Read the latest from Hitchin's St Mary's Church as 'A Churchwarden Writes' reflects on a busy Easter.

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A Churchwarden Writes….St Mary's pulls out all the stops as a sunny Easter Day begins 'Eastertide' and a Celebrity concert coming soon to St Mary's. 

The sun shone over Easter and the St Mary's team pulled out all the stops, including on the organ keyboard, for Easter Day.

After the lead up during Holy Week and our special services for Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, preparations went into top gear on Holy Saturday. Several hundred visitors to the church encouraged the flower team in their work to beautify the building, with spectacular results as arrangements in white and golden yellow now fill every corner. All was made clean and tidy and white altar coverings were brought out to set the scene. 

The Easter morning service, including superb music from our choir and organist, was enjoyed by all (You can catch up on our Youtube Channel)

The traditional 'sprinkling' of the congregation with sprays of herb rosemary dipped in 'holy water' was carried out with gusto by two members of the congregation who had just been baptised during the service.  An Easter Egg hunt finished off the morning, but Eastertide continues.

Easter Day is celebrated as a single, joyful feast day but Eastertide continues for fifty days, celebrated on each week up until Pentcost Sunday. This Sunday is therefore the second Sunday of Easter' 

The importance of Eggs

Our early evening services one Sunday each month at 5-6pm are a 'light touch' experience, including an 'open mic' for individuals or groups to play instruments, sing or read poetry.

Art installations such as our prayer tree are also worked on, and this week the subject is Eastertide and Eggs, with the Jill Knights' 'Positif Chamber choir' joining us to cover the Easter story in music.

Eggs are symbolic of life coming out of an apparently dead, stony exterior, as are all things spring-like. Chocolate is, of course, a welcome but recent (in Church terms!) addition, as decorated hens eggs have been traditional at Easter in many countries for centuries.

Next month will be an exciting 'Pet and Favourite Toy' service, which is certainly not to be missed! 

Family concerts return 

Another unmissable event will be the return of our St Mary's popular 'Family Concert' series, delayed since spring 2020.

Aiming to inspire a love of music in the young, we present 'Peter and the Wolf'. with an additional selection of celebrated classics performed by Pegari Ensemble - "Hitchin's professional orchestra"- conducted by Trevor Hughes.

We are delighted that the well known classic story will be narrated by Pam Rhodes, of BBC 'Songs of Praise'. The programme is tailored to a young audience to introduce them to the various instruments. There are two afternoon performances, and refreshments are available in the interval between the two.

Tickets are now on sale at Hitchin Information in the Churchyard as well as online at WeGotTickets.com/StMarysChurchEventsHitchin and will be sold on the doors from 2 pm on Saturday (April 30). Any profits will help to support St Mary's.

A final thank you to all who have supported St Mary's collections in support of the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine. All donations received are being routed via the Disasters Emergency Committee. Up to April 10 we have received and sent to the DEC cash and cheques to the value of £5798.30, including an outstanding contribution of £1824.11 from the concert at St Mary's on April 9.

Cash donations for this appeal may still be left until further notice in our Trinity Chapel candlestand.

LIVESTREAMED Services on Sundays are available to watch live at 10 am or anytime afterwards on our Youtube channel available on this link: https://www.youtube.com/c/stmaryshitchin

Further updated details of our services, opening times and events are found on our public Facebook page @StMarysChurchHitchin    .

Further information is found on our website:

https://www.stmaryshitchin.co.uk/

You can follow us on the following platforms:

Instagram  stmaryschurch_hitchin

https://twitter.com/stmaryshitchin_

https://twitter.com/@stmarysBFL