On that first Easter Sunday, the women of Jesus’ group went to his grave early in the morning, to prepare his body – only to find that he wasn’t there, he was risen. To celebrate this, St Paul’s organised a service on the mound in Brock’s Hill Park at 6:30 a.m (it felt even earlier as the clocks had gone forward that night). They were joined by people from two other churches. Despite gloomy weather forecasts, the sky was clear.The service started with a hymn reminding us of Good Friday and Christ’s death. There were monologues presenting the thoughts of four disciples, all discouraged or despondent in different ways. Then we read the Bible’s account of the resurrection, sang the hymn “Jesus Christ is risen today, Alleluia” and lit a candle (with difficulty in the wind!). Another four monologues portrayed the complete change in those same disciples that the resurrection made.
As we made our way back to the car park the sun was coming through the trees. Christ is risen! He is risen indeed, Alleluia!
