If the old adage is right and variety is the spice of life then Palm Sunday at MBC really was a hot place to be. Musically it started with a hymn composed in 1905 and an hour and a half later finished with a lusty, impromptu rendering of an upbeat children’s chorus. In between came a Service packed with challenge.
Guest speaker Sue Barclay urged us to use Holy Week as a time for action, a time when rather than standing still and watching the procession we move towards Easter Day with courage and commitment’
At our windows we had two new panels, with a third which will be opened on Easter Sunday deliberately hidden behind a blind.
Our children came in from PULSE to share stories of how over the last three Sundays they had focused on making and keeping the peace. But of the course the most obvious element was the appearance of a dozen or so display stands each holding a true life story which when read takes both your understanding and your appreciation of forgiveness to a whole new level.
THE F WORD: Stories of Forgiveness is the brainchild of journalist Marina Cantacuzino and photographer Brian Moody who in January 2004, tired of a climate where revenge and retaliation dominated the headlines, resolved to present the public with an alternative view. The result, a powerful photographic exhibition exploring the idea of forgiveness in the face of atrocity and telling the stories of victims as well as perpetrators.
Travelling to places including the United States, South Africa, Northern Ireland, Romania, Rwanda, Israel and Palestine, as well as the UK, Cantacuzino and Moody collected stories from people whose lives had been shattered by violence, tragedy and injustice – and who had chosen to take the challenging and often painful journey towards forgiveness.
The exhibition’s subjects include Eva Kor, a survivor of the medical experiments carried out by Dr Josef Mengele in Auschwitz; Pat Magee, the man behind the IRA Brighton bomb and Jo Berry, whose father was killed in the blast; Linda Biehl, whose daughter was killed in South Africa and now works alongside her daughter’s killers; and Andrew Rice, whose brother David was killed in the World Trade Center bombing.
If you get chance please call in and visit the exhibition. It’s open every day right up until and including Easter Sunday from 12 noon until 3pm and then again every evening between 7pm and 9.
Below is a gallery of pictures taken during our Palm Sunday Service. To view a larger version simply click on the image.
