BAY CHAPLAIN’S CORNER

Easter at the Bay?   Christ is Risen! Alleluia – Christ is Risen!     Increasingly Easter is ignored and unnoticed as a secular festival but remains the greatest festival of the Christian Year – in spite of the numbers of Easter Eggs and Hot Cross Buns sold in the weeks beforehand.

The drama of Holy Week focuses our attention ever more closely on the figure of Jesus as he rides into Jerusalem to face arrest, trial, torture and crucifixion.  Maundy Thursday gives an annual authorisation in story for the church’s communion practice in the present, while rooting it back to the story of Passover and looking forward to the great banquet of the kingdom of heaven.

Good Friday calls the church to ‘wonder and stare’, to contemplate and question what is being done in the cruelty and agony of the Cross.   Here the transformation of God begun in Bethlehem is brought to a terrible climax, in the figure of the crucified God, dying outside the human city.

Saturday is, according to the Jewish critic George Steiner, the longest day in western civilization – the day in which Christ waits in the tomb, the day in which the universe waits for resurrection, waits to see if death has won.

Sunday explodes in sound and light, church bells ring, alleluias sing, the colours change from penitence and mourning to extravagant celebration.   The fast is swallowed up by the feast.

Light, energy, freshly kindled fire, the rising sun – movement, dance, running, celebration, food, festival, holiday – abundant life for all!

Down at the Bay Easter Day will start with a 6 am Sunrise Service at Goleulong Lightship 2000 – why not start your Easter Celebration early and see the Bay at its glorious early morning best!