Alleluia! Christ is Risen! The Lord is Risen indeed. Alleluia!
This is the Church’s holy shout on Easter Day. It is a sustained echo and reiteration of the original acclamation that first morning of the empty tomb discovered by the disciples.
Skeptics and cynics says, “Jesus was not really dead and he was resuscitated”or ”His body was stolen” or “It is a myth” or “a massive delusion.” They are entitled to their opinions.
Meanwhile, the fact remains, Lord Christ is alive in his church and the world. He is not a ghost, a pleasant memory or a conjured up mood of nostalgia. The Lord Jesus Christ is alive. The Gospels proclaim this. The Jewish and Roman authorities are afraid of it. The first disciples are transformed by the encounter with the Risen Lord Jesus. They are changed from an ambivalent, defensive band of men and women on the fringe of the synagogues and meeting secretly in house churches into a movement of the Kingdom of God never known in history. Rich and poor, Jew and Gentle, men and woman, slave and free enjoy fellowship and love one another. People get healed; demons cast out; the standard practices like infanticide and slavery are challenged; enemies are reconciled; persecutors like Saul become apostles and saints. God raising Jesus from the dead is God starting creation over again. He is saying love is the center of the universe not fear, power or death. We are given another chance. Lord Jesus breaks the pall, the spell, the curse of death. New Life is freely given to all who put their trust in God. It is the free gift that costs everything you are. So, yield to the one who made you and wants to remake you by the power of the Risen Lord. The next chapter in your life is about to be written. Give the Author, your Author the permission to write it with you. Alleluia! The Lord is Risen indeed!
Father Hastings

As we approach Holy week, Good Friday and Easter, I encourage your family to take advantage of the Thursday evening Stations of the Cross and Holy Eucharist and Good Friday service at St. Anne's. In order to really experience the joy, beauty and brilliant light of this most Holy day, it is necessary to explore the other side of that experience.... the sadness and darkness of Good Friday. Stations of the Cross is an amazing service that I remember coming to as a teenager at St. Anne's. It is a truly profound and beautiful service and will help us to be more prayerful and thoughtful about this season of Lent.

Our Youth Group will be meeting with Mr. Howard on Thursday, April 3rd at 6:00 pm for Stations of the Cross and Holy Eucharist and for pizza afterward at 6:45. Please come! Parents can stay for the Lenten supper and teaching with Fr. Hastings. (Sign up for the meal in the narthex.)

Father Hastings will host a Communion class on April 3rd at 7:30 for children who have not yet received First Communion and would like to on Easter Day, April 20, and for children who already receive communion but would like to learn more about it. Please call the church office to register.

Thank you to all who helped with our very successful Pancake supper. Many people helped that evening in big and small ways, and we are grateful to be able to have fun serving together while raising money for our mission trip. A big thank you to our chef Jeff Littlepage.

We will celebrate Easter with our annual Easter Egg hunt after the 10:00 service on Easter Day, April 20.

This month I am sharing the biography of John Rutter - composer of the Gloria which will be the piece the choir and guest musicians will be offering on Easter Morning at 10am.
Born in 1945, Rutter studied music during high school and began his compositional career while a student at Clare College in Cambridge. His compositional career has embraced both large and small-scale choral works with organ and orchestral accompaniment, orchestral pieces, a piano concerto, two children's operas, music for television, and special compositions for the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble and the King's Singers. In 1979, Rutter gave up his post at Clare College to concentrate more on composing and conducting.
The Gloria, one of his larger works, was written in 1974. If you would like to preview the piece, you can find it on You Tube under Rutter Gloria Cambridge Singers.(1)
Look forward to seeing you Easter morning!
(1) www.johnrutter.com/biography
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