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This year Christian Aid week runs from 15th till 2nd May. If you haven’t received your new envelope for Christian Aid week, you return it yourself rather than waiting for someone to collect it. You can donate through the link below and also find out about the work Christian Aid are currently involved with.

Christian Aid Week 2022 – Christian Aid

Christian Aid work throughout the world wherever there is need that they can help with, they are of course involved with refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine, the prayer below was issued by them for Passion Sunday however it is sadly still relevant, if you haven’t already done so you may wish to add it to your own prayers.

God of all peoples and nations,
Who created all things alive and breathing,
United and whole,
Show us the way of peace that is Your overwhelming presence.
We hold before you the peoples of Ukraine and Russia,
Every child and every adult.
We long for the time
When weapons of war are beaten into ploughshares
When nations no longer lift up sword against nation.
We cry out to you for peace;
Protect those who only desire and deserve to live in security and safety
Comfort those who fear for their lives and the lives of their loved ones
Be with those who are bereaved.
Change the hearts of those set on violence and aggression
And fill leaders with the wisdom that leads to peace.
Kindle again in us a love of our neighbour,
And a passion for justice to prevail and a renewed recognition that we all play a part in peace.
Creator of all hear our prayer
And bring us peace. Make us whole.
Amen

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The transfer for our Paschal Candle this year was designed and created by *S*. It has the traditional elements with her own artistic twist on them. Including the addition of a butterfly in the colours of the Ukrainian flag so that they too may know new life in all its fullness.

In the Japanese Shinto religious tradition, if an earthenware pot used for religious observance is broken, that pot must be restored. The pieces are taken and put back together, but into the adhesive is introduced an amount of gold to give it strength. The cracks and the brokenness can be seen; they remain, but the pot is more valuable, is stronger, because holding it together is a golden thread.
This Easter we celebrate the golden thread of God’s love which shines through the brokenness of our lives and our world in Hope. The golden thread of God’s love which binds us together to strengthen us in the face of fear and allows to know the real Joy of resurrection life which Our Lord Jesus Christ gives us, and the Holy Spirit allows us to share.
The golden thread of God’s love that we see shine in Hope is the sure Hope that comes from the knowledge that the sun rises, whether we are always able to recognise that fact or not. At the heart of the resurrection narratives is the fact that Love is stronger than any natural phenomenon we experience, even death itself. The Hebrew concept of Remembrance makes real in this present moment Exodus, Passover that is the concept of Remembrance Jesus used at the last supper. More than memory, but memory teaches much about the nature of God’s love when we simply remember those we have known who have died. It is love which lifts the veil between heaven and earth, the golden thread of Hope holds our heaven and earth in the reality of that love, that speaks to us of God.
There is no room for fear in love: we hear that every Sunday. Fear is the most lethal weapon in the world and in our lives. It is lethal because it encourages those facets of our lives that we would rather be without, the questions, the doubts around who I am and why am I the way I am. Why do others seem to have more than me without working for it; why are others stronger, more self-assured, more assertive? The golden thread of God’s love runs through that brokenness and reminds us that we are made in God’s image to share God’s love. The importance of the cross and of the tomb is that Our Lord Jesus Christ proved that despite failure, disappointment, indeed death itself – we are good enough. Good enough to share God’s love; there is no room for fear in that love. In apparent weakness there is strength: I remember saying at the beginning of the pandemic that we closed our church doors not in fear but in LOVE.
That is the true Joy of Love which brings peace, makes resurrection real. Joy is not the absence of pain or suffering, the absence of doubt and confusion. The joy in love is the recognition that Our Lord Jesus Christ in his suffering and death gives us confidence that, made in God’s image, we are good enough. God who is love makes something of our pain and guilt and fear and doubt. That is the true joy of love that is of God: it gives us confidence to look for and recognise Hope, the Hope that the sun rises, the Hope that in the cross we may recognise even excellence is not enough, but failure can be redeemed.

• Kevin, Glasgow and Galloway

Programme
10.00am Worship
10.20am Jesus condemned – Bishop Kevin
10.40am The women by the way
11.00am Break
11.30am Jesus falls; Simon carries the cross
11.50am Crucifixion – Dean Reuben
12.10am The silence of the tomb – Bishop Kevin
12.30pm Final worship
If you would like to find out more about the Lent Quiet Day or would like to book a
place, please contact the Rev Les Ireland on 0141 776 3866, or email
Les949@btinternet.com. Access details for the Zoom meeting will be circulated
nearer the time.

