4th April, 2021.
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My dear friends,

I hope the Easter sermon below about the Church of the Holy Sepulchre may be of special interest to members of St John: the original medieval hospitallers of St John lived next door to this great church in Jerusalem and would have been very familiar with the ceremony of the Easter fire. I expect that patients and staff from our modern St John Eye Hospital regularly attend the service in our own day.
            This leads me to mention that there is still time to contribute to our Lent collection for St John Eye Hospital, Jerusalem. Please make cheques payable to ‘Great Bardfield P.C.C.’ and write ‘Eye Hospital’ on the back, and send them to me at The Vicarage, Braintree Road, Great Bardfield, CM7 4RN. Every penny we can spare will make a difference to someone’s life.
            H.R.H. The Prince of Wales has recorded Gerald Manley Hopkins’ poem ‘God’s Grandeur’, to be broadcast today as part of a celebration of Easter and I thought I’d share the words with you:
GOD’S GRANDEUR
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The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
    It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
    It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
    And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
    And wears man's smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.
 
And for all this, nature is never spent;
    There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
    Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs --
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
    World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.
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Gerald Manley Hopkins 1844-188
May I wish you and your families a very happy and blessed Easter 2021.

With my prayers and warmest good wishes,
                                             The Rev. Dr  ROBERT BEAKEN, County Chaplain
EASTER DAY – 4th APRIL 2021.
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Gospel: St John, chapter 20, verses 1-18.
One of my personal ambitions is to spend Holy Week and Easter in Jerusalem one year. In particular, I would like to attend the ceremony of the Holy Fire on Easter Eve in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
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            To my mind, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is the most marvellous church in Christendom. To those of us in Great Britain who are used to well-kept, medieval gothic cathedrals, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre can come across as a bit of a rabbit warren of little chapels on different levels. It was originally built by the Emperor Constantine over the site of Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection. In the centre is the ‘edicule’ or little round chapel containing the tomb of Christ. You duck down through a little doorway, enter a sort of small ante-chamber, duck down through another little door and find yourself in the sepulchre or tomb where the dead body of Jesus was placed on Good Friday. They had to cover the shelf where the Lord’s body was laid with another layer of stone in about 1810, because visitors kept cutting bits off with their penknives as souvenirs, but you can see the original honey coloured stone underneath. The atmosphere inside is very special – there is a certain stillness, and heaven does not seem very far away.

            On Easter Eve, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem takes part in the ceremony of the Holy Fire. The great church is usually bursting with excited worshippers and pilgrims who have come specially for the service. The Patriarch enters with his clergy and they process three times around the edicule, singing hymns and prayers. The Patriarch then removes most of his beautiful robes and enters the tomb of Christ. By now the church is fairly dark and a hush descends over the congregation. At length, a small flickering light appears from deep within the tomb and grows in intensity. It used to be believed that the flame was kindled miraculously, but in fact it is kindled by the Patriarch. The light is used to light other candles. One of the Patriarch’s assistant clergy appears at a side window and passes out the flame to a waiting priest, who lights a candle and shares the flames. High above, the church bells start to be rung as candles and lamps are lit around the great building. The church has moved from darkness and to light. The church echoes with the Orthodox Easter greeting: Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!

            There were no human witnesses of Christ’s resurrection. No journalist with a notebook or camera was on hand to record what occurred. Three days after his crucifixion, just as he promised, Jesus Christ was raised from the dead in the resurrection. The love of God had overcome the worst evil, and had triumphed over sin, evil and death. All this is symbolised in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre by the sharing of the light of Christ’s resurrection.

            If I believe the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is the most marvellous church in Christendom, there is another special place in my heart for the Church of St Bartholomew-the-Less, West Smithfield, in the City of London. This little medieval church is the chapel of St Bartholomew’s Hospital – widely known as Barts. You’ll find the church on the left as you enter the hospital through the Henry VIII gateway. The reason it is special for me is that I was born in Barts and Baptised in the hospital chapel – St Bartholomew-the-Less. Whenever I attend a meeting at the headquarters of the Order of St John in Clerkenwell, I always try to find time to pop into St Bartholomew-the-Less to pray. Naturally, I was too young to remember my Baptism there all those years ago, but I derive great comfort from sitting in that old church and thinking of my Baptism.

            The point about Baptism is that it is not just a quaint ceremony to give a new baby a name. Rather, Baptism ties us into the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus himself spoke of Baptism as our being ‘born again’ or ‘born from above’ of water and the Holy Spirit. When we are Baptised, we are joined to the Easter story, symbolised by our being signed on the forehead with the sign of the Cross. Easter is no longer just something interesting that happened a long time ago: instead, it becomes the centre of our lives. We realise that whatever happens to us as we go through life, at some very deep level God is still in charge. We are forever safe in the hands of the Lord who was crucified and resurrected for us. If you are thinking about being Baptised but are not quite sure, let me encourage you to go ahead. It is the most marvellous and wonderful thing any of us can do in our lives. The risen Lord takes us to himself, never to forget us.

            Will I make it to Jerusalem for Holy Week one year? Well, we shall have to see. But there is one thing we can be certain of: because of the Resurrection of Christ, so powerfully symbolised by the sharing of the holy fire, and because of the wonderful gift of Baptism, we all have the chance of meeting Jesus in the heavenly Jerusalem, never to be parted from him.