Dear friends,
Resurrection Hope . . . where the light gets in
This month we journey through the last weeks of the Season of Lent into the Season of Easter.
Easter is the time we celebrate that from death, new life is born; that in spite of suffering, something can be found; that hope can be discovered.
We may look at our own lives and our world and be confronted by pain, suffering and injustice. The deep grief for a family member. The displaced people in Myanmar. The many animals going extinct. And we ask the question: why God, why?
Through our Lent course, across the eight churches of our Leeds URC Partnership, we have been exploring those deeply challenging questions we have about pain and suffering and how prayer can help us process it.
In the midst of suffering and challenges, we can trust in God and have faith in God’s unwavering, unconditional love. As John’s gospel reminds us: ‘The light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it.’ Or to paraphrase the singer, Leonard Cohen, “The cracks are where the light gets in.”
Often, this light is demonstrated in loving actions. Perhaps we experience a flicker of that light in the kindness of a friend. Maybe, through glimmer of light in the listening ear. Later, we may be able to share a bit of light when we have an opportunity to share our experience with someone going through something similar.
In Jesus’ own life, he experienced many trials, situations and deep pain. And yet through it all he showed us the power of asking questions and trusting in God: a God of unwavering love.
This Easter, whether our experiences are shaped by new life or by Lenten wilderness, may we discover strength and courage in the hope of resurrection.
Nicola
| CALENDAR | |||
| 6th | SUNDAY | 10.45am | Morning Worship led by our Minister, Rev Dr Nicola Robinson. We shall be joined by our friends from Headingley Methodist Church |
| 8th | Tuesday | 12.30pm | Guild Lunch |
| 13th | SUNDAY | 10.45am | PALM SUNDAY. Morning Worship led by Rev Geoff Ellis |
| 17th | Thursday | 9.00pm | Service of Tenebrae with the Sacrament of Holy Communion, led by our Minister |
| 18th | Friday | GOOD FRIDAY – please see below | |
| 19th | Saturday | 10.30am – 12noon | Easter Coffee Morning |
| 20th | SUNDAY | 10.45am | EASTER SUNDAY. Morning Worship, including the Sacrament of Holy Communion, led by Rev Samantha Sheehan, URC Chaplain at the Leeds Universities. |
| 27th | SUNDAY | 9.30am | Morning Worship at Headingley Methodist Church |
| Good Friday Observances in Headingley | |
| 10.00am – 11am | Good Friday Witness in the Courtyard (Cornerstone Baptist Church). Refreshments including Hot Cross Buns will be served in the Greenhouse Café afterwards. All welcome. |
| 10.30am | Good Friday Service (Headingley Methodist Church). |
| 2.00pm | Liturgy of Good Friday (St Michael’s) |
| 2.00pm | Good Friday: An Hour at the Cross (St Chad’s) |
| 3.00pm | Service of the Cross & Passion (St Luke’s & St Matthew’s Lutheran) |
Headingley Methodist Church extends a warm welcome to join them for worship.
Saturday, 19th April, 2025
10.30 – 12 noon
Please come and join us for a hot cross bun and natter as we prepare to celebrate Easter Sunday. Do bring along a decorated egg, hat or garden if you are feeling creative! Hopefully our friends from the Partnership and Churches Together in Headingley will join us.
Susan Bollon
IN MEMORIAM: Nina Hayston Colledge. 18th July 1920 – 5th March 2025
It is with great sadness that we record the passing of Nina Colledge. Nina was a faithful member of the church throughout her life and was engaged in so many of the activities at Headingley St Columba, including The Women’s Guild, The Wednesday Evening Group and Youth Clubs, acting as a secretary at meetings and always involved in social events and the day to day running of the church. Her funeral and the Service of Thanksgiving for her life was held at the church on Tuesday, 25th March when the church was full with her large family and the many friends who shared such happy memories of a much loved mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. We were reminded of her love of adventure and particularly of the many holidays she and Ken spent in Scotland, of her love of animals, of her kindness and commitment and of her ability to ‘glue’ her large family together. This was reflected in the tender poem written by her granddaughter. Nina remained independent for as long as she was able, but her great age brought frailty and she spent the last few years of her life in a care home where she was looked after with kindness and consideration. We missed her attendance at church in recent years but memories of her generous hearted involvement over such a long time remain with us.