Everyone is welcome and invited to this free event.

The Lord Almighty grant us a quiet night, and a perfect end.

Amen.

O God, make speed to save us;

O Lord, make haste to help us.

Psalm 31.1-5

Antiphon:          Make haste, O Lord, to deliver me,

for you are my tower of strength.

1. In you, O Lord, have I taken refuge; let me never be put to shame; deliver me in your righteousness.

2  Incline your ear to me; make haste to deliver me.

3  Be my strong rock, a castle to keep me safe, for you are my crag and my stronghold; for the sake of your name, lead me and guide me.

4  Take me out of the net that they have secretly set for me, for you are my tower of strength.

5  Into your hands I commend my spirit, for you have redeemed me, O Lord, O God of truth.

Antiphon:          Make haste, O Lord, to deliver me,

                           for you are my tower of strength.

Reading

Silence

Response (Ps. 31.5)

Into your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit.

            Into your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit.

For you have redeemed me, Lord God of truth.

            I commend my spirit.

Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.

            Into your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit.

  

Nunc Dimittis

Antiphon:    Preserve us, O Lord, while waking, and guard us while sleeping, that awake we may watch with Christ, and asleep we may rest in peace.

1    Now, Lord, you let your servant go in peace;

your word has been fulfilled.

2     My own eyes have seen the salvation

          which you have prepared in the sight of every people;

3     A light to reveal you to the nations,

and the glory of your people Israel.

Antiphon:    Preserve us, O Lord, while waking, and guard us while sleeping, that awake we may watch with Christ, and asleep we may rest in peace.

Lord, have mercy on us,

Christ, have mercy on us.

Lord, have mercy on us.

A time of silent prayer

Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name,

your kingdom come,

your will be done,

on earth as in heaven. 

Give us today our daily bread. 

Forgive us our sins

as we forgive those who sin against us. 

Do not bring us to the time of trial

but deliver us from evil. 

Amen.

Lighten our darkness, Lord, we pray; and in your mercy

defend us from all perils and dangers of this night;

for the love of your only Son, our Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Conclusion

We will lie down in peace, and take our rest;

For you alone, Lord, make us dwell in safety.

Into your hands, O Lord, I commit my spirit;

You will redeem me, O Lord God of truth.

Keep us tonight, Lord, from all sin;

Have mercy on us, Lord, have mercy.

Lord, hear our prayer;

And let our cry come to you.

Bless the Lord, the God of our fathers;

Sing his praise and exalt him for ever.

Bless the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit;

Sing God’s praise and exalt God forever.

The almighty and most merciful Lord guard us and give us his blessing.

Amen.

The icon – The Invitation – is in church for the duration of Lent.

Jesus walks into the wilderness his hand reaching back for you to come join him, where those things that you think are cracks and brokenness can be beautified.

I am currently reading ‘The Sound of Life’s Unspeakable Beauty’, it is a beautiful book any time but especially for Lent.  It says of itself, and it is true in my reading so far:

“This is a beautiful book. This word “beauty,” in the Japanese definition, requires sacrifice. The sacrifice of death to preserve honour or the natural process of decay is beatified.”

Going into the wilderness is a place not were we decay but were we can be beautified.  When all distractions, all temptations, all outside influences are no longer assailing our senses, we get the chance to look at ourselves and to listen to what God is saying to us and for us. 

So let us journey into the wilderness not in dour West of Scotland attitude, but in the joy of having 40 days with God removed from all other distractions, where we too will be attended to by the angels.

(I am sure there will be more about the book at another time.)

Lent Morning Prayers are a short quiet way to start Mondays through Fridays during Lent. Via Zoom only they will take the form of prayers, images and music. You don’t need to have your video on so you don’t even need to get out of bed to join us. Beginning 8am Thursday 3rd March.

Meeting ID: 898 7269 8656
Passcode: Monklands

Each Day during Holy Week we will be MARKing Holy Week by journeying through the Gospel of Mark. It will be done over the course of the whole week through reflection, music, image and parts of the Gospel itself.
From Monday to Thursday, the service will last no longer than an hour, while on Friday it will be a little longer.

Holy Monday and Holy Tuesday
2pm MARKing Holy Week in St Andrew’s Chapel
Holy Wednesday 
11am Said Eucharist in the Church
2pm MARKing Holy Week in St Andrew’s Chapel
Maundy Thursday
2pm MARKing Holy Week in St Andrew’s Chapel
7pm Sung Eucharist 
with stripping the altar and the Watch in Church
Good Friday
2pm MARKing the final hour in Church