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I<br />
am writing this on March 1 – Ash<br />
Wednesday, St David’s Day and the<br />
fi rst day of spring (meteorologically<br />
speaking – astronomically, the fi rst<br />
day of spring is March 20, which<br />
feels more realistic to me!). Appropriately<br />
enough, along with the snowdrops that<br />
surround the church I have seen my fi rst<br />
daffodil of the year also.<br />
April/May <strong>2017</strong><br />
When Ash Wednesday falls on the fi rst<br />
day of spring (the last occasion was 2006)<br />
it seems particularly appropriate. Shrove<br />
Tuesday – pancake day – will then fall on<br />
the last day of winter with Ash Wednesday,<br />
the day when Christians remember their<br />
humanity and mortality coming on the day<br />
when we also look towards new growth and new hope.<br />
WOODSEATS • SHEFFIELD<br />
For many people Ash Wednesday sums up all that is gloomy about<br />
religion. It is a day of sackcloth and ashes, beating ourselves up and<br />
remembering that we are all going to die – “remember you are dust,<br />
and to dust you will return”. Surely such morbid thoughts belong to<br />
winter and not spring!<br />
I don’t think that I am a particularly gloomy person, yet Ash<br />
Wednesday is one of my favourite days of the year. It is a day on<br />
which I am reminded that my life span is fi nite and that my ambitions,<br />
passions, frustrations and expectations are insignifi cant in the light<br />
of eternity. But I am also reminded that it is precisely because of the<br />
limitations placed on me through my mortality that the power of Easter,<br />
which Lent leads us up to, is so spectacular and unexpected. The<br />
hope of Easter and of our eternal future with God is made stronger by<br />
the knowledge of our own physical and moral frailties.<br />
The First Day of Spring<br />
Spring is a time of new growth after the sleep of winter. The daffodils,<br />
snowdrops and crocuses, bursting as they often do from<br />
the still icy soil remind us of the power of new life. St<br />
Chad’s is also experiencing a new season and new<br />
growth as we have now returned to our new building<br />
after a long time (two winters as it turned out) away.<br />
To observe Ash Wednesday in our new church this<br />
morning was a special occasion but I hope nothing<br />
to match the joy of our Easter celebration here on<br />
Sunday April 16. I hope that you will be able to join<br />
us.<br />
Rev Toby Hole, Vicar,<br />
St Chad’s Church,<br />
Woodseats<br />
St Chad’s Church, Linden Avenue, Woodseats<br />
Church Offi ce: Linden Avenue, Sheffi eld S8 0GA<br />
Tel: (0114) 274 5086<br />
Page 3<br />
email: offi ce@stchads.org<br />
website: www.stchads.org
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