Dear friends,

The Gospel reading [on Easter Sunday] tells us that Easter is a day of barely suppressed excitement. And there was an awful lot of running involved. If Good Friday was a day of sorrowful, mournful walking and staggering round Golgotha; Easter was a day of running.

For we are told that “Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark” Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome brought spices to anoint the body of Jesus. We can imagine it now, how when they had gone beyond the gate of the city, they remembered the trials and sufferings of Jesus; and at all the places where anything of importance had happened they would have stopped briefly, before forcing themselves to keep moving onwards towards the tomb. But at the tomb Mary Magdalene sees the very large stone has already been rolled back from the entrance. The tomb is empty… So Mary Magdalene immediately drops her jar of ointment, turns round the other way, and runs to Peter and John, managing to say to them: “They’ve taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they’ve laid him!” So then Peter and John run towards the tomb, clutching their clothes against the cold wind, against a background of the sun slowly rising in the east.

Mary Magdalene follows, running slightly behind them; all three run that Easter morning to seek their Lord, who was their heart and their soul. But when they come to the tomb and look in, they see only the linen wrappings and head-cloth. And John realised that wonderfully Jesus had indeed risen from the dead.

This is the great mystery of salvation; the good news the early church spent all its time bearing witness to: that truly Christ died instead of us. Death is the natural fruit of sin, an immanent punishment. Yet there is no sin in Jesus and therefore there is no death in Jesus. He accepted to die for love for us. He assumed our human condition and accepted the punishment of our nature. And so as Hebrews and Paul says: “Jesus broke the power of him who holds the power of death over us – that is the devil.” “God erased the record of sin that stood against us with its legal demands of punishment, of death and hell. God set this aside, nailing it to the cross. And so he disarmed the spiritual powers.” “For Jesus was tempted and tested in every respect, yet without sin.” “None of the rulers of this age understood this; for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.”

In Jesus Christ human death was “assumed” by God and overcome and destroyed from within.
The powers of evil could never understand this, the utterly selfless nature of the love of God. That God loved us to the uttermost, to the extreme. That is what Love is, because love is from God.

Remember that excitement. Remember the running apostles, and Mary rushing to tell the rest of the disciples of the love of God triumphant over death. May we take the excitement of Peter, John and Mary into the rest of our journey of faith. For this is love, not that we loved God but that God loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. No wonder St Paul says: “Rejoice in the Lord always! Again I will say: Rejoice!” For the Lord is risen. He is risen indeed. Alleluia!

With love and my prayers,

Michael
(Michael’s Sermon from Easter Sunday)

Sunday and weekday Services

Our weekly service times are:
Sunday 10:00am Eucharist
Tuesday 10:00am Morning Prayer (BCP)
Thursday 10:30am Holy Communion (BCP)

Additional, Regular Services:
2nd Sunday of the month 6:30pm Choral Evensong
4th Sunday of the month 6:30pm Evening Praise – an informal service

We also provide a livestream of our Sunday Morning Eucharist Service. The link for the livestream page is
https://stmarymagdalene.church/livestream-service/

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Thy Kingdom Come HERE London 2025!

What would it look like for the whole church in London, to pray for the whole city street by street? A Church of England initiative inviting and uniting all Christian Denominations to come together and pray for every street in London.

More details here: https://thykingdomcomehere.uk/

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Community Café & Informal Singing

Lots of activities are planned for the Community Café, please see below.

Rekindling, Tuesdays from 3:30-4:30pm

Exploring the meaning of life and spirituality using the Bible as our road map.

Lunchtime Concerts

The coffee and cake organisers need help serving tea and coffee and washing up. The job is just for about 2 and a half hours once a month on the second Wednesday in the month. If you think you can help please speak to Lilian Gibbons or me. Thank you.
Eleanor Pritchard.

Christian Aid Week 2025 – 11th-17th May

Volunteers needed!

We are now beginning to prepare for Christian Aid Week which this year is the week of 12th – 18th May.
A huge thank you to all those who are on the team of envelope deliverers already.

If you are not involved yet, maybe this is the year to do so. It is not too late to join us and there are a lot of roads in our area that are not yet covered.

Why get involved with Christian Aid?

Christian Aid Week is the single biggest act of Christian witness in Britain and Ireland.

For thousands of people throughout the country it is a way of answering Jesus’s call to help people in need and showing the community just how much good the Church is doing in the world.

Maybe you feel you could just deliver envelopes but not collect. Maybe you feel you could not cover complete roads but just a few houses near where you live. Any additional collecting to what is already done could make a big difference.

