We had a great morning celebrating the risen Christ on the short of the Thames this morning. A few of us gathered, said some words, sang a song, threw our confessions, via a pebble, into the river, discussed and wondered what it was like that first resurrection morning, shared bread and wine before concluding with barbecued bacon rolls and bubbly to mark the end and start of our resurrection celebration.

i always love this service, not just because it is different and people really enjoy the experience … but because it brings a number of different people together who then share thought and ideas and questions as the sun rises on a cold morning. There were some amazing discussions this morning which I felt it a privilege to be able to play some small part in.

Today we touched a little on how it may have felt for those first disciples and tried to out ourselves in their shows … and in some way that brought Christ risen in our lives afresh.

Thank you people for joining us.

So the Great Hot Cross Bun giveaway was a bit of  wash out this morning.
It wasn’t a disaster … there are never really disasters when offering something to the community … and we had some great conversations. It helped raise the profile of HTGP a little …. but much more importantly it brought a smile to many faces on a pretty crappy wet cold day.

But wet weather … meaning less people out … meant we still had around half of our 100 hot cross buns left … after giving some away I wondered what else I could do … bread and butter pudding anyone ….

Another Easter tradition for Holy Trinity Greenwich Peninsula.
We believe the reason we are here, as church, is to be good news to people, to bless people, to add flavour to the community ….. so most of the HT people are fairly heavily involved in community events, the residents association, the local schools and so on.

We regularly ask ‘how can we bless this community?’ and one way, on Good Friday, is that we give away Hot Cross buns to people that are around in the GMV.

We will be in the village square tomorrow from 11.30 for an hour if you’d like a Hot Cross Bun …. maybe see you there!

We have developed a kind of tradition at Holy Trinity Greenwich Peninsula for Easter morning. For the last three years a few of us (sometimes 5, sometimes 20) have gathered just before sunrise around a BBQ on the shore of the Thames on the peninsula.

As we have experienced the sunrise, showing itself through the blurry faces coming into focus, through the welcoming warmth of the sun on our faces, through unfamiliar surroundings becoming familiar again … we have tried to enter into the confusion and awe that made up that first Easter morning.

We chat together after hearing Mary’s account of the empty tomb … we wonder how they felt, we wonder what they thought might be happening … and as we wonder we re-remember how amazing the truth of Easter Day actually is.

We share communion, Eucharist, bread and wine (take your pick!) and again wonder what it may have been like for those disciples sharing this simple ceremony together. As we share, we talk and recognise that in these ordinary everyday items of bread and wine that we hold before us that something different is happening. Nothing is obviously different, but everything has changed.

We end the service with BBQ and bubbly … it’s a celebration after all … and we go home … changed … as we have encountered God once again in the simplicity of life.

So if you are in the area and wish to celebrate the risen Christ in a unique way …. why not consider joining us.