Jesus Christ: the Passion, the play and the public; New funding strategy may be death-blow to village schools; Easter video messages from the Archbishop of York; The Queen hands out traditional Royal Maundy money; Kids find religion more important now than 40 years ago; Evangelical protest over preferment; Vicar sends heavenly tweets; Church of England dumbing down: Rector; Repentant thief gives back £2,500 silverware he stole from UK church 8 years ago
Jesus Christ: the Passion, the play and the public
Telegraph – Peter Hutley explains what inspired him to recreate Christ’s crucifixion in Trafalgar Square.
It all began with a Saturday morning visit to an exhibition at the National Gallery four years ago. Afterwards, businessman Peter Hutley and his wife, Ann, were walking across Trafalgar Square towards the church of Saint Martin-in-the-Fields. “Suddenly, a thought me struck me,” he recalls. “Trafalgar Square would be a marvellous place to stage a passion play.”
Many of us sometimes have similarly madcap ideas, but very few possess the courage and self-belief to act on them. International property developer Hutley, though, is one of those rare individuals blessed with both vision and the ability to deliver on it. Tomorrow, Good Friday, for the third year in a row, he and his Wintershall Players – a troupe of 100 keen amateurs, among them lawyers, accountants and farmers plus two of his children, six of his grandchildren and various horses – will be staging two open-air recreations of Jesus’s trial, death and resurrection in the natural arena that is Trafalgar Square. There is no stage and actors walk freely through the standing audience.
Last year about 20,000 people turned up, but Hutley is hoping to double the figure this time round. It’s some undertaking – physically, financially (estimated cost around £80,000) and emotionally, especially given that he is 85 years old (before he comes clean, I’d have put him nearer 70). His secret? “Oh, I just don’t think about age,” he says with a dismissive smile. “I’ve still got so much to do.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/9185932/Jesus-Christ-the-Passion-the-play-and-the-public.html
New funding strategy may be death-blow to village schools
Church Times -Hundreds of Church of England primary schools will be hit by funding cuts announced last week by the Secretary of Education, Michael Gove. Many will be forced to close, diocesan directors of education predict. The new rules will end the current protection for the budgets of small schools with fewer than 75 pupils which have proportionately higher unit costs. The move is consistent with the encouragement of a market system, a statement from the Department for Education says. The new measures will also hit free schools, but help will be available for growing schools, the statement says.
http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/content.asp?id=126618
Easter video messages from the Archbishop of York
The Archbishop of York has recorded three video messages for Easter.The videos include short reflections for Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday, and have been added to social media website YouTube. The Archbishop said it was important that the Church gets the good news of Easter out to as many people as possible.
See CNI Media report of Good Friday for links.
The Queen hands out traditional Royal Maundy money in York
Telegraph – The Queen received a rapturous welcome in York today as she prepared to hand out the traditional Royal Maundy money to pensioners from all over Britain to mark her Diamond Jubilee.To celebrate her 60 years as Monarch, the Queen will hand out money to people from all of the UK’s 44 Christian dioceses. Usually, the Maundy money is given to pensioners from one diocese each year. But this year, 86 women and 86 men – one for each of the Queen’s 86 years – will receive the money in recognition of their services to the Church and their communities. The Royal Maundy ceremony traces its origins to the Last Supper when, as St John recorded, Jesus washed the feet of his disciples.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/queen-elizabeth-II/9188058/The-Queen-hands-out-traditional-Royal-Maundy-money-in-York.html
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/queen.distributes.maundy.money/29608.htm
Kids find religion more important now than 40 years ago
BBC cbbc -Nearly half of kids think religion is important, a Newsround survey’s found. Children are now twice as likely to say that religion is very important to them compared to kids 40 years ago – when Newsround first went on air.
That’s despite fewer people going to church, and one in three not following any religion.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/17617402
Evangelical protest over preferment
Church Times – ABOUT 100 Evangelical clergy and laity from Southwark diocese met the Bishop, the Rt Revd Christopher Chessun, on Monday, to protest about the lack of Evangelicals in senior clergy posts. Bishop Chessun asked the Southwark Diocesan Evangelical Union to arrange the meeting (News, 23 March). Evangelicals are unhappy that, in the past year, six senior positions have been given to clerics whom they consider to be liberal, particularly on the issue of sexuality: the Bishop of Croydon, the Rt Revd Jonathan Clark; the Bishop of Woolwich, Dr Michael Ipgrave; the Dean of Southwark, the Very Revd Andrew Nunn; the acting Archdeacon of Southwark, Canon Dianna Gwilliams; the Sub-Dean, Canon Bruce Saunders; and the Diocesan Director of Ordinands, Canon Leanne Roberts.
http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/content.asp?id=126592
Vicar sends heavenly tweets
IOL – Using your cellphone in church is generally taboo. But Church of England vicar Andrew Alden is making sure that his congregation gets the message – via Twitter. “Abraham 123” says a sign on the pillars of St Andrew’s Church in Weston-super-Mare, in the southwest of England. But rather than signifying the Bible reading of the day, it reveals the password to the church’s Wi-Fi network.
http://www.iol.co.za/scitech/technology/internet/vicar-sends-heavenly-tweets-1.1271370
Church of England dumbing down: Rector
BBC – The Church of England is dumbing down and needs to revert to more traditional ways, a Jersey vicar has claimed. The rector of St Saviour Dr Anthony Swindell said religion was being “over-simplified to make it more popular”.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-jersey-17609226
Repentant thief gives back £2,500 silverware he stole from UK church 8 years ago
Fox – A thief who stole a valuable silver staff from a church in northern England confessed his sins eight years later when he handed it back to the vicar.
Father Ed McKenna said the handcrafted, ceremonial staff, tipped with solid silver and worth £2,500 ($4,000), was taken from St. Martin’s Church in the town of Marple during a break-in in 2004.
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/04/03/repentant-thief-gives-back-2500-silverware-stole-from-uk-church-8-years-ago/