President's Page

During this month we have much to think about in the churches' year. Being in Lent a fast of forty days (excluding Sundays) from Ash Wednesday to Easter Eve in commemoration of Christ's fasting in the wilderness, then the Sunday before Easter Sunday (Palm Sunday) we think of Christ's entry into Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover which he wishes to eat with his disciples which is now known as the Last Supper. All this leading up to his betrayal, capture and trial which culminated in His death upon the cross.

Despite Jesus' spectacular teachings, healings and exorcisms virtually no one can understand his true identity. Even his disciples who acknowledge him to be the "messiah" appear to be obsessed with the traditional Jewish view that the messiah would be a figure of grandeur and power who would overthrow the forces opposed to God on behalf of God's people, Israel. Jesus was a messiah who had to suffer and die for the sins of the world. Thus even though Jesus predicts his own death no one appears to recognise either that it would happen or what it might mean once it did -until the very end when a pagan soldier at the cross confesses him to be the Son of God. All this can be found in the Gospel According to St. Mark.

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