Good Friday Meditation, 29th March, 7.30pm: Olivet to Calvary by J. H. Maunder. A choral meditation with congregational hymns, recalling some of the incidents in the last days of the Saviour’s life on earth. Sung by the choir of St Peter’s. (Picture painted by Catherine Rednall)
Easter Day, 31st March: 9am (said) & 10.45am (with music): Services of Holy Communion, at 10.45am also with a Baptism, joyfully celebrating the life the Risen Christ shares with us all.
To mark the start of Lent, on Ash Wednesday, 14th February, we held a reflective Communion Service.
Palm Sunday, 24th March, 9am (said) 10.45am (with music) Services of Holy Communion celebrating the arrival of Jesus into Jerusalem. It reminds Christians of the wish to welcome Jesus into our hearts, and the willingness to follow him.
The Lent Group met in the Choir Vestry over four weeks during Lent. Rev Sue Whitehouse, Lenore, Roddy and Janet Y each led an evening with the four topics exploring the themes raised in the Book of Micah Chapter 6 verse 8: ‘What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with your God?’
The leaders each produced an excellent booklet with prayers, readings, psalms, thoughtful poems and topic discussion points about each word. These, together with the many interesting and wide-ranging discussions in groups and amongst everyone, gave much food for personal thought. Thank you to Sue, Lenore, Roddy and Janet for a very thought-provoking series of evenings.
Each evening explored the different words ‘Lament’, ‘Mercy’, ‘Justice’ and ‘To Walk Humbly’. Aspects considered and discussed included; world affairs, the plights of individuals and their cry for help and how one can find hope through God; where mercy can be found in the Bible and how it feels to receive mercy; the many different meanings of the word ‘justice’; with the final session looking at Bible passages containing aspects of humility – such as in 1 Peter 5: 5-6 where it says: ‘All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because “God opposes the proud but shows favour to the humble”’, and in James 4: 4-10 how we are told to ‘Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up’.
Maundy Thursday, 28th March, 7.30pm: A reflective service of Holy Communion, commemorating Jesus’s institution of the Eucharist during the Last Supper. Deriving from the Latin word ‘mandatum’ (command), the word ‘Maundy’ reflects on the words Jesus spoke, which are written in John 13: 34; ‘A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another as I have loved you’. It ends in silence with the stripping of the Altar.
For more information, please email the office: office@stpetersedinburgh.org