We are in the middle of Holy Week, the week when everything changed for Jesus and his followers. Tomorrow is Maundy Thursday, when many Christians will gather to
remember how Jesus gathered with his friends and followers in the upper room for a meal. Some will re-enact the way Jesus washed the feet of his disciples. Others will share a meal to remember how Jesus made the simple basics of a meal – bread and wine – into a sacred act of remembrance, which has been passed down over the centuries.

At MCC Newcastle, we come from many different  Christian traditions and some of us do not have a Christian background at all. It is interesting to see how different people travel through Lent and Holy Week. Some of us try and have an active discipline during Lent – giving up or taking up something. For some, Lent passes us by unnoticed.

Similarly, there are a variety of attitudes towards Good Friday. Someone commented to me recently that she doesn’t come to the Good Friday service, because it is like Jesus’ funeral and she focuses on the joy of the resurrection and a living Christ. For someone else, it is vital that she attends the service, so that she can feel the depth of the pain of the suffering of Jesus and all that his death means to her in her faith journey.

For me, Jesus’ death remains a mystery. Did Jesus need to be murdered, or would he have been resurrected, whatever he died from? 

Why did he need to die for his message to get through – wasn’t his life powerful enough?

What is the meaning of his death, now, in the 21st century?

What does it mean to say “Jesus died for my sins?” I remember hearing this phrase as a small child and wondering what I could have done already that was so bad that Jesus had to die such a terrible death.

The rituals of any church season, including Lent, Holy Week and Easter, take on the personal meaning that we give them. Attending the Good Friday service gives me the opportunity to reflect on the ability of humans, including me, to be cruel, unjust and arbitrary. It offers a chance to think and pray about those areas of my life that I am not at ease with. It always enables me to tap into the fear and  desolation that the disciples must have felt and hold that feeling until the miracle of the resurrection.

What does Holy Week mean to you?

God bless,

Cecilia

In 2010, we went through a discernment process at MCC Newcastle called “Harvest for our Future”. We concentrated on a few questions and held “vision parties” and other ways of making sure that everyone who wanted to, could contribute to the discussion. One of the questions was “What you value about MCC Newcastle?” Out of the answers to this question, we developed our Core Values, which you can find on the fantastic postcards and badges that we use for outreach.  

One of the other questions that we asked was “What will MCC Newcastle be like in 10 years time?” From the answers to this question, the Board drew up a list of key aims to guide us in our planning from 2010 – 2015. Each year at the ACM, the Board has put forward actions for approval by the Members of the church, based on these key aims. This year will be no different.

At the recent Saturday Seminar, we discussed the Church Size Summit and the recommendations for progress made by our Elder, Reverend Elder Darlene Garner. 

We compared her recommendations with the 5 year key aims that we have been following as a congregation. Guess what? They were very similar. This is really positive because it means that we are about ready to take the next steps in our growth as a faith community.

One of our five year aims is:

This was also one of Darlene’s main recommendations to us. We love being based at St James’s, and it is also time to start looking for a new home. This will take time, finances and above all, a great deal of prayer. Please keep this exciting vision in your prayers. The seeds that we sowed in 2010 are beginning to germinate into a “Harvest for our Future”.

God bless,

 Cecilia

Today is a day that the world changed. Just now we do not know whether this will be a change for the better. Just now, all the newsrooms around the world will be scrambling to get as much information as they can on this man, suddenly thrown into the spotlight.

Pope Francis, an Argentinean, has been elected to serve the Catholics of the world. He is the first Pope from outside Europe in over 1000 years. That alone is a huge shift. South America is the home of liberation theology - the view that
Jesus was on the side of the poor. Many Catholic priests were actively engaged in politics in South American countries, helping the poor and oppressed, often campaigning against brutal regimes.  One of the most famous quotes from this time is from Dom Helder Camara, Archbishop of Recife, Brazil: 

Like most of you, at the time of writing, I know very little about Pope Francis and his background. However, I think this powerful theological and social movement must have influenced the new Pope at some level. When one is looking at the world through the lens of a Saviour who came to free oppressed people, then it is harder to uphold structures and systems that oppress some people and not
others.

I doubt that there will be any great shifts on issues such as gay marriage or women priests. What we might start to hear more about, is the heart of the Christian message:

In local parishes around the world, from whatever Christian tradition, faithful people work to transform their local community and beyond. It is my hope for them, and for us, that Pope Francis will able to remind the wider world of all
the good that the followers of Christ do each day to bring heaven closer to earth.

God bless,

 Cecilia