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Walking Easter Week – Daily Devotions

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St Luke’s Holbeck—Easter Week 2020

Walking Easter Week

We’re continuing our daily devotions through Easter Week.

Having walked with Jesus through Holy Week, why not continue that journey beyond the resurrection. Easter week covers those days following Easter Sunday. Indeed, in some traditions they observe what’s known as an Octave. An octave is a period of eight days, each day is a repetition of the first, normally the Feast Day. The Easter Octave is, therefore, Easter Day and the following seven days – eight in total. Each day is another chance to celebrate Easter.

As a church we want to enter into this spirit of journeying with Jesus by continuing to provide daily devotions. They will commence on Easter Sunday, a sort of cross-over day, as it is the end of Holy Week and the beginning of Easter Week.

Then we will provide devotions every day until and including the Second Sunday of Easter, 19th April this year.

Each day will consider a different resurrection story from the Bible

We want to invite you to do this – observing Easter Week may be unusual, but in these uncertain times, our confidence comes from our risen Lord, Jesus Christ. Thinking about his resurrection appearances can boost faith, offer a chance to recall God’s love, and renew our hope for the world. All three things – faith, hope, and love – are much needed at this time.

Each day an email will be sent, and the webpage updated, with a reading and devotion, often with a suggested practical task to help the message sink in.

Overview

Easter Sunday              John 20:1-18                            The Big Bang

Easter Monday            Matthew 28:1-10                    Mixed Emotions

Easter Tuesday            Luke 24:13-35                          Mixed Emotions

Easter Wednesday      John 20:19-23                          Lockdown

Easter Thursday          Luke 24:36-49                         Confusion and Commission

Easter Friday               John 21:1-14                            Fish for Breakfast

Easter Saturday           John 21:15-19                          Second Chances

2nd Sunday of Easter    Matt 28:16-20                         The Great Commission

 

Pastoral Care during suspension

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How are we going to care for people while St Luke’s is not meeting for public services on Sundays?

We are going to review our pastoral and caring arrangements in the coming weeks. We hope to introduce additional ways we can all support one another. Galatians teaches us that we are to “carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.”

What should you do?

  • Follow us on Facebook
  • Drop us a line with your up-to-date contact details (mobile and email if you have them). You can email us (hello@stlukesholbeck.org.uk) or use the Contact form.
  • If you know someone who needs a visit or is in need – let us know!

Serving our Community

During this season of closures and isolation we know that many in the church and across our community will still need pastoral care and support. Whether it’s physical needs, emotional support or spiritual counsel the church is ready to help. We have created some top-tips to help our community during the shutdown.

In the first instance, we hope to have a visible presence in the community – on the streets if not in houses.

We will continue to visit people safely, phoning/texting in advance to check it is safe to go round.  Those visiting will take their temperature and use hand gel before visiting.

In addition we will increase our use of phone calls, text messages, social media and will explore other ways of meeting online (e.g. Face-time or Zoom). In the next week we will devise a telephone-tree that should enable more of the St Luke’s Community to be caring of each other.

Coronavirus and St Luke’s

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Here are the headlines about St Luke’s Church during the Coronavirus Pandemic:

  • We encourage people to follow Government advice to stay home
  • We have top tips for helping people while at home
  • Public Worship has been suspended, see below
  • Our Sunday 10.30am service is live-streamed on Facebook
  • Our Wednesday 10am prayer meeting is live-streamed on Facebook
  • We have a remote 9am Sunday service using a service sheet available here.
  • Encourage prayer, resources available on the website
  • If people need any help please email us at hello@stlukesholbeck.org.uk
  • We have started a podcast, All Gospel No Germs.

St Luke’s has, like many other places of worship, been affected by the Coronavirus Pandemic.

From 17 March 2020 we are not gathering for public services for the foreseeable future. Until further notice there will be no Sunday services.

In light of the Government guidance around non-essential contact, the Archbishops of Canterbury and York have issued advice that public worship is suspended until further notice. This is hoped to stem the spread of Coronavirus. The Archbishop’s call is for the Church of England to become radically different in the way we worship and serve our community.

The Archbishops of Canterbury and York are calling for Church of England churches to put public worship on hold and become a “different sort of church” in the coming months to face the challenge of Coronavirus.

In a joint letter, Archbishops Justin Welby and John Sentamu said it was now necessary to put public services on hold until further notice.

But they said that far from having to “shut up shop”, the Church of England must face the challenge by becoming a radically different kind of church rooted in prayer and serving others.

It comes after the Government announced unprecedented peacetime measures to try to control the spread of the virus, with restrictions on public gatherings, transport and working.

They also invited clergy to maintain the ancient pattern of daily prayer – live streaming their worship if they have the resources to do so.

And they urged congregations to be in the forefront of providing practical care and support for the most poor and the most vulnerable during the crisis.

“Being a part of the Church of England is going to look very different in the days ahead,” they wrote.

“Our life is going to be less characterised by attendance at church on Sunday, and more characterised by the prayer and service we offer each day.

“We may not be able to pray with people in the ways that we are used to, but we can certainly pray for people. And we can certainly offer practical care and support.

“Please do carry on supporting the local foodbank and buy extra provisions for it.  Ensure the night shelters wherever possible are kept open.  There are many very encouraging schemes happening right across our country in communities to focus on caring for the most vulnerable and do continue to play your part in those.

“Then by our service, and by our love,  Jesus Christ will be made known, and the hope of the gospel – a hope that can counter fear and isolation – will spread across our land.”

The archbishops have joined other church leaders in calling for a day of prayer and action this Sunday (Mothering Sunday) particularly remembering those who are sick or anxious and all involved in health and emergency services.

Further information on what the suspension of public worship will mean will be available as soon as possible on the Church of England website. This page will be regularly updated.

What this means for St Luke’s Beeston Hill and Holbeck:

  • no services midweek (Holy Communion or Prayer meetings)
  • no services on Sundays

Click for alternative arrangements for Sundays and Daily Prayer.

Where we worship

Join us on Sundays at St Luke’s Primary School!

While we are building our extension, we are worshipping on a Sunday morning at St Luke’s Primary School, which is our linked church-school. It’s a five minute walk from our church building, so not too far at all.

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St Luke’s Church

Malvern Road
LEEDS
LS11 8PD

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