Christos Anesti!

Well, after all that the Paschal season at Swanvale Halt passed in great excitement. My aim has been to tweak the services so they conform a bit closer to standard Catholic order, but in fact they haven't needed too much tweaking - the Reception of the Oils added to Maundy Thursday, and communion to Good Friday. Both those liturgies provided me with moments where I almost faltered: washing people's feet at the Mass of the Maundy while the choir sang the Ubi Caritas, and prostrating myself at the start of the good Friday liturgy: I almost couldn't get up again.

The Paschal Liturgy on the night of Holy Saturday was the main new element. There had been a very small Paschal Vigil service some years ago, but my predecessor had abandoned it because so few people came and tried to include elements of the liturgy in the main service on Sunday morning, to universal complaint about how this lengthened the whole thing. It was a bit chaotic, entirely my fault and mainly due to opting for a pianist rather than an organist: the music went haywire from the start. I won't make that mistake again. But we got through it all in just over an hour, perfectly feasible, and had champagne and nibbles afterwards. It would work far, far better early on Sunday morning, which is where I'll plan for it to be next year.

Numbers were up by about a quarter at every service, and communicants at the 10am on Sunday topped 100 for the first time in some years. It would be interesting to see whether this reflects other churches' experience this year.

First photo shows the nave altar and east end of the church set up for the Paschal Liturgy, with the Paschal Candle stand in the middle and the banner which the church has had for several years strung across the chancel arch. I was a bit sceptical about that, but it works really well.
The second snap is the old High Altar, restored to its full Victorian splendour, where we said the eucharist eastward-facing as part of the Paschal Liturgy, to ring the changes and make use of the whole of the church building. The brass candlesticks either side of our lovely old Victorian cross I bought of eBay, and the altar frontal and superfrontal I found in boxes and drawers around the church. 'Yes', said our sacristan, 'I've been trying to lose all that for years', but everyone else seemed to like it!
A relief it's all over. I know that shouldn't be the attitude, but it is!