Hi All

This month we celebrate Ascension Day. It is one of the lesser celebrated parts of the Christian calendar. Whilst at theological college we used to process from college, through a local wood to a hill top, there to remember the Ascension of Christ. Whilst serving as a school governor in Wigan, we had a church service in the local Anglican Church on Ascension Day. It was however slightly strange. How do you teach 4-10 year olds what the theological meaning of this story is?

Yet of course there is a kind of necessity about this event. Imagine if Jesus’ body was still here physically. That in itself would have created a kind of body worship culture. When we visited Tienanmen Square a few years ago, there was literally a queue of thousands of people waiting to pass by the tomb of Chairman Mao.

The Ascension reminds us that it is in each of us that the life of Christ goes on. As St Teresa of Avila said Christ has no body but yours, no hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes with which He looks compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which He walks to do good. Yours are the hands, with which He blesses all the world.

Christ is alive! No longer bound to distant years in Palestine, He comes to claim the here and now, and conquer every place and time. We continue in the season of Easter to live as people, who know that Christ is alive and seeking to live through us, to God’s praise and glory.

Yours

Andy

This reflection by Rev. Andy Halstead was originally published in the May 2022 Monthly Letter.