THE Rev Pat Allerton shot to fame in lockdown as The Portable Priest.
Videos of him cycling the streets with speakers on his bike, encouraging people to join him in song and prayer, went viral.
This Easter, Pat – vicar of St Peter’s Church in Notting Hill, West London – offers a special message for The Sun, reminding us why, no matter what is going on in the world, Easter is a time of hope.
TODAY is Good Friday, when we remember the crucifixion and death of Jesus Christ.
Betrayed, falsely accused, condemned, flogged and nailed to a cross.
“Good” seems a strange way to describe it! So why do we call it “good”?
It’s because it answers our deepest hopes and fears.
But it takes Easter Sunday to show us how.
So put yourself in the shoes of those earliest disciples. They’d seen their leader brutally killed and feared they could be next.
Anxiety filled their hearts. ‘Good’ was certainly not a word they’d use to describe that day.
And there are plenty of reasons for us to feel similarly anxious today. War in Europe. War in the Middle East. The cost-of-living crisis. AI taking our jobs (vicars are fairly safe, I’m told!). Who’ll start at No10 for England! No wonder we’re all strung out.
That’s not to mention our own stresses: health, finance, family, hair loss!
It’s enough to make you wonder if there is any good news about.
The message of that first Easter is a joyful YES! Because although things looked dark on Friday, Sunday was coming. And with it, the resurrection of Jesus from the dead and the hope it opens up. And in that one historical event, everything changed.
Because it meant that Jesus’s sacrifice had worked. Evil has been defeated. Sin has been paid for. We can be forgiven and eternal life can be ours. Sound like good news to you?
I’ve been a Christian 29 years and I promise it never loses its shine. But can we really know it is true, this hope beyond the grave?
Up until the 15th Century, no one knew whether it was possible to sail around the Cape of South Africa. It was the edge of the map, the bottom of the world. It was called the Cape of Storms due to the weather, meaning that every ship that had ever tried either turned around or was shipwrecked.
And so people speculated about whether it was possible to get across and what they might find on the other side. Nobody knew.
Until Vasco da Gama, who in 1497 sailed around the Cape of Storms, making it to India. How do we know he got to the other side? Because he came back.
He had spices from India to prove it. So they renamed it the Cape of Good Hope.
And death is like that. None of us knows what’s on the other side of it. The only way we could possibly know was if someone went there and came back.
And that’s exactly what Jesus did. He went through death on our behalf but rose again and is alive forever more. He offers life and peace to all who come to him. Which is why we call it “Good Friday”.
Happy Easter.
