From the Rector - April 2025

Easter People 

The date of Easter moves about each year, and people often wonder why it cannot be fixed, like that of Christmas. The short answer is that the timing of Easter is linked to the phases of the moon, as the Passover festival was for the Jewish people. For that reason it can fall between March 22nd at the very earliest and April the 25th at the latest. The Eastern Orthodox churches use a different calendar, so for them the date of Easter is usually different too (as it is for Christmas), just to confuse things. This year, our Easter is ‘late’, and falls on the 20th of April, right at the end of the two week school holidays.

Although Easter has become less prominent in our society over recent decades (while Christmas has remained as popular as ever), it is the most important festival of all for the church and is full of drama, passion and symbolic meaning. It defines who we are - Easter people - who claim the victory of Christ over death in our own lives and in the equally challenging life of the world. On Palm Sunday, we remember Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem in humility, riding on a donkey. This is followed by the days of ‘Holy Week’ when we remember Jesus in the city, as he spoke about the love of God and challenged religious leaders about their misuse of power. We remember the plot to kill him, his arrest on trumped up charges, his trial and suffering as the fickle crowd was turned against him, and his crucifixion and death outside the city wall on Good Friday. Then, after the solemnity of Holy Saturday, at Easter we light a new Easter (‘Paschal’) candle, and carry it into church with the words, ‘The Light of Christ!’ to celebrate Christ bursting from the tomb, defeating the forces of darkness. From that Paschal candle the flames of individual candles are lit to show how the resurrection of Jesus from the dead is the gift of light and life for each of us, and for the entire world. This is the church’s great festival, the celebration of God’s gift of life for the world.  Please come and join us for any or all of our services at Combe, or at Stonesfield, and I look forward to wishing you all a very Happy Easter!

Revd Ralph Williamson - Rector