I can't believe it has been almost two weeks since Easter. We have had so much going on (like Royal weddings and Bank Holidays) I almost forgot to blog about the perfect Easter weekend we had.
On Good Friday, we got up early (for a day off) so we could participate in a Walk of Witness. I am not sure just how common these walks are (our minister Dave had never been to one before), but we decided to go as it would be a good opportunity to try something new. Our church joined with some other churches in the Preston Park/Fiveways area to walk the neighborhood in observance of Good Friday.
It was a really strange event actually. Good Friday and the observance of Christ's death is a pretty solemn time, but parading around town looking like a bunch of really sad Christians isn't really the best way to attract others to the church. We weren't supposed to talk as we walked the streets carrying a large, wooden cross, and we all felt like we were supposed to look really sad too. I am not sure our church will be participating next year (we probably won't be invited back as we were a little too loud and "happy"), but I am glad we went this year to see what it was all about.
In the evening on Good Friday, we had a service at Gloucester Place. It was a really nice service led by Dave where we observed the death of Christ as well as the "death" of Florence Road Baptist Church and Gloucester Place Baptist Church.
Saturday was the only day all weekend that we didn't have church activities planned, so we had a nice day at home as a family. I spent most of the day cooking our big Easter meal. The girls, Sutton especially, had been upset because we hadn't eaten any holiday meals at home on the actual holiday. Never mind that I had cooked up a big Thanksgiving and Christmas meal; they didn't count in her mind because we ate them both the day after Thanksgiving and Christmas. She was again upset that we were eating our Easter meal on the wrong day, but it was the best I could do. Because we don't have anything like HoneyBaked Hams here in the UK, I had to actually prepare a glazed gammon. We also had black cherry jello salad (thanks Gran for sending black cherry jello), deviled eggs, potato casserole, green beans and crescent rolls.
On Easter morning, we woke up early, rolled out of bed and headed down to the beach for a service at 7:00am. To be honest, I wasn't sure I was going to make it to this service because it was early and we had a long day planned, but I am so glad we all went. Many people from One Church (more than I expected actually) came down, and we all spread out our blankets on the beach. There were also hot coffee and hot cross buns. We sang some songs together, listened to some "characters" from the Bible describe their encounters with Jesus after His resurrection and watched some of the crazy guys in our group jump into the FREEZING sea.
After the service on the beach, we went home and got ready for our regular church service. It actually was so much more than a regular service though because it was Easter and the official launch of One Church Brighton. We had a very celebratory service where we commissioned our new Leadership Team and church teams. Dave also had us each write our hopes for our new church on a piece of paper, and we attached these papers to helium-filled One Church balloons. Then we all went outside and released our balloons together. It was a really great sight, and it felt like a proper launch then.
To top off a great service, we had a hog roast outside on the grounds of the church. Our Social Team did an amazing job setting up a festive atmosphere with bunting, tables of food, drinks, and even a candy floss (cotton candy) machine. It was so much fun and a wonderful way to celebrate Easter and One Church together.
We had to leave the hog roast a little early because we wanted to get to the seafront to see The Passion of Christ. This play was put on by mostly local volunteers, and it depicted the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. There were about 2000 people at the event, and it was a really moving experience. The guy that played Jesus was really good, and apparently that is what he does for a living. My favorite parts were when they reenacted the feeding of the 4,000 by passing out bread to the entire crowd and when Jesus actually rode in on a little donkey (that donkey was so cute and Jesus had great balance by riding him with his hands outstretched the whole time).
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