Month: March 2026

The church’s calendar builds to its climax over this coming week; as I write I am putting the last touches to the service for tomorrow, Palm Sunday. It is a bit rushed; I am just back from 5 days in Venice, largely spent in glorious churches. Most have representations of Palm Sunday; all have numerous images of Christ on the cross, some veiled in purple as is common at this time of year, to mark his death. Tomorrow we will have a procession into church as we re-enact the events of the first Palm Sunday. Sometimes this story is presented as though it were the whole city that turned out to welcome Jesus. However, our Bible reading for tomorrow suggests it was only Jesus’s followers who actually waved the palms; for the rest there was instead puzzlement, with the “whole” city asking “who is this?”. The churches of Venice witness how that question has been disturbing people for the last 2000 years; our service tomorrow challenges us to answer it today. 

Rev David Poyner

I have recently been doing a lot of funerals. I am a vicar, this is what we do. Each time I do a funeral I am aware that this is something poignant; a life has come to an end and there is usually grief associated with that. Sometimes it is possible to draw comfort from the fact that the deceased had lived a long life, or perhaps that death had released them from suffering. Sadly, that is not always the case. This coming Sunday is Passion Sunday, when the Church remembers the suffering and death of Jesus. This occasion can be mawkish or sentimental, although crucifixion was only ever brutal. It does not explain away grief and suffering. It does however, give me the strength to stand at a graveside and speak of God. I follow a God who has known suffering; I can only worship a God who has known suffering.

Rev David Poyner

Mothering Sunday is a festival that has many guises. It is the 4th Sunday in Lent, also known as Refreshment Sunday. Refreshment Sunday originated as a kind of bank holiday to give some relief from the rigours of the Lent; a day off from fasting and horsehair shirts. As part of the break in Lent, it became the custom to give house servants the Sunday off. As such, they would return home and, because that is what everyone did in those days, they would go to their home church on the Sunday. This was their mother church, the church that senior clergy liked to think had nurtured them and brought them up safely in the faith. The senior clergy so liked this idea that they were very happy to go along with it becoming a church festival; Mothering Sunday in honour of the church. Meanwhile, the home coming servants knew which side their bread was buttered and made sure they had a posy of flowers for their actual mothers, who had really brought them up and would be feeding them this day.

Today, for most people it is now “Mothers’ Day”, a purely secular occasion but one which still focuses on mothers. Even within the church, this is now largely what it is, but with some prayers and perhaps a sermon attached. It is good to give thanks for our mothers; the people who brought us into the world, those who nurtured us. But for people of faith, we can also go beyond this if we wish, to remember the female side of God, who is both our father and also our mother.

Rev David Poyner

Most (but not all) Christian churches recognise that there is a time when war can be justified. There are strict criteria that need to be met. We have to use our judgement in any given conflict as to how far they may be met.

Before going to war, the following criteria must be met:

• Just Cause: The war must confront a grave evil and by in self-defence, to defend another nation, or to protect innocent life.
• Legitimate Authority: The war must be declared by a lawful, proper authority,.
• Right Intention: The goal must be to promote good or correct a wrong, not for revenge, vengeance, or territorial expansion.
• Last Resort: All peaceful alternatives must have been exhausted.
• Reasonable Chance of Success: The war should not be fought for a hopeless cause, which would waste lives unnecessarily.
• Proportionality: The good to be achieved must outweigh the total evil that the war will cause. 

Once a war has begun, there are rules which dictate how it is fought: 

• Discrimination/Distinction: Non-combatants (mainly civilians but also those in the military who do not carry arms) should not be targeted.
• Proportional Force: Only the minimum necessary force should be used to achieve military objectives. Methods that are inherently immoral, such as genocide, torture, or using weapons that cause uncontrollable destruction  are forbidden.
• Treatment of Prisoners: Prisoners of war must be treated humanely.

Recently thought has been given to what represents a just peace at the end of the war. 

• Just Termination: Aims should be limited to the original just cause.
• Reconstruction: Efforts should be made to restore peace, repair damage, and uphold human rights. 
• (I have adapted this from an AI generated response to a Google query).

Rev David Poyner