• Palm Sunday

    There’s no sermon from yesterday to upload. It is the only Sunday in the year when we have no preaching and simply let the story do the work. It is our custom on Palm Sunday to read the Passion story – that’s the story of the end of Jesus’s life from whichever gospel we have been reading through the year.

    Here at St Mary’s, the congregation, who are the body of Christ, read the words of Jesus whilst two people at the front narrate the rest of the story.

    Yesterday is probably the chilliest Palm Sunday on record. Here in this part of the world, we usually associate Holy Week with a growing sense of spring. New life is all around us. This year, it feels as though it hasn’t quite arrived.

    However, that’s a reminder that Holy Week is celebrated in all kinds of contexts. I struggle a bit working out how people could celebrate Easter in the autumn, but that, of course, is what happens in the southern hemisphere. There must be places where Palm Sunday is always held in the snow and it is hard to imagine what that is like.

    As it was yesterday, there was not much snow here. Much of the rest of the country was covered in it but it was a clear, if bracing day.

    I found myself taking to liturgical gloves.

    Brrr.

3 responses to “5 things about exams that matter more than results”

  1. Matthew Pemble Avatar
    Matthew Pemble

    The important thing isn’t the results themselves, but whether you can carry on and do what you wanted to do, whether or not you need to take a little detour on the road. I was lucky and didn’t. Many people aren’t as fortunate.

    My heart goes out to all those older kids / young adults who are looking at their SMS or results sheet and think their life is in ruins. Really, it isn’t.

    1. Beth Routledge Avatar

      In the end, that little detour on the road is sometimes the thing that makes the journey better and prettier and more fun.

      I’ve been where those kids are today. It’s not the end of the world. It feels like it, but it’s really not.

  2. Imogen Vibert Avatar
    Imogen Vibert

    Lovely words of wisdom! As a school chaplain I’ll be in for A level & GCSE results days in England soon…think I might just print a few copies of this off to take with me. 🙂

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