When we recount the events of Christ's resurrection we are also anticipating our own resurrection in him. Recently I was visiting in the home of parishioners who wanted to make plans for their funeral service. "We want it to be a celebration," they told me. "We want the people who come to know that we are with Christ and are sharing in his eternal victory." It is a wonderful thought. While we cannot escape sadness at the loss of a friend or relative, as Christians that sorrow is set against the backdrop of Christ's triumph and of his gift of eternal life to all who trust in him.
How can we bring a sense of hope and even of joy to funeral services? Here are some suggestios which have come to me in the course of my ministry:
To this day our Easter and Pentecost are governed by the Hebrew lunar calendar. The Jews had one of the worst calendars among civilized peoples. It was based on the Babylonian lunar year and the only concession they made to the advance of calendar science was to set the month at 29.5 days instead of 30. They did not even calculate the beginning of the month with any accuracy - the Great Sanhedrin established it on the basis of statements by witnesses that the new moon had emerged from the sun's glow. They arrived at a year of 354 days, a most awkward and unscientific conclusion.
The date for the resurrection of Christ was established by Passover, which the Jews celebrated on the first Sabbath after the vernal or spring full moon. The beginning of spring was the vernal equinox, March 21; the next full moon might occur as much as a month after that. Consequently, Easter oscillates in the sun calendar and its calculation is only managed due to the "Golden Number" of the Babylonians, which harmonized the positions of the moon and sun in periods of 18 years.
The council of Nicaea in the year 325 defined Easter as "the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the vernal equinox".
The following method may be used to calculat the date of Easter:
m n
1582-1699 22 2
1700-1799 23 3
1800-1899 23 4
1900-2021 24 5
In addition to all that, it was truly good to worship together with an old friend and a new friend, too. I'll do it again - and encourage you to move around, too; maybe some Sunday we'll meet and worship together, old friends and new.
Thanks
Now that the winter storms and colds are behind us we will be resuming our regular visiting.
Should you wish to have any of committee member call or assist you in any way, please contact us or the church office.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Warmest good wishes!
Our Home Page includes a description of our congregation, a "Cyber Tour" of the building, the service schedule, our weekly Intercessor and a calendar of upcoming events. It also includes references to other Anglican and Christian resources including an on-line daily Bible reading. The Home Page is intended to provide information for both those in the city and others around the world who are curious about us. Our intention is to both describe the history of the parish and to show people that a very lively and healthy congregation inhabits this historic building.
You can find our home page on the Chebucto Freenet under the "Religion and Culture" Menu or by directly entering the address, known as a "URL," in a web browser such as Netscape or Mosaic. Our URL is: http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/Religion/StPauls/stpauls-Home.html. Please visit it and tell us what you think. If there are other materials which could be added, please get in touch with Steve Peake (speake@ra.isisnet.com) or David Hazen (dave.hazen@dal.ca).
We also estimate that as many as 20% of our families have access to internet electronic mail. We are currently collecting people's addresses and may soon set up an electronic mailing list to propogate information amongst parishioners. Please let us know your address if you want to be added to the list.
It was decided at the January Outreach meeting that we should hold a pot-luck supper around mid-February. The children had had a very happy Christmas Party, hosted by Tom and June Sellers, but we felt that the adults should be entertained during the doldrums of the winter period. It had been a very mild winter so far, with very little snow, and it held until the end of February, so we were so luck to have good weather on the day.
Pat Writer and Eunice Major co-convened the affair, and we enjoyed working together. Pink slips went out in the bulletin, and in no time at all, we had an absolutely wonderful response from our parishioners. Donations for everything from casseroles to coffee, poured in, with the result that we had an incredible number and variety of dishes. We served nearly 100 people.
Offers of help both for setting up before the meal, and the clean-up afterwards also came pouring in. People too numerous to mention by name were such a great help.
After the beautiful meal, the diners were introduced to seven or eight speakers who represented the various activities of Pastoral Outreach. They gave us a great insight into the works that Outreach supports. This part of the evening was ably hosted by David Redman. The technical details such as videos, etc. were in the expert hands of Bob Zeidler. So many helpers should be mentioned by name, but the list would be too long. Suffice it to say that everyone gave of themselves and their time, and that the general consensus was that it was a wonderful meal and a most enjoyable evening.
Thank you everyone for contributing to the success of the evening.
I have also enjoyed being a part of the young couples group at St. Paul's.
This group has met together for several months now, and we have done
everything from SCUBA diving to a book study. We are presently studying
the book
This weekend, Sarah and I will be taking the senior youth group on a retreat at the cottage of Karl and Parnell Perry. As you pray for St. Paul's, please remember to pray for the young people of our church.
One final thing which I would like to mention is to say thank you to Dave Hazen for his hard work in getting St. Paul's on the Internet. It is critical that we in the church go to where the people are, and we all know that the Internet is becoming a meeting place for many thousands of people around the world. I believe that St. Paul's is the first Canadian church to set up on the Internet, and Dave has done a super job. Already we are receiving email notes from people around the world inquiring about our church, asking for resources for worship in our contemporary sevice and others just stopping in to say "hi." Please pray for this ministry also, that we may be effective in sharing the Gospel in this way.
During Lent, many of us have spent time refocussing our lives and allowing Christ to live within us more fully. I pray as we approach the celebration of Easter, that Jesus Christ may draw each of us closer to himself, and that together we would allow God's Spirit to mould us and shape us into Christ's image. May the joy of the resurrection be with you this Easter!