Easter  a family affair?
Holy Week and Easter Day are such intense experiences. This year was especially true for me as I led my first Holy Week retreat at Launde Abbey. From the Monday evening of Holy Week until the morning of Maundy Thursday, nineteen of us considered the Holy Week themes in depth. On Maundy Thursday I went to three Eucharists  many clergy did the same; each one spoke differently and deeply into the profound journey we were making. The first Eucharist was with the retreatants, our last celebration before returning to our own churches and the weekend ahead. The second Eucharist was the Chrism Mass at Leicester Cathedral when clergy come together to renew their ordination vows with their bishop and many of their congregations. This was a powerful experience of being alongside colleagues, who share an understanding of and sympathy for the role to which God has called us. The third was back at Launde Abbey again where a new group of people, students training for the ministry, had joined the community for a week. For the next two or three days, through the silence of Good Friday and Holy Saturday and into the heady joy of Easter Day we moved together and separately as we shared some things and went our own ways with others.
And now we are in Easter Week. The students are studying and the community is moving gently back into its usual routine. There is a slight loss of the energy and impetus that is necessary to propel one through the lead up to and celebration of Easter Day, but there is also a quiet warmth as we read LukeÂs resurrection stories each day and let them speak to us anew. There is also a more conscious sense for me this year of the Eucharist as sharing with others. Three Eucharists on the same day and on the same theme can be vastly different because the people make them so. The Eucharist is communion with God and people.
When I was first confirmed (way back in the Stone Ages) accepted wisdom was that you only received Communion once a day. If you happened to go to a second Eucharist you attended but you did not receive. The thinking behind this was that the receiving of communion was between God and you and you did not need to receive the host again on the same day. Indeed to do so was almost to denigrate the gift of God and to question its facility. At some time this thinking changed and we realised Eucharists are family affairs, family parties and one always eats at parties! So on Maundy Thursday this year I went to three parties with three different sets of people and each one was a joyful celebration. And this was because although we were all different we had one very important thing in common: Christ.