Author: Sue Fairhead

‘Unsettled’…’confusing’ … ‘strange’.  All words we’ve heard to describe these weeks of COVID-19.  Yet, there begins to be talk of the possibility of the pandemic having perhaps peaked here in Cyprus; rumours of hope; glimmers of light in the darkness.

This morning felt a little strange, as I received greetings from friends elsewhere celebrating Easter Day, in line with the western calendar. For this year, in solidarity with the Orthodox Church in Cyprus, we celebrate Easter next week, and so Palm Sunday today.

 Today, about the time that Easter dawn services were taking place online in the UK, Christopher and I said Morning Prayer for Palm Sunday. We prayed in bright sunshine.  The veranda door was open and I became aware of three things: the quiet of stilled traffic; the sound of birdsong; and the lovely chanting of the Orthodox priest from our village church.  It felt good to be in prayer together on Palm Sunday.

 9.30am approached and we sat together to watch our pre-recorded Palm Sunday service  – another strange experience, particularly as there was no sound initially!  But the hitch did give us an opportunity to enjoy Zoom coffee and conversation both before and after the service!  And I’m so grateful for the technology and for Richard’s expertise, which enabled us to worship and to come together as a community in these strange times.  Opportunities for love shown and love shared; glimmers of light in the darkness.

 Palm Sunday marks the beginning of Holy Week, when we journey with Christ ever closer to the cross.  It’s that week when Jesus did things that were so very extraordinary – that seemed so strange and unsettling to his friends.  The week he rides into Jerusalem on a donkey; overturns the moneylenders’ tables in the temple; eats with the wrong kind of people yet again; allows a woman to anoint his feet with oil; washes his disciples’ feet; dries them with a towel; prays with passion in the garden; and permits himself to be arrested.  Strange and unsettling times indeed.

 As we share in the strange events of this week with Jesus and his disciples we will find, amid suffering, that there is love shown and love shared.  There are glimmers of light in the darkness.   For we journey through the confusions of this week as Easter people, in the certain knowledge of the resurrection that is to come.

I am finding it interesting how often now I see people signing off from a message not simply with their love, good wishes or regards, but with ‘stay safe’.

We have been used to threats to our safety coming in the form of violence, whether by aggression or accident, that attacks us. So our thought for others is that they will be as careful as possible to avoid injury and stay safe from harm. We try ourselves to minimise risk by avoiding areas known for trouble, by driving carefully, by looking both ways before crossing the road, by using the appropriate safety equipment for any activity. This is commonplace in our lives.

The ending of a message may become formulaic, words we have been taught that are correct and polite to put at the end of a letter, or in finishing a conversation. I always find it odd and a little untrue that phone calls in films and on television don’t end with good wishes and proper goodbyes, they just stop.

I try to choose these words for ending carefully. I do want to be polite in a general way, but I also want to try to be genuine with that person, so that I am expressing my hope for them.

I think that is what we are doing currently when we write or say, ‘stay safe’. We are giving voice to our hope, that this person will continue to experience safety from harm.

May our hopes be not a matter of form or politeness. May our hopes be also our prayers.

Christopher

Looking Ahead

We are having an unusual Lent this year, probably unlike any of us have previously experienced.  I do hope you are finding some support through our online services and through regular contact from members of the congregation.  Please let us know if no one has been in touch with you. As well as being unusual Lent is going to be a week longer too! Let me explain.  

As government restrictions on travel outside the home and on church services are certainly in place until Monday 13 April, Archbishop Michael has suggested that the Anglican churches in Cyprus join with the other main churches on the island in celebrating Holy Week and Easter according to the eastern calendar – this year that is one week later than the western calendar.  This gives us the possibility that we may be able to celebrate Easter together in St Helena’s.

So this is the plan:

• Sunday 5 April Lent 6 using the readings for Lent 4 when we kept Mothering Sunday
• Sunday 12 April Palm Sunday
• Thursday 16 April Maundy Thursday
• Friday 17 April Good Friday
• Sunday 19 April Easter Day

If the restrictions are extended beyond 13 April we will continue to offer online services from the vicarage for each of these days.

Let us continue in prayer with and for each other, in company with our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Christopher     

I have been delighted by how much it already means to me to stop and pray for our congregation and the people of the district of Larnaca every day at 6.00pm.

I am used to attending services on time so I set an alarm on my watch for 5.58pm, and I also set an alarm for 6.10pm to finish my time of silent prayer. I remember being shocked years ago by a writer on prayer saying that he set an alarm for the end of a prayer time, but now it is proving a useful and habit-forming part of my pattern.

There is a chair I always sit in for my devotional reading, for Morning Prayer, and now for silent prayer at 6.00. Sitting in the same place, like praying at a fixed time, helps me to focus on what I am there to do and I have a list of all your names in my lap. I sit down, I sit still, and I can attend in peace and quiet to what I am doing, the one thing necessary.

So the repetition and rhythm of this 10 minutes has become for me an enlivening time – being still with God, in my chair, with your name in my lap and on my heart.

Christopher

These are strange times as we listen daily to the latest news, advice and measures being taken here and elsewhere.  Our thoughts and prayers are for all those who are ill with the virus and those who are caring for them. 

On Monday it was announced that we won’t be gathering together for public worship at St. Helena’s at least until 10 April as we join in efforts to reduce the threat of this virus and keep our neighbours and friends safe.

Being unable to worship together in our church is difficult at any time.  But this has come at a key time in the church’s year; a time when we mark Lent, Mothering Sunday and Holy Week.  Times when we don’t want to stay away from one other and ‘self-isolate’…

(to read the rest, see ‘Looking Forward: Mothering Sunday)

WE ARE THE BODY OF CHRIST

The present moment feels unprecedented. Levels of anxiety and disorientation are high in many places and we who are Christians are finding that we are not exempt.

For many of the congregations of our diocese, public worship has been discontinued for the time being and until further notice, because the civil authorities, whose guests most of us are, have decreed that it should be. Situations vary, but everywhere at the moment is experiencing greater or lesser amounts of disruption and discontinuity….

(to read the rest, see: Archbishop’s pastoral letter)

On January 14th, we held one of our occasional afternoon tea social events. It was a happy occasion, gathering people with a whole variety of connections to St Helena’s Church and members of the congregation.  The next afternoon tea will be on Tuesday 5 May at 3.00pm.