Puerto de la Cruz, Tenerife North
PLEASE NOTE: there will not be a Friendship Café in April – the next one will be Wednesday 6th May at 10:45am.
A course about real life and real faith, inspired by the BBC TV series Broken with Sean Bean. Devised and written by Bryony Taylor, Rebecca Tobin and David Twomey.
Each session will last around 90 minutes, and will include reflective prayer activities, bible reading and an opportunity for discussion and questions.
The aim of the course is to help us engage with the realities of life, and how they can be framed by faith in Jesus Christ. As Leonard Cohen said: ´there’s a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in’.
The themes for the 6 weeks are:
Dates: 19th 26th Feb, 5th, 12th, 19th, 26th March.
Each session is stand-alone, so you don’t have to come to every one.
For more information contact Mtr. Fiona +34 623 39 24 99
Click here to read the sermon on 29th March, Palm Sunday
The events of Holy Week are the high point in the Church’s calendar, and we attempt to bring these to life with a range of services and experiences. Here’s a bit of background, so you know what to expect.
10:45am Procession of Palms and Sung Eucharist – Celebrant & Preacher Mtr Fiona Jack
We recall Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, singing songs and waving palm crosses. We will start our procession outside the entrance to the Sortija café at 10.45am. Palm crosses will be blessed. For those with mobility issues, please wait in the church and join in as you are able.
6:00pm – Stations of the Cross
The stations of the cross commemorate Jesus’ passion and death on the cross. There are 14 stations that each depict a moment on his journey to Calvary, through art, prayers and reflections. We will be using objects (e.g. nails, hammer) on the stations as well as images, and making a journey in and around the church. This will last about 45 minutes.
11:00am – Stations of the Cross
10:00am – Morning Prayer – led by Adam Hill
6:00pm – Sung Eucharist with Foot Washing – Celebrant & Preacher Mtr Fiona Jack
Maundy Thursday contains rich themes: humble Christian service expressed through Christ’s washing of his disciples’ feet, the institution of the Eucharist, the perfection of Christ’s loving obedience through the agony of Gethsemane. The Holy Thursday liturgy, celebrated in the evening because Passover began at sundown, shows the worth Jesus ascribes to the humility of service, and the need for cleansing with water (a symbol of baptism) represented in foot-washing and the stripping of the altar. The action of the Church on this night also witnesses to the Church’s esteem for Christ’s Body present in the consecrated bread. No Eucharist will be celebrated again in the Church until the Resurrection is proclaimed at the Easter Vigil.
11:00pm to 3:00pm – The Good Friday Liturgy – led by Mtr FIona Jack
7:30am – The Solemn Vigil of Easter – Celebrant & Preacher Mtr Fiona Jack
This is an ancient service rich in symbolism. We will begin with the lighting of the first fire of Easter, from which the Paschal candle is lit, and the date traced on it. We begin in darkness, and candles are lit as the Exsultet is sung, symbolising passing from darkness to light. We hear readings from the Hebrew Bible which tell the history of salvation from Creation to the Exodus (commemorated in the Seder meal) through to the New Testament Easter readings. We then move to the font, the Paschal candle is placed in the waters of the font and blessed. We all renew our baptismal vows. There will be incense at this service. A Eucharist then follows, and a much-needed breakfast of bacon sandwiches and Buck’s fizz.
11:00am – Sung Eucharist with Procession – Celebrant & Preacher Mtr Fiona Jack
Mtr Fiona – how it began and her vision for the future.
Julie Kempson from https://puertodelacruz.info interviews our Chaplain Mtr Fiona Jack
There is something rather unsettling about Palm Sunday. It begins like a street party and ends like a funeral march. We start with a road filled with excitement. Cloaks are thrown down, branches are waving, voices are singing. It’s noisy, hopeful and contagious. People are caught up in the moment, thinking everything is going to change now. Their expectations are high, here’s the new king who is going to free them from the tyranny of Roman occupation.
Very quickly though, everything changes. By the time we’ve heard the passion narrative, that atmosphere has turned sour. The crowd turns on Jesus, or drifts away. Voices become hostile or silent. Jesus stands alone, abandoned even by his close friends. All the joy has evaporated, and we are left with betrayal, fear, suffering, and a lonely cross.
It can feel like two completely different stories awkwardly placed together. A triumphal entry on the one hand, and a tragic ending on the other. Perhaps they are not two stories at all? Maybe this sharp contrast is exactly the point?
It’s tempting to imagine that the crowd cheering Jesus into Jerusalem and the crowd calling for his death are entirely different groups of people. And perhaps, historically, there is truth in that. But spiritually, they are closer than we might feel comfortable with.
