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Welcome to St Eustachius' parish church, Tavistock. We aim to be a lively and caring Christian community, which encounters God and is engaged in transforming the town which we serve. We hope that you find these web pages helpful, we look forward to greeting you in person, and are glad to receive any feedback or enquiries that you have. |
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The Revd John Higman, Assistant Curate writes |
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1 April 2012
Dear Friends
I was tempted to start this message with the great Easter acclamation ‘Alleluia, Christ is risen – He is risen indeed, Alleluia’. But April begins with the final week of Lent and I have therefore resisted the temptation, so as not to pass over the events which are the foundation of our Christian faith and which reveal God’s loving purposes, culminating with the Three Days of our Redemption, or Easter Triduum as it’s often called.
As we know, Holy Week begins with Our Lord’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem where he’s hailed as the Messiah, but this quickly changes and those who were cheering him one moment then wanted him arrested and killed almost in the same breath. The focus turns from joy and celebration to fear and hatred as Jesus faces his passion and death on the Cross.
Good Friday is the day when we see that God is not just loving but is love; it is the day which gives meaning to what has gone before and what will happen, and brings to a climax Our Lord’s entire earthly mission and ministry. For, without the horror of Good Friday there could be no resurrection and victory over sin and death on the third day. Similarly God’s grace and love declared for us in Christ’s death on the Cross is somehow embodied in the bread and wine which he shared at the Last Supper, and which in turn is the main origin of our contemporary Eucharist in which we are effectively caught up with and share in his saving work.
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Your reader, Sally Pancheri, writes |
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1 May 2012
Dear Friends,
May heralds two important events in the Christian Calendar, Ascension Day and Pentecost.
The Ascension of the Lord used to be celebrated dramatically. Some churches had special holes in their roofs that were used for Ascension Day. To the words ‘While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven,’ a likeness of the risen Lord would be hauled up from the floor of the nave and out of sight of the people worshipping below. Likewise at Pentecost, rose-petals would shower down from the roof, to symbolise the tongues of fire that rested on each one of them on the first Pentecost.
With the news that listed buildings such as those in our Mission Community are to be subject to 20% tax on alterations, I do not think we can advocate celebrating any longer in such a dramatic style! However, perhaps we can all make dates in our diary now to be a part of these special services which will be taking place to celebrate both these festivals.
At the Ascension we come together to celebrate in faith what the disciples saw. What it means for us, is more important than how it was achieved. Luke’s version of the Ascension contains Jesus’ last farewell speech. Someone will once have shared their beliefs with you which is why you are probably reading this today. We all have the responsibility to go out and share the Good News with those whom we meet.
Ten days after Ascension comes Pentecost, often referred to as the Church’s birthday. It is a happy occasion when we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit. We use red altar frontals to symbolise the way in which the Holy Spirit descended on us like wind and fire.
The story of Pentecost is told in Acts 2. v1-4 : Acts 2.1-4
When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. 4All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
There is plenty going on in the church calendar to affirm our faith and encourage us to encourage other. There is also plenty of growth going on out in the garden in May.
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1 March 2012
I wonder if you have a particular favourite service of the church year. One of our church officers once told me that they loved above all the Advent carol service (not to be confused with the Christmas carol service). Another person told me that they most value the services that are held at ‘All Souls’’ time of year, around the time that the clocks go back: she told me that she listens, in God’s presence, to the names being read out of her late husband, and the child whom they lost in infancy, ‘and that sets me up to cope with the winter’. My own favourite service is midnight mass, when the whole world seems to come alive with the joy of the incarnation.
Not many may say with the person who is interviewed in the Tavistock, Gulworthy and Brent Tor magazine this month, that their favourite service is the three-hour service on Good Friday. But I think that this person is saying something very important. Our faith revolves around the death and resurrection of Jesus. Those events didn’t just launch our faith, they encapsulate it. And so spending time reflecting on them has the capacity to renew the faith within us. We might even go so far as to say that if our church buildings have just one purpose, it is to mark Good Friday and celebrate Easter Day. Year after year, year in, year out, observance of the three days (what some churches call the ‘triduum’, which means ‘three days’) of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Day gives the principal opportunity in the year to be renewed in our faith, to dig down to its very heart, and be immersed in it again. It’s no coincidence that baptisms in the early church took place at Easter, or that in some churches we renew our baptismal vows on Easter Day - for baptism is the outward sign of inward faith. If we have approached the three days carefully and seriously, then as we reach Easter, our faith will be re-kindled and deepened. It is our annual chance really to be re-immersed in the basics of faith, to get to the heart of things, to draw near to the central events of what our faith is all about.
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