Four church congregations join together for service

MORE than 100 people gathered in Market Place, Henley, at noon on Good Friday for an interdenominational service led by four churches.

Jo Bray, leader at Henley Baptist Church, started the service reading from Psalm 22.

She said: “This is an ancient Psalm that’s prophesying what is going to happen to Jesus in the future and so even in the first line it says the words that Jesus used on the cross, so it’s a very meaningful Psalm for Good Friday.” The congregation then sang When I Survey after which Rev Glyn Millington, the minister of Christ Church, read from Mark 15.

Sam Brewster, the vicar of Trinity Church, then led a sermon. He said: “The events of the first Good Friday, what they did to Jesus, same old, and we see the same things going on today don’t we?

“In this world, the same old. We see it all around us and here’s the basic dynamic at play. It’s an old story that has just worked its way through the years of human history which is this — the powerful sacrifice the weak to benefit themselves.

“So, Putin starts a war to make a land grab — same old. A teenager mocks someone in class because it makes him feel better about himself — same old. A business skews the figures to increase profit for the year — same old. A tech firm wilfully hooks vulnerable teenagers on their products so that they can increase the profit for that year and their user base — same old.

“In a world of same old, here is something totally new, not the powerful sacrificing the weak to benefit themselves, but Jesus, sacrificing himself to benefit the weak — that’s us.”

Rev Canon Paul Fitzpatrick, the vicar of Sacred Heart, then led the group in the Lord’s Prayer, before the service finished with a rendition of There is a Redeemer.