the BIG ONE!

so, this week is the BIG ONE in the church year. yesterday we had a simple service of readings, meditation and prayer for Palm Sunday - focusing particularly on the fact that the same crowd that was welcoming Jesus as King was baying for his blood less than a week later. we also looked at how easy it is to follow Jesus when we think he's serving our agenda (which for the crowds on Palm Sunday was - to have a revolutionary king to overthrow the Romans), but how easy it is to turn away when God's agenda takes us by surprise. it was a nice, quiet, reflective service for just a handful of us.
tomorrow will be robed up and processing in the Cathedral for the annual 'Blessing of the Oils and Renewal of Ordination Vows' service that the Bishop leads each Holy Week. the oil is blessed and then taken back to parishes (of the non-geographic type in our case) to be used in prayer for healing. i think it's great that all (or should I say 'most' - the evangelical clergy are often conspicuous by their absence at these sorts of occasions) of the clergy from the Diocese have the chance to come together to re-affirm the vows they made at their ordination and I for one am looking forward to it.
On Maundy Thursday we will be joining with our Mother church - St Aldates - for a Passover Meal led by a Jewish guy - Joseph Steinberg. I went last year...you may not believe it but it was actually quite a laugh and interesting from a cultural point of view, as well as taking you deeper into the kind of meal Jesus would have celebrated on that night all those years ago.
On Good Friday we are going to gather again for another service of readings, prayers, and meditation, and then possibly to watch 'The Passion of the Christ' again - something that i guess a lot of groups will be doing on Friday.
On Easter Sunday morning hOME is going to experiment with an outdoor dawn service (for the hardy few!).
quite a week then!