Christ preaching before a crowd. Woodcut. (image credit: Wellcome Library, London)
I don’t know Rev’d Vicci but I can say she plays the piano well , reads well and sings like an angel. Today my partner and I went to a Good Friday service of hymns/songs and readings and it was super.
We normally go to the Wesleyan Chapel on the border of the City/Hackney but I am being confined to the country (Eton/Windsor) till I have full use of my bowels restored to me.
If you are from the area and can come to a service on Easter Sunday, please call me (Henry the Pension Plowman) on 07785 377769 or mail henry@agewage.com.
Windsor Methodist Church stands at the crossroads of Alma Road and Clarence Road, Windsor, SL4 3HH.
The feisty blog of Rev’d Vicci can be read below
Thoughts for Easter by Rev’d Vicci
Friends
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
He is risen indeed! Alleluia
Easter morning has arrived and once again, there are the usual complaints from non-Christians about eggs being nothing to do with Christianity, the resurrection of Jesus or anything else remotely “Easter” like. They will tell us that we Christians appropriated an ancient pagan festival, that the Easter bunny should be a hare and that there is no correlation at all between the egg and the empty grave. We hear the same dialectic each year at Easter and at Christmas, and doubtless we would at Pentecost, if only those clever marketers at John Lewis et al had found a way to commodify it.
The imagery of Easter is two-fold – the cross and the empty tomb; the chicks, eggs and bunnies. For us, the cross and the empty tomb are self-explanatory, but it is unhelpful to ignore the other imagery as being nothing to do with us, or to let our non-believing friends tell us this is so. Firstly, the earth and all that is created was created by and belongs to God. Crafted by his hands, marked with his fingerprints, it is a nonsense to say that anything he has created belongs exclusively to another tradition. The preponderance of chocolate reminds us that we have been fasting in one way or another. The sweet things remind us that the days of fasting are over.
The chocolate eggs we give each other are empty – an image of the empty tomb. However, other eggs are full, full of the potential for life. At this time of year as lambs, chicks, bunnies and many other animals are born, we are reminded of the new life that Jesus promises and demonstrated through his death and resurrection.
Life that we are promised in a two-fold way: that our lives are renewed when we form them with Jesus at the centre, and that our deaths are merely a swinging door through which we pass to that great country where there is no more sighing, no more pain, no more suffering. Easter is a promise for eternity, but it is also a commitment to life in all its fullness here and now. Let us live these Easter weeks in renewed relationship with him who lived and died for us.
God bless, Vicci
Amen Vicci, and don’t forget the Hot Cross Bun. For our service of Easter Praise with Holy Communion this morning – The Interesting Story of the Hot Cross Bun
“Hot Cross Buns! Hot Cross Buns! One a penny, two a penny, Hot Cross Buns! If you haven’t got a daughter, give them to your sons. One a penny, two a penny Hot Cross Buns!”
Nations, cultures, and religions include bread as an integral component of religious and secular observances. The breads are typically enriched and may contain dairy, eggs, sweeteners, and inclusions. Hot cross buns have been synonymous with Easter celebrations since they appeared in 12th century England.
In the Middle Ages, home bakers marked their loaves with crosses before baking. They believed the cross would ensure a successful bake, warding off the evil spirits that inhibit the bread from rising. This superstition gradually faded, except for marking Good Friday loaves and hot cross buns, only to be replaced by another one. This time the loaves and buns were hung from the ceiling like sausages. It was believed that the bread would never mold and would provide protection against evil spirits and illness until the following Good Friday when the loaves and buns would be replaced. In the event of illness, a portion of bread could be removed from its string and crushed to a powder, which was incorporated into water for therapeutic effect. During the same period, Jews hung bread and a container of water from the ceiling to ward off cholera. They believed its power was so strong that one loaf in one house would protect the community. To avoid detection, early Christians celebrated the resurrection of Christ at the same time of year as the pagan Spring celebration.
It was in the 12th century that an English monk decorated his freshly baked buns with a cross on Good Friday, also known as the Day of the Cross. The custom gained traction, and over the years, fruits and precious spices were included to represent health and prosperity. Spiced buns were banned when the English broke ties with the Catholic Church in the 16th century. However, by 1592, Queen Elizabeth I relented and granted permission for commercial bakers to produce the buns for funerals, Christmas, and Easter. Otherwise, they could be baked in homes. The bakers argued that a cross cut into a loaf or bun induced a more pronounced rise in the oven: an axiom then, and an axiom now.
By the early 19th century, the Bun House of Chelsea, famous for Chelsea buns, was the largest producer of hot cross buns. It remained so for over a century until the building was demolished. Once an English specialty, the buns’ popularity has become a seasonal staple around the world and is included in Le Coupe du Monde de la Boulangerie as one of the Breads of the World. BREAD – the staff of life.
However, I should like you to delve a little deeper into the make-up of our hot cross buns.
The bun, as was mentioned earlier is BREAD, but containing spices and dried fruit; raisins, currants, sultanas, sometimes peel.
A hot cross bun is a spiced bun, usually containing small pieces of raisins and marked with a cross on the top, which has been traditionally eaten on Good Friday in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Canada, India, Pakistan, Malta, United States and the Commonwealth Caribbean. They’re available all year round in some countries, including the UK. We all knew that, didn’t we?
But think on
The bun marks the end of the season of Lent and different elements of the hot cross bun each have a specific meaning;
the cross representing the crucifixion of Jesus,
the spices inside signifying the spices used to embalm him
and sometimes also orange peel reflecting the bitterness of his time on the cross.
And so as we eat our hot cross buns, let us do so reflecting on these elements of our sustenance which will be the BREAD of our Holy Communion today.
Top Man Jimpy!
It is a good day for a hot cross bun unless you strictly observe Lent.
Regards
In Scotland the Hot Cross Bun is allegedly more highly spiced than the English varieties, and has a kenspeckle cross of pastry atop its glossy brown surface.
Scottish buns may incorporate a wider array of spices, including caraway seeds, coriander, and sometimes mace, which could contribute to a more complex and potentially bolder flavour, ie they tend to be spicier.
English hot cross buns typically featured a mix of cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice, until the chain supermarkets embarked on their own weird and not so wonderful variety of flavours.
Scots today associate bonfires more with November than April. The burning of bonfires, however, on the Saturday in-between Good Friday and Easter Sunday was once a centuries-old Scottish tradition.
As part of the tradition, an effigy of Judas would usually be set on fire.
Over the years, however, the lighting of bonfires at Easter became less popular as more and more Scots celebrated Bonfire Night, to remember a failed gunpowder plot against our Scottish King, James VI, who had recently assumed the English throne as their King James I.
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Henry, I would have loved to come but I am spoken for at our local church as the Chalice bearer for Sunday morning service but I wish you well for your Sunday although I am not sure that Eton/Windsor qualifies as the country!
Adrian