AS I write this on Wednesday afternoon in Holy Week I am very aware that this Easter will be different from every other Easter I have known.

It will be the first time since being ordained 17 years ago that I shan’t have been able to gather with my fellow clergy in the cathedral on Maundy Thursday to renew my ordination vows.

It will be the first time too that I shan’t have had the opportunity to was parishioners feet in that great symbolic act at the Eucharist on Maundy Thursday evening.

It will be the first time that I shan’t have gathered with others in church as we commemorate the solemn events of Good Friday and it will be the first time that I shan’t have celebrated the Eucharist with my parishioners on Easter Day.

All of these things sadden me, yet I know too that there are very good reasons why we can’t meet together at this time.

One of the things that sustains me are some words from Michael Ramsey when he talks of part of the role of a priest, is “to be with God, with the people on our heart.”

Each day, I hold you all on my heart, principally when praying morning and evening prayer, and at other times too.

I am thankful too for your prayers for me and I feel uplifted by them.

It is a joy and privilege to be your parish priest and please be assured that at Easter, of all seasons especially, you will all be very much in my thoughts and prayers.

A happy and blessed Easter to you all! With my love and prayers and good wishes.

Your friend and Rector?Matthew Tregenza

Rev Tregenza offered the following Reflection for Easter Day

WE have journeyed with Jesus over the past week as he made his way to the cross to die a terrible death – one reserved in New Testament times for common criminals – a shameful end. And then John, in the first part of this morning’s gospel reading, paints an equally bleak picture. Mary Magdalene runs to the tomb early in the morning on the third day, and the body has gone. In her distress, she summons Simon Peter and the Beloved Disciple and they all make their way back to the tomb to find a pile of grave clothes and a couple of angels. It is at this point that all that Jesus did begins to look a bit fragile – first of all he did not save himself from death on the cross, as the crowds on Good Friday had expected, and now to add further insult it looks as if someone has stolen the body. The Easter story is not a moment suspended in time, but is part of a larger drama interwoven with a history involving ordinary human beings, the disciples, and the other people with whom Jesus ministered and worked.

But let’s take a step back and then move on to the second part of the story. Here we have Mary Magdalene crying bitterly – this man Jesus whom she had followed so loyally is no longer there, and even his body has been taken. In her distress she barely notices the person who draws alongside her and whom she assumes to be the gardener, until that one word is spoken – “Mary”, and immediately she recognises the resurrected Jesus and in this moment is fulfilled what had been said earlier of Jesus as the Shepherd: “He knows his own, he calls them by name and they recognise his voice”.

This gospel passage sums up so well the real message of Easter. Mary and the two disciples are like each of us who run to the tomb, expecting to find a body, only to find it has gone, and then assuming that it has been stolen. But God, as ever, is one step ahead of us here, because his ways are not our ways, and what he has done is the totally unexpected, which is to raise his beloved son to new life, a resurrected life, a life of glory. In so doing, God has done far more than Mary Magdalene, Simon Peter, the Beloved Disciple, and each one of us, could ever imagine.

If we are to be reminded of the call to faith, we have to return to that spot in the garden, just next to the empty tomb with its pile of grave clothes, and stand with Mary Magdalene. She comes to faith, not by the evidence of an empty tomb and a pile of grave clothes, not by the revelation from the two angels, and not even by the sight of the risen Christ, whom she mistakenly thinks is the gardener. She comes to faith by his word, a gentle calling of her name, a word that resurrected the memory of a relationship that had already been formed and that, by the resurrection, was completed and sealed as a living one.

We hear Christ call us by name. And, like Mary, we are called to share with others the Good News of the Resurrection. Like Mary Magdalene, the risen Christ calls each one of us gently by name, so that we may share the glory of his resurrection, because Easter, for those who follow his way, is a confirmation of trust, a promise kept.

After all we are an Easter people.

Amen

Crediton Parish Church Services are available on the parish church website at: https://www.creditonparishchurch.org.uk/services/online-services/ .

You can also find the most recent recordings on the new Crediton Parish Church Youtube channel.

Follow the link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBs-nLAnqyfeRTCQgjJ49oQ – or type Holy Cross Church Crediton into Youtube and the correct page should appear.