The Parish Magazine of Christ Church, Virginia Water April 2020
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THE PARISH MAGAZINE OF CHRIST CHURCH, VIRGINIA WATER APRIL 2020 A WALK THROUGH HOLY WEEK WITH SIMON PAGE 4 MESSY EASTER 11 APRIL PAGE 22 GERALD OSBORNE 4 APRIL PAGE 23 JOIN US AT CHRIST CHURCH FOR EASTER SERVICE TIMES PAGE 23 CHRISTIANITY EXPLORED STARTS 23 APRIL PAGE 30 EASTER Professional and Caring Service 24 Hours a Day – All Year Round THE PARISH MAGAZINE IN THIS ISSUE... F. HA RRISON & SON OF CHRIST CHURCH, VIRGINIA WATER 40 Harvest Road, Englefield Green APRIL 2020 3 Editorial Surrey TW20 0QT 4 Christ Church Vicar’s Word * Funeral Directors & Monumental Masons s we go to press in the second week of 6 Schools Pages * Englefield Green’s Premier Funeral Service the Meteorological Spring, the 11 Straddling the Pond * Dignity Funeral Plans Available Avegetation is in bud and the black- 12 Virginia Water Community Association 13 The Best of Children’s Books Funeral Manager: Colin Doe headed gulls’ heads are turning black as they email: [email protected] don their summer plumage. Virginia Water 14 Virginia Water Library 16 Hannah’s Blog Telephone 01784 432163 Lake will soon bid farewell to winter visiting 17 Letter to the Editor Fax 01784 470892 Redwings from Scandinavia and will welcome 19 Ecology Matters instead cheerful Chiffchaffs (pictured) from Part of Dignity Services Ltd. A British Company. 20 Virginia Water Scouts their wintering grounds in Southern Europe 22 Noticeboard Members of the National Association of Funeral Directors and Africa. 22 Messy Church Easter 23 Easter Services at Christ Church 23 St Mark’s Gospel Live – Gerald Osborne 27 An Evening with Jonathan Veira 29 The Good News Café 37 Picture Gallery 39 The Local Community Directory A I 41 Church Diary D E P I 42 Who’s Who: Christ Church, Virginia Water K I W / E T P E Editorial/design/production Roger Kohn 01344 622278 R T S email [email protected] A ‰ E R D Advertisements Carrie Vibert 01344 844946 N A ‰ email [email protected] RHK Printing Imprint Colour 01252 330683 ‰ www.imprintcolour.com ‰ Please note that the cut-off date for CHRIST CHURCH, CHRISTCHURCH ROAD, contributions to the MAY 2020 issue will be VIRGINIA WATER, SURREY, GU25 4PT THURSDAY 9 th APRIL. All submissions to [email protected] [email protected] please. tel 01344 844946 Christ Church Virginia Water is a registered charity, number 1128275 PRINTED WITH VEGETABLE-BASED INK 2 3 There is a green hill far away, CHRIST CHURCH Without a city wall, Where the dear Lord was crucified, VICAR’S WORD... Who died to save us all. Oh, dearly, dearly has He loved, MAKING SENSE OF EASTER And died our sins to bear; We trust in His redeeming blood, or many people, Easter means a few days off, and a chance to And life eternal share. overindulge in chocolate. Indeed, that is good news! F But the really good news of Easter is its abiding message of We may not know, we cannot tell, hope for all who come to put their trust in God as their king and What pains He had to bear; rescuer. But we believe it was for us Let me explain: and to do that, we need to go back 2,000 years, and 2,000 miles, into the land He hung and suffered there. of Galilee and Judea. This was the home of the Jews, but suffering under harsh Roman rule, eager for someone to liberate them. He died that we might be forgiven, The four gospels are the records of Jesus’ birth, life, death and resurrection, but each with He died to make us good, their own unique emphasis, helpfully providing us with a rich perspective of his interactions and That we might from our sins be freed, teaching. Saved by His precious blood. One particularly interesting feature of all four, aside from some detail about his birth, they A I D don’t really pick up the biography until his public ministry at the age of about 30. Moreover, each There was no other good enough E P I K gospel spends roughly half of their volume on the last 7 days of Jesus’ life, death and To pay the price of sin, I resurrection. Maybe that is why we call the commemoration of this wee He only could divine life give W k, Holy Week (this year, CHRIST CRUCIFIED, DIEGO VELÁZQUEZ 5th– 12th April), and why we still have holidays (i.e. holy days) around this period. They were days And dwell Himself within. (c1632), MUSEO DEL PRADO, MADRID with religiously charged meaning and significance. The church has built up a language to explain the key events the last week of Jesus’ time on EASTER SUNDAY earth, and during Holy Week we walk step by step through His final hours. Of course, the