Chruch News March 2024

Mothering Sunday

As usual, flowers were distributed by the children, at our morning Service in Great Tey church, to mothers, grandmothers, and anyone else who might welcome a cheery pot of primulas. In the afternoon we organised a fundraising traditional Mothering Sunday afternoon tea. Lots of cake and cream teas, balloons and flowers for mothers to take home. Everyone had a very jolly time and we raised about £500 for church funds.

Easter

We look forward to welcoming everyone to our services over Easter.

Maundy Thursday - Please note there will be a Communion service at 7.30 in Great Tey Church on the 28th March to commemorate the day during Holy Week when Jesus washed the feet of the disciples and celebrated the Last Supper with them. Why ‘Maundy? ‘ Its origins are obscure but it is likely to be derived from the French ‘mendier’ or Old English , ‘’maund’, to beg. This refers to the fact that kings often chose this day to give alms to the poor.

EGGS!

Why do we eat chocolate eggs at Easter? In times gone by, before the arrival of chocolate to our shores it was real eggs that we ate to celebrate Easter Sunday.

This custom of the Easter egg, according to many sources, can be traced to early Christians of Mesopotamia, and from there it spread into Eastern Europe and Siberia through the Orthodox Churches, and later into Europe through the Catholic and Protestant Churches. Other sources maintain that the custom arose in western Europe during the Middle Ages as a result of the fact that Western Christians were prohibited from eating eggs during Lent, but were allowed to eat them when Easter arrived.

Wherever the custom came from, the habit of colouring or painting eggs goes back millennia, long before Christ was born and Christians adopted the whole ‘egg thing’ as an excellent metaphor for ‘rebirth’ – the essence of the message of Easter Sunday.’