We hope that you will join us this week at St Mary’s for our observance of Holy Week. This is the most important week of the liturgical year and we hope that you will feel able to participate with us either in person or online. This year we welcome the Revd Canon Dr Dan Inman, Canon Chancellor, Chichester Cathedral, as our Holy Week preacher. Dan was Chaplain of the Queen’s College for a number of years and is no stranger to St Mary’s. It will be very good to have him with us as he offers a series of reflections to guide our thinking in the course of the week.

Following the 8.30am Eucharist, we will begin with our Palm Sunday Procession on Sunday at 10.15am outside the Clarendon Building. We will process through Radcliffe Square to the church and then after the Procession of Palms we will listen to the reading of the Passion. On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday evenings at 8.00pm, Compline will be sung by a small choir in the Chancel and we will listen to a series of addresses by our Holy Week preacher. Then at 8.00pm on Maundy Thursday, we will celebrate the Eucharist of the Last Supper, which will be followed by a Watch in the Chancel. On Good Friday, there will be Stations of the Cross at 10.30am, which will begin in church and then journey around Radcliffe Square before returning to Church. At 12noon, there will be the Good Friday Devotion, which will include a series of meditations on the work of Stanley Spencer. At 2.00pm, there will be the Liturgy of Good Friday, which will include the singing of St John’s Passion and the Liturgy of the Day. The church is then quiet from 3.00pm and open for silent prayer as we contemplate the desolation of the cross.

On Easter Day, we will assemble at three services. The 8.30am Eucharist will be said in the Chancel. Then at 10.30am we will gather in the Nave to mark Easter Day with a Choral Eucharist, which will include the Easter Ceremonies. This year, the Choir will be joined by musicians from Instruments of Time and Truth. The service will be followed by refreshments in church. This is one of the liturgical high points of the year and we do hope that you will be able to join us as we celebrate the good news of the resurrection. At 3.30pm that day, there will be an Easter Carol Service as we sing some familiar Easter Hymns and listen to a sequence of readings and carols. We do hope that you will join us. We would love to see you at our services during Holy Week.

Almighty and everlasting God,
who in your tender love towards the human race
sent your Son our Saviour Jesus Christ
to take upon him our flesh
and to suffer death upon the cross:
grant that we may follow the example of his patience and humility,
and also be made partakers of his resurrection;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.