story does not end there. We meet on Easter Sunday to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. It was hardly what those first disciples expected, despite Jesus PALM SUNDAY prophesying it happening. A huge crowd testified to its veracity, and millions meet to celebrate So called because Jesus was welcomed and hailed by an excited crowd, waiving palm branches each Sunday in perpetual memorial. The origin of the name Easter is obscure, probably referring and carpeting the streets with them – that’s how they rolled out the red carpet! He arrives in the to an ancient god Eostre. However, it has always been the day to celebrate all that Christ capital city – Jerusalem – for a coronation of sorts. But he is not on a trusted stead, but rather, a achieved during that most holy of weeks. humble donkey. And he has no plans to overthrow their political tyrants, but has his eye on another kind of victory. Our hope is that this Easter “holyday” you MAUNDY THURSDAY may find some time to The word maundy comes from a Latin word meaning “command”. The particular command it explore the meaning of recalls is the words of Jesus to his disciples that they should “love one another as I have loved this most Holy Week. you” (John 13:34). It was, as Jesus celebrated the Passover supper with them, on the night before he died, that he pointed to the full extent of His love. He took the bread and broke it, telling them Yours in Christ to remember his broken body; and similarly, with the cup, to remember his blood shed for them. His death – which we still celebrate each week in Holy Communion – recalls the offer of forgiveness to all who seek the spiritual significance of these events. GOOD FRIDAY And so to the day of his death. The Romans knew how to execute, and cruelly, with maximum [email protected] humiliation. Hence, stringing their victims high on a cross until they were asphyxiated, no longer having the strength to hold themselves aloft. So, why GOOD Friday? The eyes of faith can see, in that conspiracy and barbarity, God was A I finding a way to deal with humanity’s lostness and estrangement from God. Mrs Alexander put it D SUPPER AT EMMAUS, CARAVAGGIO E P I (1601), NATIONAL GALLERY, so well: K I LONDON W 4 5 VIRGINIA WATER COMMUNITY SCHOOLS PAGES PRE-SCHOOL Cultural Capital is a term that is currently at the forefront of Early Years Education. It relates to the breadth of experiences children have been exposed to during their short life times to help them be successful in the future, and ensuring early years settings help enhance these experiences and expose children to new opportunities. This can be as simple as a child who lives in a tower block and doesn’t have a garden being given the chance to play outside, or a child who is not allowed to do messy play find and like our page Virginia Water at home being able to access resources such Community Pre-School. as paint or play dough. At Pre-School we fully embrace this • We are currently filling spaces for ethos, celebrating different cultural events, September 2020 in both our Caterpillar room exposing the children to different tastes, (2-3 year olds) and Butterfly room (3-4 year taking the children on trips to the library and olds), and some sessions are already full! If fire station, and making the best use of our you would like to add your child to our waiting outside spaces. We try to provide as many list, please make an appointment to view Pre- new and varied experiences and activities as School, or to request an enquiry form please we can for all our children, not forgetting the contact us on 01344 842892. important basics such as access to books, • Our opening hours are Monday to Friday, having story time and learning to socialise 9am–3pm, term time only. with our peers by sitting together for snack and lunch. This exposure to different Navdeep Kamboj & Susan Wordingham, experiences also helps develop the children’s Co-Managers skills to listen to each other, take turns and to follow simple rules and boundaries which all help to make them school ready. With all the above in mind, so far this term the children have dressed up for World Book Day, enjoyed our Mother’s Day special day, learnt about a new celebration called ‘Nowruz’ which is the Persian New Year, and tried lots of different sensory activities such as spice painting as our theme this term is Sensory Play. We also have lots of Easter themed activities and crafts planned, including an Easter egg hunt in the garden and making chocolate Easter nests as a special treat before we break for the holidays.