Sunday 28th May, 0930, Pentecost Sunday,
an All Age Service with Holy Communion and Anointing of Oil.
Pentecost (from the Greek pentekoste, ‘fiftieth’ of fifty days of celebration) has its roots in the Jewish Feast of Weeks, which was completed on the fiftieth day after Passover. On the fiftieth day of Easter, God sends his Holy Spirit to empower the Church to perform the mission which the risen Christ has entrusted to it.
Pentecost celebrates both the Holy Spirit and the Christian Church. It was originally the crown and completion of the Easter season; only later, in the medieval West, did it become a new festival season of its own. After the Easter Vigil, the time of Pentecost was a preferred occasion for baptism in early Christian centuries. Christ’s disciples are born again of water and the spirit.
Ascension and Pentecost are closely linked. The risen Lord is no longer present to the Church in the body of his flesh; the Church is now to be the new body of Christ, filled with his life through the gift of the Spirit.
During our Worship we will offer the opportunity to receive anointing with oil – oil being one of the biblical symbols for the Spirit – as a sign of desiring a fresh working of the Spirit within and through our lives.
It would be wonderful to see you and we hope you can attend and enjoy our worship together as we celebrate and adore and praise our incarnate, crucified, risen, ascended Lord who has sent the Spirit to each one of us.