From the Revd. Hugh Trenchard, Vicar.

Dear Parishioners,

Towards the end of the Harry Potter film 'The Chamber of Secrets' the headmaster, Dumbledore, re-assures Harry, "It is not our abilities that show who we are, it is our choices."

The whole story of Easter is defined by that observation. During the last number of years in our churches the use of Holy Week as a time of preparation has seriously declined. We need to re-think just who this week is about and view, perhaps for the first time, how much Jesus turns all our thinking and acting on its head.

So very often it is in the unexpected things that we can find true understand- ing. Let me explain with some thoughts I used Maundy Thursday evening at a service in that several people experienced the foot washing, which Jesus had done to His disciples. I began with two unlikely jokes.

Lucy, a clever six-year- old, accompanied by her parents to a wedding of a bride and groom, both of whom were teetotal. On the way home she suddenly asked, "Daddy, what is fornication?"
Not a little bemused as to how he was going to get out of this question, he eventually enquired, "Why do you want to know?" Lucy replied, "Well, I heard Aunt Grace saying to Uncle Fred, It's terrible, fornication like this you really do need champagne."

The washing at the last meal was an occasion as was every other event of the Easter story.

A young Scottish school- teacher was trying to soothe the cut on the knee of a lad who had tripped in the playground. There was a lot of blood and so she said to the boy, "I hope you're not squeamish?" Whereupon he replied, "Oh no Miss, I'm Hamish!"

Being squeamish and far more were to be deep and transforming experiences for the disciples both during Holy Week and beyond.
Just what did Jesus do by washing the disciples' feet? Foot washing was not just a ritual, its practical significance is not apparent to Western minds. Despite the renowned picture of the Last Supper at which everyone is seated, meals were eaten reclining at low tables and as food and feet don't mix, washing was essential. It was the job of the lowliest servant to carry out this task, a job not relished by anyone. Here is the point Jesus was making. Not only was He, the Messiah, the King but to be such He could only be understood by turning on its head every idea of importance and position. He was making sure that we see a fundamentally new way of living and of becoming like Him. By taking the lowliest place He opens up for us the most profound Easter gift. He has come to make the invisible visible. The life He proclaims begins here and now and His resurrection redoubles that fact.

No wonder Peter didn't want to be washed and I am sure it was not because he was too slow to grasp just what Jesus was doing. Oh yes, it seems that quick- ly he understands and consents to be totally washed in his usual over the top way, but don't forget, it was only a short time later, when challenged that he denied ever knowing Jesus. It was only the power of the fact that Jesus did rise from the dead that brought about his transformation.

To be those whose very life work it is to make visible the invisible is to acknowledge not only that death has no power to sever relationships, but also it calls upon us to live in a very frightening way. We are to make visible the unpalatable face of poverty and suffering, extend a welcome to those who hate us and all we stand for, never again sit in judgment and condemnation on another human person. As children of light we are to reflect its brightness and refuse darkness to possess the lives of so many. We are to wash the feet of the feet of the world.

As sacred as that Last Supper was and is in our understanding and worship it is defined by the majesty of the King who becomes Servant. The meal and our baptism incorporate us into Him but we do not come into some safe comfortable warm shelter from the world in which we live. Resurrection is what we are to speak and to live and it means identification with the most horrible, the most sad, the most ugly and allowing His life to transform us all. Those who so many would prefer to leave invisible are to be allowed to shine and be valued. Now that's "occasion" and we will not be "squeamish".

Hugh Trenchard

Vicar