Today I've been working on my Palm Sunday service... the first of (counts carefully) six services I need to prepare and lead in the next week... and that's not counting the Churches Together 'Walk of Witness.'
It's always a challenge to try to find ways that will engage people, especially when you have to tease out just what are the traditions that must be maintained despite people telling you there aren't any.
So, we will have...
- Palm Sunday to Gethsemane in an hour... an all age, interactive service in a similar style what I've done elsewhere over twenty plus years...
- A Churches Together Lent Lunch when I've been asked to speak on the Great Commission and the sending out of the Twelve on the theme 'Shalom brings Salvation'... I have some ideas but it's not very Eastery!
- A Maundy Thursday Communion and Tennebrae... the latter part of which I think will be a first for this congregation
- A Good Friday reflective service... 'Through the Eyes of Mary' based on what I did twenty years ago on the first Good Friday I was in pastorate in Dibley
- An Easter Sunday celebration ... which needs to include daffodils and chicken wire, as well as chocolate and an egg hunt!
- A virtual Emmaus Road evening reflective prayer service for Churches Together... so long as they send me their inputs...
It's a good job there are a couple of bank holidays to follow it all!
Photo: The Gathering Place, Easter 2016 (must have liked it - I used it two posts ago too!)