Vicar

 

A letter from the Vicarage – Rev’d Andy Stand

Hi Everyone,

I hope you have had an enjoyable Christmas season and experienced some of God’s great love for us all in our remembrance of the Christmas stories.

At the time of writing (mid January) I am still feeling mildly amused by the observations in the media that retail outlets have already started selling Easter Eggs. In comparison to the marketing and advertising hype that surrounds Christmas (with cards and things starting to appear in the shops before the end of August), to start selling Easter Eggs as soon as the Christmas cards are taken out of the shops seems no better or worse, and in most years it would seem perfectly natural for thoughts to turn to Easter as soon as Christmas is passed.

Also in most years, the February magazine letter would usually make some reference to the start of Lent, the period of 47 days (40 days if you don’t count Sundays) preparation for Easter which begins on Ash Wednesday and is preceded by Shrove Tuesday, or Pancake day. This February though I find myself having a bit of a ‘Chad ’moment, thinking of those cartoons where Chad peers over a wall and bemoans ‘Wot no such and such’. This time out what comes to mind is ‘Wot no pancakes!’, because this year Easter Sunday will be quite late, with the knock on effect that Ash Wednesday and Shrove Tuesday, fall in March and not February as is more usual.

Most of us will know that the date of Easter Sunday varies each year seemingly without any pattern to it; some of us may well even now that this is because the date of Easter Sunday is related to the phases of the Moon (rather than the phase of the sun, as it would be if it fell on the same date – or even the same Sunday each year), and that it has some link to the Jewish festival of Passover; I expect rather fewer of us are aware that Easter Sunday is, in fact, the First Sunday after the First Full Moon, on or after the Spring Equinox, and as such can fall anytime between the 22nd March (the day after the Spring Equinox) and the 25th April (4 weeks and 6 days later). This year the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox will fall on 20th April, so not quite as late as it could be, but nonetheless, it will still be quite late this year!.

A question often gets asked why can’t the date be set and standardized, after all that would have the knock on effect of standardizing lots of other things including school holidays and term times, making life possibly more convenient for us and there is undoubtedly some merit in that argument. But there is also, I would suggest, merit in observing the quaint and the traditional. For if we lose our sense of things that are quaint, in search of standardizing everything, then we will lose our sense of the special in favour of monotony, and we will be in danger of losing our sense of the divine in the midst of some of the hardships and difficulties of life.

I wonder how many of you will be having a Pancake Party, this year. It never fails to amaze me how versatile, flour and eggs and milk can be, in providing a basis for both sweet and savoury pancakes, and how much people enjoy tucking into their pancakes.

Of course the purpose of having pancakes on Shrove Tuesday was to use up stocks of flour and eggs, before starting the Lenten fast, and the observance of self-denial and self-discipline, which it is traditional to observe while keeping Lent. As we tuck into our pancakes, whenever we chose to, why not do something different with them, and remind yourself of the special amidst the ordinary, the divine amidst the mundane.

God bless you all.

Andy

St. Philip & St. James Parish Church Whittington, Worcs. WR5 2RQ