Easter 2022

You will be most welcome at our Parish Communion service at 9.30pm on Easter Day, Sunday 17th April 2022.

After the long season of Lent and the tragedy of Good Friday, we celebrate the risen Christ.  The resurrection of Jesus shows us that God’s love is stronger than the power of evil, and even in the most challenging times Christ is present with us and brings light into the darkness of this world.  The service begins with the lighting of the Easter candle, and there will be the opportunity for those of us who are baptised to renew our baptismal vows.  At the end, the Easter Garden outside the North Porch will be blessed before we sing our final hymn.

After the service, coffee will be served in church while the children hunt for Easter Eggs in the churchyard!

Gloria: Peruvian
Communion setting:  St Thomas Mass David Thorne                                 
110  Jesus Christ is risen today
117  The Day of Resurrection
Easter Acclamation   plainsong
113  Love’s redeeming work is done
This joyful Eastertide Dutch trad arr Charles Wood
Now the green blade riseth. French trad arr David Iliff
120 Thine be the glory (Blessing of Easter Garden)
Toccata  (5ème Symphonie). CM Widor 

As well as being a joyous celebration of the Risen Christ, the day will mark one year of continuous worship in St John’s since the pandemic lockdowns.

Following three months without public worship in the first part of 2021, we resumed services in St John’s on Easter Day Sunday 4th April 2021, with around 70 socially-distanced worshippers present for the service which was led by the Vicar, the Revd Juliette Hulme.

A reduced, socially-distanced choir provided the music, but because regulations still prohibited congregational singing inside, the final hymn ‘Thine be the glory’ was sung outside in the churchyard, during the blessing of the Easter Garden. Here is a photographic record of that Easter morning, which includes pictures of Juliette our Vicar leading the renewal of baptismal vows at the font, and the sprinkling of the congregation with holy water.