Good Friday Talk 2024

by Gerry Mulvenna

Many of us have a song that we associate with a particular event, or period, in our life.

It was Easter 1978. I was 15. The song was Mr Blue Sky, by ELO, the Electric Light Orchestra. I bought the record in a shop in Oban. I won’t attempt to sing it, just in case I clear the hall! But, if you don’t know it, you can look for it on YouTube when you get home. Still a great song.

I will always associate that song with a memorable week I spent on the island of Iona. 

I was brought up in Oxgangs and we were blessed to have strong links across the churches. We were equally blessed that the minister in St John’s Parish Church, the Reverend Jack Orr, was a member of the Iona Community.

A group of young people around my age from the Church of Scotland, the Episcopal Church and Catholic Church in Oxgangs went to Iona together. It was on the way to Iona that we stopped in Oban. We had some time before the ferry was due to sail, and that’s how I ended up in the record shop buying Mr Blue Sky! 

On Iona we stayed in the Youth Camp, a short walk from the Abbey. Over the course of that week we prayed, reflected, socialised, ate and worshipped together. And we played Mr Blue Sky frequently on the Youth Camp record player! I know they are making a come-back, but I’m guessing some of the young folk here today might need to ask their grans or grandads what a record player is! It was a powerful experience of practical ecumenism, where I learned there was so much more that unites Christians than keeps us apart; and we learned from one another.   

Roll the clock forward 19 years to 1997, and Carol and I had just been married and moved to a house in Gilmerton, part of the faith community at St John Vianney’s and the emerging South Edinburgh Cluster. We soon learned that we were also part of a very strong ecumenical group of churches under the banner of SEECAT. Over the years we came to know about, and participate in, the many great things that the churches do together in this part of our city. Working together, you get a sense of a strong, visible presence of Christ, and powerful witness to him through things such as:

  • Lent Study Groups
  • The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity
  • Justice and Peace activities such as the Ecogroup (focusing on the ecological and climate crisis), and the Israel-Palestine "See and pray" virtual meetings
  • Days of reflection
  • Retreats
  • Healing services. 
  • Supporting the local food banks

And then there is Holy Week.

On the Monday evening our Passover Meal and Washing of the Feet. Stations of the Cross on the Wednesday. We then come together on Good Friday, starting with our walk of witness, continuing with our open-air service at Morrisons and culminating in our Good Friday service here at Gracemount High School.It was 25 years ago, in 1999, that we gathered for the first time as Christians from our different traditions at 3pm for our Good Friday Service. 

Fr Mike Fallon had raised the possibility of such a coming together at a SEECAT meeting during November ‘98, where it was greeted with some enthusiasm. Fr Mike, Sr Mary Steedman, the Reverend John Young, the Reverend David Dixon and the Reverend Ian Penman then set to work on shaping the service. In the lead up to the service Fr Mike wrote:

“It is clear that there is a frustration about Ecumenical Services in that they are always optional extras, or add-ons. It seems to me so appropriate that we mark the brokenness of the Body of Christ on the very anniversary of its happening. If we were prepared to “give up” or “fast” from Holy Communion on that day then it would be possible to have a truly Ecumenical Service on a major Feast Day with no need to withhold invitation to the Table or compromise positions. It would make a very clear statement that Ecumenism is not optional.”

 

That Good Friday – the 2nd April ‘99 - we gathered in St Catherine’s church. The Reverend John Young preached the homily. I have read the reflections of several people who came together that afternoon. Many wrote of how moving the experience was, some being moved to tears. One person, reflecting on the service, wrote:

“Finally, an old frail priest (Fr Roland Walls) stood up and echoed what we were all feeling: that God by His Spirit was with us that day, and that we had taken a further step along the road to the unity of all Christians. We were not there as members of the Church of Scotland or Episcopalians or as Roman Catholics, but as Christians joined in wonder at the grace of God in giving his Son for us. I walked home on air on that Good Friday – I had been part of something special.”

Over the past 25 years I have spoken to countless people who have shared that same sense of being “part of being something special” when we gather on Good Friday. We are grateful to Fr Mike for his vision and courageous initiative, and to all those in SEECAT for the gift this is to us.

 

I spoke earlier about my trip to Iona and my emerging realisation that there is so much more that unites than separates us as Christians.

So much of what we come together to remember on Good Friday unites us. There are two aspects I would like to briefly focus on.

The first is wonderfully captured by Richard Rohr, a spiritual writer and speaker. He writes:

“The crucifixion of Jesus is the pre-eminent example of God’s love reaching out to us. It is at the same moment the worst and best thing in human history. The cross was a freely chosen revelation of Total Love on God’s part.”

 

This afternoon each of us will come forward and stand at the foot of the Cross, with hearts filled with gratitude for the total and unconditional love that God has for each and every person. That love is an invitation into relationship with our God.

One of our primary callings as Christians is to share, to spread, that Good News of God's love for everyone. So, in God’s Total Love for us there is an invitation to each of us - to respond and witness to that love. 

We can witness powerfully to the Total Love of God for everybody when we come together as Christians of different traditions. 


The second aspect I would like to focus on is the crown of thorns. 

A few moments ago, Kay read from the Gospel of Matthew: “They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand. Then they knelt in front of him and mocked him. “Hail, king of the Jews!”

 

Earlier, when being questioned by Pilate, Jesus had said that his Kingdom was not of this world.

Jesus was not the sort of King the Jewish people expected. If we look to the Gospels and the life and ministry of Jesus, we see clearly what sort of King he was - a Servant King. In a few minutes we will sing: This is our God, the Servant King, he calls us now to follow him. So let us learn how to serve and in our lives enthrone him.

Service of others was at the heart of the life and ministry of Jesus: in the life of Jesus we see God’s love radically lived.

Each of us is called to live a life of service of others, to help build, to advance, the Kingdom of God through our prayer and action.

The Gospels point in all sorts of ways to the service we are called to, but perhaps especially in the parable of the sheep and the goats: I was hungry, and you gave me food; thirsty, and you gave me drink; a stranger and you made me welcome; lacking clothes and you clothed me; sick and you visited me; in prison and you came to see me.

 

That was how Jesus lived his life, how he served. He extends to us an invitation to follow his example of service.

Once again, we can do this powerfully when we come together as Christians to serve those in our communities and the wider world. Working together in Christ’s name was at the very heart of our first shared Good Friday Service 25 years ago; it remains so today.

To finish, perhaps we can turn our thoughts very briefly to how we can build on what we already do. What might the next 25 years hold for us as a community of Christians in this part of Edinburgh? 

I pray and hope that we will still be gathering each Good Friday as Christians. I pray that, led by and filled with the Spirit, we will work ever more closely together, seeking out the needs of those who live in the communities in which we live and responding to those needs, and those across the wider world.

Are not our hearts filled with gratitude this Good Friday for the Total Love of God revealed by the death of Jesus on the Cross. 

Let’s go from here renewed in our commitment, and continue to build, to advance, the Kingdom of God amongst us through following the example of Jesus, our Servant King, and to share that Good News of God’s Total love for all people.