Life Lately: the Celebration weekend

We had a great time over our celebration weekend, marking 90 years with the Queen!

Huge thanks to everyone who helped, and everyone who came along.

Time to Celebrate!

As members of the Church of England, this June we are celebrating 90 years with Queen Elizabeth II! We are doing this with an exhibition held in both of our two churches, and with three special services. Everyone is invited to come to everything, and all admission is free.

Please help us to make this weekend a great time together!

The Exhibitions will be of the life of the Queen, but also the lives of our communities in the last 90 years, with wedding dresses, christening gowns, certificates, photos, and much more memorabilia on display, as well as celebration flowers and music, with refreshments and children's activities.

We are holding three different services in the hopes that there's something for everyone! 

Our Celebration and Thanksgiving will begin with some family-friendly worship and will include children's work, but will be largely a formal-style service of Holy Communion. 

Our All-Age Family Celebration is, as it suggests, suitable for all ages! With songs, story and craft, this will be a shortish, informal-style service. If anyone would like to come in royal fancy-dress, they'd be very welcome, but it's not compulsory! 

The Songs of Praise Celebration will be a largely formal-style service, with lots of hymns and songs from throughout the years, with the Benefice Choir. 

Rev'd Daniel Cozens will be joining us for the Celebration and Thanksgiving, and for the Songs of Praise Celebration. He is a renowned speaker, able to explain the Christian faith with confidence and interest! He has been instrumental in several evangelistic events and groups over the years, and we're really pleased to be welcoming him to join us! 

Before that all starts, we will be kicking off the weekend on Wednesday 8 June with a special opportunity to eat together, chat together, and walk together, along with the Bishop of Chelmsford, Stephen Cottrell. Please join us if you can for any or all of the day!

Please contact the Church Office for more information (see the posters for contact details) and for details of how you can help if you'd like to get involved. Hope to see you there!

Happy Easter!

Holy Week: Good Friday

We've got several services on today:

the Walk of Witness starts from Mistley Church at 12pm, 

ending in an Outdoor Service at the Manningtree Ox at 12.20pm

The Reflections on the Cross meditation will be at 1pm at Bradfield, 

and The Nail Good Friday service will be at Mistley at 2pm

As well as our services and events, see below for a multimedia meditative art piece, 

remembering the events of Good Friday. 

This was created and performed by an artist called Scott Erickson for his Church a few years ago, using the narrative of the stations of the cross, with the music of Radiohead, all combined with live painting. See here for his website: if you can't immediately see the info on this video, scroll down and you should find it on the left. 


The Crucifixion According to Radiohead from Ecclesia Houston on Vimeo.

All original material by Scott Erickson. Please go to his website to find out more.

Holy Week: Maundy Thursday

We have a service today, 9.30am at Bradfield Church 

Do join us for this formal-style service if you can

If you can't join us, or if you'd like to carry on walking this Holy Week with us, then read on...

Maundy Thursday is one of those days that as the years go on, the more significant I find it. It is so chock-full of symbolism.

So, did you know the significance of the meal? It wasn't just any old meal that they ate on Jesus' last night of freedom, but Passover, the celebration of the Israelites' rescue from Egypt. Part of this involved eating bread and drinking wine. Jesus was taking their old traditions and re-appropriating them, giving the disciples' history new significance, allowing them to stand upon on it, not get bogged down in it.

So there wasn't just one cup of wine, but four, each to be drunk at a significant point in the meal, each with its own meaning.

1. The Cup of Sanctification: “I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians”
2. The Cup of Deliverance: “I will deliver you from slavery to them”
3. The Cup of Redemption: “I will redeem you with an outstretched arm”
4. The Cup of Restoration: “I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God”

Here's the thing. I believe that during the meal, the Last Supper, they drank the first three. I understand, however, that they did not drink the final cup. In other words...

They drank in that they were set apart, set free, and redeemed. Their restoration waited a few more days.

The other thing that I feel that I took far too long to realise, is that when bread is broken and wine shared, and Jesus says to 'remember' Him, it's not just about eating while you think about Jesus, or drinking because of what He's done. It's literally re-membering Him. Each of us, with our bit of the puzzle, coming back together, making a whole beautiful picture of our salvation.

The video below has been made by Friends and Heroes, who have animated stories of Jesus for teaching purposes, and they've made this one free for anyone who wants to use it!


See here for more information on Friends and Heroes and this video.

Holy Week: Wednesday

Tonight we've got Life Together, our monthly meeting where we have time for more in-depth worship, for discussions, and for more prayer, all around tables with pudding and coffee. Tonight's theme is The Experience of Gethsemane, thinking about times of difficulty, when God doesn't feel near. It's 7.15pm at Mistley Church.

So today, amongst other things, is the day when Mary Magdalene washed Jesus' feet in her tears, and poured incredibly expensive perfume over Him. I'm not going to expound some theological thoughts on this: the internet is at your finger-tips. 

Instead, let's do something. Get a tissue, and put a good amount of something strongly smelling on it. Preferably something pleasant. It could be perfume. Olbas Oil would work nicely. Put a decent amount on the tissue, then carry it around with you. I appreciate this might not be doable if you're hanging out with people who are, say, allergic to perfume, so please be considerate and feel free to leave your strongly-smelling tissue in your car. Boy, will that smell when you get back in there...

The point is, Jesus was anointed by someone who valued Him. She faced derision and questions about what the heck she was doing, because she thought He was worth it. 

And Jesus would have carried the scent of her worship for days. Have you every considered that every action of Good Friday, every mark made on Jesus' body would have just released more of that perfume back into the air? I think by the end of Good Friday I would never want to smell nard again.

So today, carry perfume with you. Remember how Mary valued Jesus. And remember how He valued her for doing it. 

Holy Week: Tuesday

Trying to sort the events of Holy Week into real-time days, I've found that Tuesday is a bit of an issue. Jesus appears to spend the whole day teaching. From Mark 11:20 to 13:37, all he does is talk. And occasionally walk. There is nothing I can artistically write over a hipster picture that sums up the day, when he swings from paying poll-tax to the destruction of the temple, to the most important commandment, to the legitimacy of John's baptism...it goes on and on. Except reading it again, there is something that stands out.

Mark 13:3-4

3 As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John and Andrew asked him privately, 4 “Tell us, when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that they are all about to be fulfilled?”

New International Version (NIV) Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® 

Jesus has spent all day saying provocative things to powerful people. His disciples, spending the day with Him, must have seen the faces of the Chief Priests. They must have noticed that questions are posed in the hopes of trapping Him. They must have been tempted to bundle Him out of there and go and sit somewhere quiet where He can't say anything outrageous, and then, just as they finally get Him out of the temple, and think they're on safe ground discussing architecture, Jesus tells them that all of the buildings will be destroyed to nothing.

I can picture this so clearly. I can see myself there, wincing. Part of me is properly annoyed that He couldn't just appreciate the columns. Part of me wants Him to stop saying those things. And part of me is with Peter, James, John and Andrew, getting in a quiet corner and asking what He's talking about, maybe so that I'm ready. Maybe so that I'm nowhere near.

Holy Week is hard. My Lent readings have had me already read about Good Friday, so I can tell you from experience: walking this road is brutal, and I wasn't even there.

Here's the other thing: Jesus knew what was coming, and He kept teaching.

He knew what was coming, and He kept saying the things that would get Him in trouble.

He knew what was coming, and He kept saying the hard things. The true things.

He knew what was coming, and He kept walking the road.

These middle days are important, not least because of just that: Jesus told us to follow Him. If Jesus walked this road, fully knowing everything that was going to happen, who am I to wimp out now?