If you have any concerns or queries or want to talk about how you can help do ask me.
Thank you, Alison Reeve

The Spring Fair

This will take place on
Saturday 10th May
10.00 – 12.00am

Please contact Alison Reeve if you can volunteer to help on any of the stalls, or to donate raffle prizes.

Growing Good

The Church Urban Fund (CUF) has developed the Growing Good course to help churches flourish and explore the connection between social action, discipleship and growth. The Growing Good Toolkit is a free six-session interactive course, exploring how we can be faithful and fruitful in our local community.

It is helping churches grow in three key ways:
• knowledge about their local community
• confidence in their local mission
• hospitality and relationships

Clay Hill and St Mary Magdalene are jointly running the course, and the six sessions are on Monday evenings at 7.30pm, alternating between St Luke’s and St Mary Magdalene’s churches:

• Session 1 Presence – 28 April (St Luke)
• Session 2 Perseverance – 12 May (St Mary Magdalene)
• Session 3 Hospitality – 9 June (St Luke)
• Session 4 Adaptability – 23 June (St Mary Magdalene)
• Session 5 Participation – 7 July (St Luke)
• Session 6 Next Steps – 14 July (St Mary Magdalene)

Bishop Rob Wickam (CUF’s Chief Executive) is coming to the first session
There’s much already happening in Clay Hill and St Mary Magdalene to develop our mission in the parishes, and the Growing Good course is an excellent opportunity to take this further.
Everyone is encouraged to be involved and be part of the journey

Opening the Church on Saturdays

Our church is a valuable resource for people in our community to take some time out of their daily lives to reflect and connect with God. Not everyone is available on Sunday mornings and some just want a few minutes to pause and be still. We are hoping to make our church available for private prayer on Saturdays and are looking for volunteers who can give a couple of hours of their time. A minimum of two people will need to be always present. Names will be added to a rota, so the more people who are available to help us, the less often you will be called upon. If you are able to help with this, please see Alison Reeve.

Easter Egg Hunt 2025

Prayer…

What exactly is it? How do we pray? Why pray?

If these questions echo your thoughts in any way and you would like to find our more, there is a really good website to visit that will begin to answer these, and more questions. Born out of an event that went viral during Lent 1999 (over 25 years ago!), 24-7 Prayer has become an international organisation that has encouraged people to pray.

Their website https://www.24-7prayer.com/ has teaching and resources available to aid understanding and help in building a prayer life centred upon teaching handed down throughout the ages. There is even a free app that can be downloaded for the iPhone or for Android called Lectio 365. This provides a series of up to three daily prayer times, morning, midday, and evening (you don’t have to do all three) that last no more than 10 minutes each if you listen to the audio recordings.

I encourage you to have a look – and be encouraged to join in!

Donate

Would you like to donate towards the work of St Mary Magdalene? If so, this QR code will take you to our donations page where you can choose the amount you wish to donate.

Ladychapel Memorial book

Every week we remember the anniversaries of death for different people. Their names are taken from two Memorial Books we keep. One for those whose ashes are interred in the Memorial Garden and a second, in the Lady Chapel, for people we wish to be remembered on a certain date (usually their death).

If you would like the name of someone to be remembered in the Ladychapel Memorial Book please speak to Ken Cope, the cost is £25.

YouTube Video Playlist

Something to dip in and out of or play while ironing or relaxing! Instead of a single video, this week we have a playlist on our YouTube channel containing more than fifty videos with lyrics.

Some should be familiar, others we have sung at Rekindling on a Tuesday afternoon.

Hopefully there will be one, two, or more(!) that strike a chord with you, the words, the tune, or a combination of the two. There’s a variety of styles included so perhaps one day something upbeat works, another something quieter, more reflective resonates with you.

Any feedback is welcome. Here’s a link to the playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOS511gUMPpV2F1Lk-vDW5x9_UE_t_bVG

Dates for your diary

May 2025
Sat 10th 10:00am Spring Fair
Sun 11th 6:30pm Choral Evensong
Weds 14th 11:30am Coffee & Cake followed by Lunchtime Concert
Sun 18th 11:30am APCM
Sun 25th 6:30pm Evening Praise!
Thurs 29th 10:00am Ascension Day Communion

June 2025
Sun 1st 11:15am Sausage Sunday
Sun 8th 6:30pm Choral Evensong
Weds 11th 11:30am Coffee & Cake followed by Lunchtime Concert
Sun 22nd 6:30pm Evening Praise!

This magazine appears online only, with only a few copies available for archival purposes.