"Ascribe to the Lord the glory due to his name;
worship the Lord in the splendour of holiness" Psalm 29:2

St Bartholomew's Wilmslow	St Anne's Fulshaw

Holy Week and Easter 2009 in Wilmslow

Palm Sunday: We begin Holy Week by using Palm crosses to celebrate Jesus’ entry into the city of Jerusalem. We will have an all age service of Holy Communion at 10am beginning outside Church (weather permitting) with palm crosses and the donkey. Whilst the rest of us go into the service, a group will undertake a walk of witness up through Wilmslow arriving at St Anne’s for the end of their service at around 11am.

Monday: At St Anne’s at 7.45pm we join with our ecumenical friends to express our Christian unity during this most important of all weeks for the Church.

Tuesday: At 7.30pm at St Bart’s there will be an opportunity to reflect more deeply upon the last few hours of Jesus’ life in the context of a service of “Stations of the Cross”.

Wednesday: At 7.30pm at St Anne’s Church Hall we will hold a Passover meal, as we remember the last supper that Jesus ate with his friends, and reflect upon the roots of Christianity in the Jewish faith.

Thursday: Following on from the Passover meal, at 8pm we will hold our service of Holy Communion of the last supper when we remember Jesus’ institution of the Eucharist and experience once again his loving service expressed in washing his disciples’ feet. As we remember his agony and betrayal in the garden of Gethsemane we hold a vigil in the crypt until 10pm.

Good Friday: In the morning at 9.45am there will be activities for younger members of the congregation in the Parish Hall. Following on from this there will be a very short ecumenical service at 11.30am in Grove Street, as we express together with the other churches the importance of this day to the wider community of Wilmslow. At 12 noon until 3pm Bishop Peter will come to lead our meditations at the foot of the cross.

Easter Eve (Saturday): At 8pm we will hold our vigil, service of light and renewal of Baptism vows at St Bart’s. This will be a reasonably short service in which the Church will move from darkness to light with lots of candles. In the course of this service we will remember those who have died in the Easter hope of resurrection to eternal life.

EASTER DAY: The most important day in the Christian year! After the 6am dawn service there will be 8am Holy Communion services at St Bart’s and St Anne’s, the Story service at St Bart’s and parish communion services at both Churches.