24th April 2011

The Parish Churches of

St Michael & St Wulfad, Stone, with

St Saviour Aston by Stone

Alleluia! Christ is risen!

He is risen indeed! Alleluia

A  most glorious and happy Easter to you all: To quote the hymn “death’s mightiest powers have done their worst/ and Jesus hath his foes dispersed” This is the day that is central to the Christian faith of course – although some are still trying to deny it many hundreds of years after the first arguments were raised. To quote again (this time St Paul): “If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.”

The truth is, of course, that at Easter something quite extraordinary happened. The enemies of the Lord had indeed, done their worst. They had taken the Lord of glory, put him through false imprisonment and torture, subjected him to a trial that defied all the normal legalities and finally put him to death on trumped-up charges. In this way they hoped that the trouble that Jesus caused them would be ended once and for all

But what happened next confounded all: so much so that to begin with even the followers of Jesus found it hard to believe – the first witness to the risen Jesus was dismissed as wishful thinking, according to St Luke. It all seemed rather like the proverbial happy ending – and it took time for the obvious change in the disciples to gain notice

Robert Graves in “I Claudius” tells of how the assassination of the Emperor Caligula was originally denied by the people who thought he was a God. Of course they soon came up against the brutal truth: but not so with Easter. Here the truth is still spreading around the world. And it is in the name of that truth that we celebrate today!

Ian Cardinal

Hymns for today

6am                 Aston                           Stone

                        563                  267                              267

                        267                  488                              509

                                                228                              228

                                                280/311                       355/311

                                                503                              503

Please pray for the sick in the benefice:

Val Gerrard, Dorothy Burton, Mavis Pick, Frank & Dorothy Shelton, Helen Zeter, Harry & Mary Townsend, Francis & Joyce Wright, Mavis Foster, Baby Tristan Simms, Kerris Sutherland, Linda Timms, Malcolm Nixon, Pat Wynne, Margaret Stubbs, Amy Bolderstone,  Ben King, Malcolm Clark, Jess Franklin, Poppy Buckley, Jessie Moore, Gerard Wood, Doreen Smith, Christine Thomas, Noelle Emery, Sarah Wright, Terry Malkin, Lawrence Austin, Bill Cornes, Barbara Thornicroft

And for the departed:

Glyn Jones

Remembering their families and friends at this time

This week:

Wednesday 27^th 3.30pm Adventurers Planning – St Michael’s school

Thursday 28^th 10.30am Holy Communion St Michael & St Wulfad

Thank you

• To all those who worked hard with flowers for the Easter weekend: I  know that both our churches will look fabulous
• To all those who came to all those special services in Holy Week and Easter
• To those who continue to work hard behind the scenes, with books, candles, printing, paperwork etc, to make everything go smoothly
• To Musicians and Choristers, who truly went the extra mile to make everything so special
• Especially to those brave souls who are to provide breakfast, once again after the 6am Service of Light! You make it all worthwhile
• But chiefly YOUSELVES (as they used to say on TV) because your prayers, your faithfulness etc makes such a difference – and you make it truly worthwhile.

THANK YOU……….. THANK YOU…………. THANK YOU!