| Saint Mary's Church, Saffron Walden | |
| Groups History Photos Links Young People Homework Help Site News Rector's Letter |
Home Contents Contact Calendar Help at Special Times Music Association Acting Team Rector's Letter The Acting Rector writes:
Dear Friends,The publication schedule for "Church News" and the date of Easter this year means that most of you will be reading this during Easter week, that is the week following Easter Day. The Sunday after Easter used to be referred to as Low Sunday and I imagine that many of us will be feeling a bit "low" as we say farewell to Lee and Hannah Batson after their joyful and fruitful ministry among us over the past three or more years. For Thomas the apostle, however, it was very much a high day. It was the day when at long last he made the shattering discovery that Christ was not dead but alive. Thomas has been called the man who missed Easter. He had not been with the other disciples on the evening of the first Easter Day when Jesus revealed himself. Afterwards they told him "We have seen the Lord." But Thomas was not persuaded. What was missing was the element of personal experience. A week later when the disciples were gathered behind locked doors Jesus came and stood among them and said to Thomas "Reach your finger here; see my hands; reach your hand here and put it in my side. Be unbelieving no longer, but believe." The rest we know. "Seeing is believing," we say; but for the Christian, believing is seeing. By the eye of faith we can behold the living Lord Jesus and enter into a personal relationship with him and know the power of his resurrection. It is this that represents the dynamic element in Christianity. Without it our religion remains largely an historical, institutional or academic affair. For us, the Resurrection fact has to be translated into the Resurrection faith and experience. We must be able to affirm that Christ is alive not just because it says so in the creeds, but because we can say with St. Paul, "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me." God bless you all, Michael Lovegrove |