I suggest that what we are really seeing is not just two crowds, but two sides of the same human heart. On the one hand, the part of us that celebrates when things are going well. On the other hand, the part of us that falters and shrinks when things start to get challenging.
The crowd on Palm Sunday is full of hope because they believe something is about to change and that God is finally going to act. And they believe that Jesus might be the one to put things right. So they shout, “Hosanna!” Save us. Help us. Do something. It’s a cry of joy, but also a cry of longing.
We’ve all had moments when faith feels like that. When hope bubbles up easily. When God feels close. When it seems as though something good is just around the corner. These are genuine moments. True moments. Precious moments. But they’re not the whole story.
The same road that begins with palms ends at the cross. And that’s where things become difficult. By the time we reach the Passion story, the atmosphere has completely changed. The disciples are confused and afraid. One betrays Jesus. Another denies him. The rest just run off.
The crowd is no longer cheering. Whether it’s the same people or not, the effect is the same: Jesus stands alone.
And into that darkness, the words of the Psalm we read earlier speak with quiet honesty: “I am in trouble…I am forgotten like one who is dead…Fear is on every side…”
These aren’t distant, abstract words. They are deeply human words. Words that echo the experience of anyone who has known anxiety, grief, isolation, or loss.
This isn’t a parade but the reality of suffering. And yet, woven into those same words, there is a thread of trust: “My times are in your hand.” Even when things look chaotic, cruel and out of control, there is still a deeper holding. And then we hear those remarkable words from Isaiah: “I have set my face like flint.” Everything around Jesus is shifting. The mood of the crowd, the loyalty of his friends, the pressure of his enemies. But he does not turn aside. The road may grow darker, but his direction does not change.
This is perhaps the key to Palm Sunday. We are not seeing a change in Jesus’ plan, but rather the true shape of it. The joyful procession into Jerusalem was never the final destination. It was the beginning of a journey that leads, quite deliberately, to the cross. Jesus doesn’t get swept along by events. He walks this road deliberately.
So what does that mean for us today? Perhaps it helps us to recognise something about our own lives of faith. There are times when we are part of the crowd with palms in our hands. When faith feels natural, even joyful. When it’s easy to sing, to pray, to believe.
And there are other times when the road turns. When life becomes more complicated. When prayers seem to go unanswered. When hope feels fragile. When God seems further away or quieter than we’d like. In those moments, we face a choice. Do we stay only with the celebration? Or are we willing to continue on the road?
We don’t have to have perfect courage or unshakeable certainty. Perhaps rather a willingness to remain. If we’re honest, most of us will recognise ourselves somewhere in that crowd. Not as baddies, but as human beings. Capable of great enthusiasm, and also of hesitation. Capable of love, and also of fear.
And the good news of Palm Sunday isn’t that we must suddenly become strong and unwavering. The good news is that Jesus is. When the crowd turns on him, he doesn’t budge. When others fall away, he continues. When the road grows darker, he keeps walking. And he doesn’t walk this road away from us, but for us.
So perhaps the invitation of Palm Sunday is not to choose between joy and sorrow, celebration and suffering.It is to allow one to lead into the other. To let our palm-waving faith grow into something deeper.
Something steadier. Something that can still trust, even when the road is uncertain.
Because this week, we are not simply remembering a story as spectators. We are being invited into it.
It’s very easy to stay at the edge of Holy Week. To have Palm Sunday… and then jump straight to Easter Day. But if we do that, we miss the road in between.
And it’s along that road that the love of God is most clearly seen; in the quiet of a meal shared with friends; in the darkness of a garden filled with fear; in the pain and injustice of the cross. This is not an easy journey, but it’s a real one.
So the invitation this morning is this: not to do more. Not to feel guilty. Not to prove anything. But just to come a little further along the road. If you can, come to one of the services this week. Come and sit, and listen, and pray. Come and watch the story unfold. Because something changes when we take the time to be there. The story becomes less something we hear…and more something we begin to inhabit. As we walk it—however hesitantly, however imperfectly—we discover this:
That the one who entered Jerusalem to our cheers is the same Jesus who walks through suffering, who faces the cross, and who does not turn back. And he walks that road not away from us—but to meet us, to carry us, and to bring us through.
This Holy Week, can I encourage you not to rush past the story but to walk it. Even a step or two – and see where it leads.
Mtr Fiona Jack – Chaplain
Please click this link to read previous sermons: https://allsaintstenerife.org/all-saints-midweek-letters/
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