Palm Sunday
Sung Eucharist for Palm Sunday
Today at 10.00 am · Watch the service · View the order of service
Other services
Sanctuary for Holy Week, with anointing for healing and wholeness
This Monday 30 March at 7.30 pm
Said Eucharist
This Tuesday 31 March at 10.00 am
Tenebrae
This Tuesday 31 March at 7.30 pm · Watch the service
Said Eucharist
This Wednesday 1 April at 10.00 am
Stations of the Cross followed by Compline
This Wednesday 1 April at 7.30 pm
Sung Eucharist for Maundy Thursday with foot washing and watch
This Thursday 2 April at 7.30 pm · Watch the service · View the order of service
The Liturgy of Good Friday
This Friday 3 April at 2.00 pm · Watch the service
Easter Vigil
Next Sunday 5 April at 6.00 am · Watch the service · View the order of service
Sung Eucharist for Easter Day with Holy Baptism
Next Sunday 5 April at 10.00 am · Watch the service · View the order of service
Festal Evensong for Easter Day
Next Sunday 5 April at 6.00 pm · Watch the service · View the order of service
The Leeds South & East Food Bank: What's Needed in March
The Leeds South & East Food Bank continues to be in urgent need of donations of food to help feed those in most need. In particular at the moment they are asking for UHT milk, biscuits, custard, cooking sauces and tinned or packet mashed potatoes.
If you are able, you can donate by picking one of these items up in your weekly shop and dropping it in the box at the back of the church. You can find other ways to help, including donating money or your time, on their website at wkrk.uk/fbd. If you need the help of a foodbank yourself, see wkrk.uk/fbh.
Renewal of the prayer list
Praying for those who are sick and in long-term care, or in any other kind of need, is central to our mission and it happens daily at Morning and Evening Prayer, and also at our Sunday Eucharists. In order to ensure that the prayer list remains up-to-date and manageable, however, we decided last summer that it would be renewed twice a year. This will happen on the first Sunday of September and on Easter Sunday. A list is now available at the back of church for you to add the names (first names only, please, for data protection reasons) of anyone for whom you would like us to pray for. It is of course fine to add names at any time by contacting Claire or leaving a prayer on one of the cards that are always available at the back of the church, but please do also remember to ask for names to be removed if the person is recovering or a moment of crisis has passed. As well as those remembered by name, we always also pray for any others who are in need of our prayers, so please be assured that no-one will be left out. God knows our needs and the needs of those who are on our hearts, even when we do not articulate them in so many words. There is no need to renew the list of those whose year’s mind we remember (unless you would like a new name to be added): this will continue as usual.
Holy Week and Easter
Please note the following dates for our Holy Week and Easter services and activities this year. We’d love you to join us for as many of these activities as possible. Our theme for Holy Week and Easter this year is ‘Places of the Passion’. We will be exploring the different places visited by Jesus during the last week of his life. How do they help us better to understand this story that is so central to our faith?
- Palm Sunday (29 March): Palm Sunday Eucharist 10.00 am, with donkey procession from the vicarage to the church (gather from 9.30 am, procession at 9.45 am), weather permitting. The streets of Jerusalem.
- Palm Sunday (29 March): 2.00 pm-5.00 pm, church open for quiet reflection ahead of Holy Week – Stations of the Lord’s Prayer. Come and reflect on this prayer that we all know so well.
- Monday (30 March): 7.30 pm, Sanctuary for Holy Week – a contemplative Eucharist with anointing for healing and wholeness. The house of Mary and Martha at Bethany.
- Tuesday (31 March): 10.00 am, Said Eucharist
- Tuesday (31 March): 7.30 pm, Tenebrae – we move from light into darkness as we reflect on the events of Holy Week via the places visited. The Temple court; in the Temple; an upper room; Gethsamane; the courtyard; the judgement seat; the potter’s field; Golgotha, the tomb.
- Wednesday (1 April): 10.00 am, Said Eucharist
- Wednesday (1st April): 7.30 pm, Stations of the Cross, followed by Compline
- Maundy Thursday (2 April): 7.30 pm, Eucharist with foot-washing and watch (till 10pm). Around the table.
- Good Friday (3 April): 2.00 pm, Liturgy of Good Friday. A garden.
- Holy Saturday (4 April): 10.00 am, Remembering Jesus – a short said service of prayer, reflection, and remembrance. Back in the upper room.
