this week the church remember's the story of the passion - jesus' last week including the last supper, his death, and then through to the resurrection on easter morning. it will be so interesting to see what people do in their homes on their own and online connecting with one another in real time through technologies or by participation in shared practices and resources shared online. i don't intend to spend the week posting links but if i see anything that grabs my attention i'll let you know or by all means leave a comment. i am sure some of the links are now broken but anything i have linked to before can be scrolled through here. my advice for what it is worth is to pick something and linger with that rather than get overwhelmed with loads of things.
lots of churches are posting regular services online with links to songs on youtube videos and downloadable childrens packs and words and liturgy on youtube, or via livestream. so if that's your thing there's lots out there to suit all sorts of tastes. people have had to go on a steep learning curve with technology in some cases but huge effort is going into that. i have seen lots that is really well done. it's not the kind of thing i normally go to so it's not the kind oif thing i will be doing this week either. but for lots of people it's what they know and love.
in grace we tend to go for one thing in holy week and put some effort into that. this year we are doing the saturday night easter vigil which seems really fitting this year though we had decided to do that before the virus. there are two ways you can participate - it will be live on zoom - we'll post a link and expect that to be our more regular people or those in the grace diaspora but i think you can fit 100 people in zoom so we'll see who shows up. then secondly there will be a hashtag #GraceEasterVigil2020 . you can jump onto a flow by following that hashtag in twitter or instagram or the grace facebook page. the vigil is in four parts and we'll be doing all four of those between 10pm and midnight. but of course those links will stay online so you can visit them when you like and you could just choose the parts that connect. if you choose to follow that way we'd love you to participate by posting using that hashtag too rather than just consuming. we will post some more info on this on the grace web site later in the week so do have a look back there. it will include a few items to gather so you are prepared for example.
two other things have caught my attention. one is that tess ward has reworked a whole easter retreat and will be posting all sorts through the week. tess is an amazing writer who has a gift for crafting lovely liturgy and prayers so i have high expectations for that. see her blog for all the info you need
and then there is an easter vigil called rumours of hope that looks like it will be good - it sounds as though it will have a range of pieces of content to fuel your own prayer and reflection through the evening and night. i like it that is a church of england thing that is not just a broadcast of a service but something more imaginative and artful. i don't actually know anything about the context i should add. i got invited to be involved but as grace was already committed could not do both though i am sure there can be some mutual hashtag sharing.
anyway whatever you do i hope the story comes alive for you this week. i hope to get round to revisiting communion online but we'll see how the week goes as i am trying to do some writing and not get overly distracted!
i am adding this as a worship trick as it feels these are all in the spirit of those even though i haven't added many for a while.
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