LENT PROJECT 2025
A reminder that at their meeting in February, Elders recommended that we again support the Zarach Bed Poverty Charity for this year’s Lent Project.
Zarach is a charity dedicated to raising money to support the estimated 900,000 children living in bed poverty across England.
Please let Susan Bollon have your donations (cheques please, if possible) over the coming weeks up to the end of April. Cheques should be made payable to Zarach and Gift Aid forms will be available in the vestibule.
GUILD LUNCH
Our lunch this month will be held on Tuesday, 8th April and we invite you to join us for a hot meal and companionship – just let us know you would like to come. We meet at around 12.30pm for lunch at 1o’clock. If time is tight for you but you would still like to come one month – then do! We don’t mind if you can only come once in a while and have to slip away while the rest of us are still chatting. The cost: £4.
Aleck and I have been most fortunate in sharing some wonderful holidays, sometimes to places now all but impossible to visit. On one such holiday we went on a cruise across the north coast of Africa, visiting sites of historical interest. One of the first ports of call was to Cyrene in Libya, an ancient Greek and Roman city which flourished as a trading hub. Nestled between hills, so many buildings were still recognisable it was not hard to imagine the wealthy traders who once inhabited the homes and worshipped in the magnificent temples. Cyrene had a large Jewish community, some of whom would have made the long journey to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover.
It is likely that one of those making the journey one year during the reign of the emperor Tiberius was a Jew called Simon. As he made his way through the streets of Jerusalem he was accosted by Roman soldiers escorting a prisoner who had been tried, found guilty and flogged and was being led to Golgotha, the place of execution. The man was carrying the cross on which he would be executed – a shameful way of death reserved for slaves, foreigners and political activists – but he was stumbling and falling under its weight and progress was slow.
Simon was ordered to carry the cross and we have no knowledge of his reaction to this task at the time, or if he knew of the prisoner, Jesus of Nazareth, but it seems that this may have been a turning point in his life. He is mentioned by name as Simon of Cyrene in the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke – and Mark even mentions his two sons, Rufus and Alexander. So, he did not disappear, forgotten, into the crowds but may well have been known to the early Christians as one of their number; a member of the group of Cyrenians to whom the disciples preached at Pentecost. And perhaps his sons are the Rufus and Alexander Paul speaks of in his letters.
Over a thousand years later, St Francis founded a specific Order, Friars Minor, to protect the Holy sites and to welcome pilgrims; they decided upon and then guided them along a route through the streets of Jerusalem, the ‘Via Dolorosa’, which purported to be the route Jesus took from the Roman fortess of Antonia to Calvary. Shrines were built for prayer at various points, telling the story of this agonising journey, the fifth recounting that of Simon of Cyrene. Simon came to be seen as a man who came to the aid of Christ and a companion in his suffering – his close friends had deserted him. Many of us will have felt so grateful for support and companionship when going through difficult times and for the kindness of strangers and we hope, in turn, to be sensitive to the needs of others. And in a more formal way, the message of Simon remains today, with the organisations, the ‘Simon Community’ and the ‘Cyrenians’, working among the homeless.
Simon of Cyrene carries the cross
In desperation on this road of tears
Bystanders and bypassers turn away
In other’s pain we face our own worst fears
And turn our backs to keep those fears at bay
Unless we are compelled as this man was
By force of arms or force of circumstance
To face and feel and carry someone’s cross
In Love’s full glare and not his backward glance.
So Simon, no disciple, still fulfilled
The calling: ‘take the cross and follow me’.
By accident his life was stalled and stilled
Becoming all he was compelled to be.
Make me, like him, your pressed man and your priest,
Your alter Christus, burdened and released.
Malcolm Guite.
Reprinted – copyright free – with his permission.
