what seems like a very long gap. The theme for the service is “stones” – and we have a number of outdoor activities planned as part of the service, finishing with communion.
Hope to see you on Sunday – 10.30 (normal time) – at Ilam School. Bring a picnic chair, warm clothes – and a hot drink!
(Please stay home, though, if you – or a household member – are feeling unwell L )
Future: The plan is that we will be meeting back at Ilam School from now on – observing COVID protocols (ie good ventilation, face coverings to be worn indoors and staying home if feeling unwell). On the Sundays when we have tea and coffee available, we’ll aim to serve that indoors and encourage drinking outdoors.
Please get in touch if you have any questions, thoughts or comments.
Giving Thanks – A Prayer
For the expanding grandeur of creation, worlds known and unknown, galaxies beyond galaxies, filling us with awe and challenging our imaginations:
We give thanks this day.
For this fragile planet earth, its times and tides, its sunsets and seasons:
We give thanks this day.
For the joy of human life, its wonders and surprises, its hopes and achievements:
We give thanks this day.
For our human community, our common past and future hope, our oneness transcending all separation, our capacity to work for peace and justice in the midst of hostility and oppression:
We give thanks this day.
For high hopes and noble causes, for faith without fanaticism, for understanding of views not shared:
We give thanks this day.
For all who have laboured and suffered for a fairer world, who have lived so that others might live in dignity and freedom:
We give thanks this day.
For human liberty and sacred rites; for opportunities to change and grow, to affirm and choose:
We give thanks this day.
We pray that we may live not by our fears but by our hopes, not by our words but by our deeds.
We give thanks this day.
– O. Eugene Pickett
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