Maundy Thursday – Easter Day
Our musicians have done us proud for the services over this busy period and for most of them we have had both organ and piano, so a big thank you to Jill, Constance, Tricia and Sharon who have given so much over these days and so enriched our worship. Bishop Michael celebrated and preached at the Holy Communion and Footwashing on Maundy Thursday, the Three Hours on Good Friday, for which Bishop Michael took the SevenLast Words of the Cross to explore, the Easter Vigil on Saturday evening, and the Tamil Dawn Communion Service and at 11.30am Holy Communion on Easter Day. In addition to these we had a very well attended Good Friday Service following through in Story, dramatic action and movement to different parts of the compound the last 24 hours of Jesus’ life. Particularly effective was the Courtroom drama with several of the congregation acting as the crowd calling for Jesus’ death and four of the Manama singers under their Director sang God so loved the world from Stainer’s Crucifixion which concluded the service was a moving end to the service. At the Easter Vigil service I baptized little Elva Frances Zeverona, a reminder to all of our own baptisms before we renewed our baptism vows. Tricia and I attended the Dawn Ecumenical Service on Easter morning at the National Evangelical Church, always a very popular occasion before many people have to head off for work, and was invited to pray for world peace before heading off to Awali for the 9.30am service with Jon, returning just in time for the 11am Easter egg hunt in our garden and 11.30am service in the Cathedral: lots of children attending, which was lovely. I presented Bishop Michael with a Bahraini fish plate as a token of our appreciation of his leading and teaching over the week and he responded by saying what an enriching experience it had been sharing in the life of the St Christopher’s Church community through holy week and Easter, something he most misses as bishop. He and Julia joined us for a roast lamb lunch with the Axtell family and Stephanie Hanson-Singh, an opportunity to relax after the demands of the previous few days. One evening Holy Communion remained – which the home team presided and preached: Stephen celebrating and I preached on one of my favouritestories ; the two disciples on the road to Emmaus.
One feature of Easter Day was three art graffiti boards, inspired by an arts festival in Adliya provided by David Axtell and used by children and adults. One late night artist had painted a large picture of the Cathedral, taking up the whole of one board, which I woke up to on Monday morning.