Displaying items by tag: Europe

This Easter and over the coming months there will be many outreach services, and conferences to encourage the people of God to move on in their faith. Jesus said that one day every nation would not only hear the gospel but be transformed by it. Spring Harvest, New Wine, Hillsong, Creationfest, Newday, Big Church Day Out and Soul Survivor are just a few of the many events happening in showgrounds, churches, country estates, and campsites this year. Pray for every event to be full to overflowing, for God to expand people’s vision of the scope of the gospel, and for renewed and empowered people to leave the events and shine the light of Christ into every area of the lives of those in their communities. Pray for millions of new Christians to be birthed this year across our nation.

In Estonia, Easter has many names: for example Ületõusmispüha (resurrection), Lihavõtted (meat-taking holiday, marking the end of Lent), and Munadepüha (egg holiday). Easter Sunday is celebrated with a long lunch, egg painting, and an Easter egg hunt. Decorated eggs are placed in a basket as a centrepiece for the meal table. After lunch is an egg-knocking competition, creating a new champion each year. Competitors tap their egg against their opponent’s, and the shell that doesn't crack is the winner! Easter customs, like egg-knocking and egg-rolling (with the same aims as egg-knocking), come from old folk traditions. The Joshua Project describes Estonia as non-religious.

Spring cleaning (wiosenne porządki) is associated with the beginning of Lent. On Ash Wednesday believers have their heads marked with ash at a church service; on Palm Sunday they prepare special palms to take to church for a blessing. The blessed palms are kept in the house for the year. Tradition says they protect the household from evil. The following year they are collected and burnt outside the church to provide the ash for Ash Wednesday. On Holy Saturday every household prepares an Easter basket (święconka) full of Easter breakfast foods. The baskets are taken to the church to be blessed, and the contents eaten the following morning. Easter breakfast is the most celebrated Easter meal in Polish culture, dating back to the 7th century. Before the breakfast begins, families share Easter eggs with each other, wishing their relatives all the best.

Easter is celebrated later because the Russian Orthodox church uses the old Julian calendar. On Holy Saturday churches hold night services and organise religious processions around churches. By that time, kulich, the traditional holiday baking symbolising the body of Christ, has already been baked and Easter eggs painted. The morning starts with visiting neighbours and giving Easter eggs. The common phrase on that day is, Khristos voskres! (Christ is risen!), followed by Voistinu voskres (Truly he is risen!) followed by the kiss of peace (triple kissing). Easter is the day of abundant food after the ‘Great Lent.’ A Russian tradition is to deliver gifts to poor families, distant relatives, orphanages, hospitals, prisons and beggars. They say that from Easter to the Ascension Christ, with the Apostles, travels the earth testing everyone for mercy and kindnesses.

Trials, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ: live in London. What are you doing on Good Friday? Buying Easter eggs for the family? Having a much-needed lie-in? The Bible Society are saying, ‘Do it all later! Come and join us in Trafalgar Square for a re-enactment of Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection. Performances by the Wintershall Players take place at 12 noon and 3.15 pm and are free. Come early to get a good spot, and join 20,000 others who are drawn into the astonishing story brought to life before their eyes.’ This year, the performance sees James Burke-Dunsmore mark his twentieth year in the role of Jesus. He told The Daily Telegraph that strangers often come up to him in the street with a bottle of water and ask him to turn it into wine. ‘I’m flattered’, he said. ‘This is a sign in a supposedly indifferent or hostile age that people are interested.’ James weaves his own crown of thorns out of twigs for each performance. And one year, the man playing a soldier nailing him to the cross struck his leg with a hammer, fracturing his leg. He said that he had to shout, ‘Father forgive them!’ and really mean it.

Phil Togwell from Prayerspaces in Schools writes, ‘In the UK last year, more than 200,000 children and young people visited a creative prayer space in their school, and many of them tried praying for the first time in their lives. One 10-year-old wrote in the feedback book, ‘It was fun, and I now see God everywhere I look. God has spoken to me.’ Unless we become like little children ...

Schools are queuing to hear the message of Easter creatively told in an interactive, child-friendly way. Primary pupils in Doncaster - a town statistically at the bottom of the church attendance league table, at just 2% - have been discovering the amazing story of the death and resurrection of Jesus over the past seven years. Christians around the country have been taken by surprise at the openness to the Gospel now found in the teaching establishments of this northern metropolitan borough – geographically the largest outside London but with a population of only 300,000. For the eighth successive year a project known as ‘the Easter Journey’ is being offered to Key Stage 2 pupils, and Tuxford in Nottinghamshire is also now benefitting. 1,300 pupils from eight schools will experience the unique journey through five stages of the Easter story – Palm Sunday, the Last Supper, the Garden of Gethsemane, the Cross and the Resurrection.

Two devout evangelical Christians whose 10-year-old son is in intensive care with a brain tumour are in a High Court battle with doctors. Specialists want a judge to allow them to limit the treatment they provide to the youngster, saying the boy cannot recover and should be made as comfortable as possible without further ‘invasive’ procedures. The boy's parents, who are separated, disagree and say doctors should not limit treatment options. They ‘lavish’ the youngster with love, and play gospel music to him. The judge began considering evidence in the family division of a high court on Tuesday. Lawyers representing the boy's parents said life was ‘precarious and uncertain’, and people sometimes made unexpected recoveries. The parents believe there are things that could be done, but that doctors are giving up.

A man with multiple system atrophy wants to change the law to legalise assisted suicide for anyone with incurable illnesses. Iranian father-of-three Omid is crowdfunding a High Court bid to change the law on assisted suicide. Baroness Campbell, founder of ‘Not Dead Yet UK’, who also has spinal muscular atrophy, believes that the lives of the vulnerable must be protected and assisted suicide should remain illegal. She warned, ‘Changing the law would be a real threat to disabled people’. Omid is 54, his muscles and speech have deteriorated, and he is bed-bound. In 2015 he attempted suicide but failed. His condition is not terminal; he could live another 15+ years. He says that suicide is legal, but he cannot end his life without control in his arms and hands. The court case continues; judgment is expected before Easter.

Two women are killed every week in England and Wales by a current or former partner (Office of National Statistics, 2015). One in four women in England and Wales experience domestic violence in their lifetimes, and 8% will suffer domestic violence in any given year (Crime Survey of England and Wales). Domestic violence has a higher rate of repeat victimisation than any other crime (Home Office). Every minute police in the UK receive a domestic assistance call; police say that there are greater dangers in our nations from domestic violence than terrorism. Yet it remains a hidden danger. 1.8 million adults were victims of domestic abuse last year. Much violence can be due to addictions and mental health problems. We can pray for victims to have the courage to seek help, and for the perpetrators to receive help and deal with their anger in a healthy way. Pray for children who witness or are victims of violence.