Good Friday 2024

Good Friday 2024

What a difference from last year. This time Banbury had an advertised Procession of Witness so we didn't have to go searching for one as we did last year when we ended up in Adderbury. So we were able to join up with more than 100 people who gathered to walk through the town stopping at various points for bible reading, song and prayers.

It was great to walk amongst people of all ages from a wide range of churches, and in spite of obvious theological differences a united witness was given. It was good for me to be just one of the crowd caught up in my own thoughts.

There were aspects to the procession which made us smile. 

The young people from the Roman Catholic Church had clearly been busy making a papier-mache cross and figure of Jesus. At the outset the heavens opened and we experienced a downpour which meant Jesus had to be quickly wrapped up against the elements. Still not sure about the figure!!

When we arrived at one stage of the procession someone who is often in the town preaching, commented through his PA system, (better than the one we had) “The cross should be empty as Jesus is alive.” He was gracious enough to allow us to use his PA  system for the reading and prayers at that point. He even commented it was the largest procession he had seen in Banbury for some years and it was good to see.

When we arrived outside the Methodist Church I was disappointed that no minister was there to do the reading and prayers, and was very tempted to offer.

When we arrived at the URC church a member from our own church turned to me and Jill with a  big smile ‘Oh no look at what we are going to sing here’ Oh boy it was my pet hate ‘In Christ Alone”. There had been much conversation about it at church the previous week when the priest wanted to at least change the words in verse two. She was pleased to know she was not alone in her views. Needless to say I didn’t sing it as the whole hymn is a denial of the Trinity, has strong Calvinist undertones, is not really based on scripture but plays with theories  of the atonement that Jesus and the disciples would not have recognised or agreed with. Still don’t know how it came to be in the Methodist hymn book.

The procession ended inside the Roman Catholic Church of St John’s.

It was so good to have been part of this and to know that christians across Banbury do want to get together, that they are not all old, and it was a joy to have been part of it.

Later in the day I had organised an opportunity for people to come to our church for a time of personal reflection. A version of the stations at the cross using images I have used on so many occasions. 

People were able to come when it was the right time for them. They could sit and ponder as they moved around the worship space. With candles lit and music playing, it was very peaceful, and stood in contrast to the events of the morning.

It's a real tension to hold to the Good Friday events and not rush onto the resurrection.

But we need to experience the death on a cross, and enter into the sense of loss and grief that we journey with on Easter Saturday, if we are to know the joy of Easter morning.