The roar of the crowd

Last week Helen and I went to see Kylie Minogue at the huge O2 arena in Greenwich. Kylie puts on a spectacular show involving incredible outfits, flying angels, fountains, scores of dancers, hundreds of lights and a dance beat that seemed to go right through you.  

We were up in the gods and, as the warm-up act did their thing, Helen and I tried to estimate how many people were there. Our best guess was 20,000 and I ruefully calculated that it would take over a year of capacity congregations at St Stephen’s to match that!

The adulation of the crowd, however, is a fickle thing, as we remember each Palm Sunday. This morning we will process round the Kingswood estate, accompanied by donkeys and a samba band. As we do so, we will remember how the crowds welcomed Jesus to Jerusalem with palm branches and shouts of ‘Hosanna to the Son of David!’  Maybe they had heard that Jesus healed the sick, perhaps they had heard rumours that he had raised Lazarus from the dead, or possibly they hoped he would overthrow the Romans. Whatever their thoughts, they didn’t go very deep. For by Friday, they were baying for his blood and shouting that he should be crucified.

In a democratic society with a free press and a TV culture, popularity can be a powerful thing. But as pop stars and politicians know to their cost, a week is a long time. Perhaps that is nevermore so than in Holy Week. This week Jesus will win no popularity competitions and yet, abandoned by the world, he will be vindicated by God.

I have a confession to make...

 
Today is Passion Sunday when we begin to reflect upon the suffering and death of Christ and our Lenten pilgrimage becomes deeper. Preparing for Easter is what Lent is all about but by this stage it may well be that Ash Wednesday is a distant memory and our Lenten fast a thing of the past.

One way that some prepare for Easter is by going to confession. It is one of those practices which can seem very foreign to those who have not experienced it. Within the Church of England the advice is that ‘none must, all may and some should’ go to confession and I try to go two or three times a year.

The Book of Common Prayer suggests that Church members should make special confession to a priest, “if he feels his conscience troubled with any weighty matter” and “for the better discharging of his conscience.” It is not that the priest is taking God’s place in pronouncing God’s forgiveness but that sometimes it is easier for us to believe it when we hear it with our own ears.

Confession can be an informal conversation and prayers with a priest or a more formal set order. The penance that is offered is not an onerous punishment but is often a suggestion of a portion of scripture for further reflection.

Should members of the congregation wish to have their confession heard, they can contact Fr. Charles Richardson at St John’s Goose Green on 020 7639 3807 020 7639 3807, or visit All Saints Margaret Street (off Oxford Street) 12.30-13.00 weekdays and Saturday 5.30pm or feel free to contact me.

Lenten Devotions

Over the next couple of weeks we honour two great Anglican priests and writers. Firstly, Thomas Cranmer is remembered on the 21st March; Archbishop of Canterbury, author of the first prayer book in English and a martyr of the Reformation. Then on 31st. March we remember John Donne; poet, priest and Dean of St Paul’s. Below you will find two of their prayers, written a century apart as Anglicanism emerged from the Reformation, which have stood the test of time and which I hope will aid our own Lenten devotions;

O THOU Who in almighty power wast meek, and in perfect excellency wast lowly, grant unto us the same mind, that we may mourn over our evil will. Our bodies are frail and fading; our minds are blind and froward; all that we have which is our own is naught; if we have any good in us it is wholly Thy gift. O Saviour, since Thou, the Lord of heaven and earth, didst humble Thyself, grant unto us true humility, and make us like Thyself; and then, of Thine infinite goodness, raise us to Thine everlasting glory; Who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Ghost for ever and for ever. Amen. 
Thomas Cranmer


WILT Thou forgive that sin where I begun, Which was my sin, though it were done before? Wilt Thou forgive that sin through which I run, And do run still, though still I do deplore? When Thou hast done, Thou hast not done; For I have more.
Wilt Thou forgive that sin which I have won others to sin, and made my sins their door? Wilt Thou forgive that sin which I did shu. A year or two, but wallow’d in a score? When Thou hast done, Thou hast not done; For I have more.
I have a sin of fear, that when I’ve spun my last thread, I shall perish on the shore; But swear by Thyself that at my death, Thy Son Shall shine as He shines now and heretofore: And having done that, Thou hast done; I fear no more.