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Organ Appeal At St Giles we hear sounds from the organ that our predecessors, including Byron, Shelley and John Soane, have heard for more than three hundred years. This historic organ urgently needed sympathetic restoration more>

The great feast of the Church is Easter. As the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is central to our faith, so Easter Day is the great day in the life of the Church. Easter has been celebrated by Christians ever since there have been Christians. From the earliest times the Church has kept a vigil of watching and waiting throughout the night before Easter Day, meditating on the mighty acts of God as recorded in the Old Testament. This culminated in a gospel account of the appearance of the Risen Lord, and the celebration of the Eucharist early in the morning, at dawn, remembering both the Last Supper, Jesus last meal with them, and their experience of his presence after the resurrection, in the breaking of bread together.

In the early Church this was the only time in the year when new Christians were sacramentally admitted into the Church, through the water of baptism – by being totally immersed, dying to their old lives by going under the water, and so symbolically entering into Christ’s redeeming death, and then rising out of the water to new life in Christ. Anciently people then put on new white robes to symbolise their new life and status. Easter, and Easter Eve in particular, is still a marvellous time to be baptised or confirmed, and to renew the vows that were made for us at our baptisms, and that we made when we were confirmed.

Several times recently we have had confirmation candidates at Easter, and this year again we have a candidate Ilona Boll, who has been coming to St Giles for a while, and I will be presenting her to the Bishop of London to be confirmed at the marvellous Easter Eve service in St Paul’s Cathedral, and I hope that some members of St Giles congregation will be there to support Ilona. That service in the Cathedral is the most moving service of the Church’s year, in no small part because the Cathedral is crowded, and one gets a sense of what a mighty body of Christians, and especially Anglicans there are in London, and the number of people who identify themselves with the death and resurrection of Christ.

At that service the resurrection is dramatically proclaimed amidst the grandeur of the Cathedral. The Easter candle, symbolising the light of the world, risen from the darkness of the grave, is marked with sign of the cross by five ‘nails, reminding us of the wounds of Christ, and with the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, Alpha and Omega, reminding us that Christ is the beginning and the end of all things, and marked with the numbers 2010, a reminder that the Lord of all ages is present this year, here and now. The candle is carried through the dark cathedral, and the message is proclaimed ‘Christ is risen’ and the light is passed from person to person throughout the cathedral. Then the Bishop baptises those who are seeking to become new Christians, and the whole of the vast congregation renew the vows made at their baptism and we affirm our union with Christ in his death and resurrection, and the Bishop confirms, by laying his hands on their heads, and anointing with holy oil those who are taking the second step of initiation as members of the fellowship of the Church. Then the climax of the service is the Eucharist in which we are all sacramentally united with our risen Lord, and those who are baptised and confirmed complete their initiation into the Church of God by receiving Holy Communion for the first time.

This service dramatically sets out the faith of the Church in the crucified and risen Christ, and unites all those present in fellowship with him, and all who have gone before us, and all who will come after us. It is a marvellous expression of the life of the Church.

If you can, do come to St Paul’s to support Ilona, and to renew your baptism vows and reaffirm your faith, in the strength and power of Christ in his Church here in London, at 7 pm (you need to be in good time to get in) on Easter Eve, Saturday 3rd April.

Bill Jacob.

Special Collections

On Sunday, 7th March 2010 £390.28 was raised for the the Bishop of London’s Lent Appeal: Transforming Lives - 'ALMA’s Children'. On Sunday 4th April, EASTER DAY, the collections will be donated to Passage, a London based homeless charity, which we are supporting for six monthly collections throughout the year

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