- Easter Sunday (5 April): 6.00 am, Easter Vigil. The empty tomb.
- Easter Sunday (5 April): 10.00 am, Sung Eucharist for Easter Sunday
- Easter Sunday (5 April): 2.30 pm-3.30 pm, Easter Egg Hunt – free fun for children and families with prizes for all
- Easter Sunday (5 April): 6.00 pm, Festal Evensong for Easter
- Low Sunday (12 April): 4.00 pm, Messy Easter (meet in the Community Centre for snacks, stories, songs and crafts)
Open Church and Summer Concert series
Our beautiful church will be open to the public every Saturday afternoon, 2.00pm-4.00pm throughout the summer from Easter through to the end of September. Please do tell your friends and neighbours about this and encourage them to come and have a look around _their _church. We are launching this season’s Open Church afternoons on 11th April with a free concert by the Smeaton String Quartet. Free concerts will continue on the second Saturday of the month… watch this space for more details.
Daily Prayer in the week after Easter
Rev’d Claire will be away during the week after Easter, so there will be no Morning or Evening Prayer between 6 and 13 April. We will resume as usual on Tuesday 14 April with Morning Prayer at 8.30am and Evening Prayer at 5.30pm every day except Sunday and Monday. If you would like to participate in the daily prayer of the Church of England but are unable to be in church at these times, why not visit wkrk.uk/cedp where you can read or listen to the prayers and readings for the day, and where you can also find instructions for how to download the free Daily Prayer app. Our Midweek Eucharist (Wednesday, 10.00am) and Sanctuary (Thursday, 6.30pm) will take place as usual during this week.
Stations of the Lord's Prayer
Today at 2.00 pm
St Mary's Church, Whitkirk
Throughout Lent we have been exploring the Lord’s Prayer, that prayer that we all know so well, which most of us learned parrot-fashion as children, and asking what insights we might gain by considering its words in more depth. We should be deeply grateful to our speakers – Brunel James, Jude Smith, Andy Muckle, Philip Hobday, and Linda Boon – for their insights and wisdom. This afternoon, there will be a chance for you to round off the deep thinking that our speakers have inspired by spending some time simply contemplating what the prayer means to you as you reflect on its words ahead of Holy Week. A ‘Lord’s Prayer Trail’ will be set up in church for you to follow in your own time. Drop in for five minutes or stay for an hour… it’s entirely up to you. Why not enter this holiest of weeks by spending some time in church praying as Jesus taught us?
Churches Together in East Leeds: Good Friday Walk of Witness
This Friday 3 April at 10.20 am
St Mary's Church, Whitkirk
We will be taking part in the Churches Together in East Leeds Walk of Witness on Good Friday morning. There is a service at Crossgates Methodist Church at 11.00am. In order to arrive on time, we will be gathering at the lychgate from about 10.20am and will set off no later than 10.30am. We will walk down Knightsway rather than Hollyshaw Lane (because the pavements are wider) in case anyone would like to join us en route. We will walk to the church in silence, carrying a wooden cross. You may also, of course, join us at the church if you are not able to walk with us.
Trip to Lincoln
Thursday 21 May
You are invited to join us for a trip to Lincoln. Full details to follow, including costs, but we will be leaving Whitkirk in the morning by coach to travel to Lincoln. The cost of the trip will include entry to the cathedral with a guided tour and a free organ recital by the cathedral’s organ scholar, Yipeng Xu. There is a cafe in the cathedral and many cafes and restaurants nearby, or you can bring a packed lunch. There will be some free time to explore the city or the nearby castle. The cost is likely to be in the region of £25-£30 per person, but please do speak to Claire if the cost is prohibitive for you, as we may be able to help. For now we are just taking names in order to have an idea of potential numbers, but we will be asking you to confirm your attendance (and to pay!) after Easter.
Quiet Day: Blessing
Saturday 23 May at 9.30 am
St Mary's Church Whitkirk Community Centre
‘The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace.’ You are invited to this Quiet Day, led by Rev’d Claire on behalf of Churches Together in East Leeds, which will explore the notion of blessing, taking the so-called ‘Aaronic blessing’ as a starting-point. Allowing participants space to reflect and explore, it will encourage them to recognise the blessings that God pours out upon them and, simultaneously, to recognise themselves as bearers of that blessing to others and to the world. There is no charge for attendance. Please bring your own lunch. Tea and coffee provided. RSVP to [email protected] to give us an idea of numbers.