Universalis

Sunday 15 April 2007

Low Sunday in Ham

Here is lovely photo of the Easter Garden which is located under the High Altar at St Thomas Aquinas Church, Ham, Richmond, Surrey. This is the church at which I act as deacon on Sunday's.

The scene combines the resurrection accounts from a number of Gospels. We see the stone rolled away, and the angel sitting on top of it. We see the folded grave clothes, and Peter and John peering inside the tomb. We see Mary Magdalene in the garden, and most important of all we see the Risen Lord.

The garden remains in place until Ascension Day (Sunday 20 May), though of course Eastertide continues until Pentecost (Sunday 27 May).

2 comments:

John the organist said...

I like this. St Andrew's has a cute one in the narthex which the children helped to construct. You say this is under the High Altar - can it be seen by the congregation with ease? Is this an altar in the centre of the sanctuary or a High Altar on the wall?

Peter Simpson said...

The Easter Garden is very much in full view of the congregation. Our church is quite a small building, and the main altar is to the front of the sanctuary. When the congragation come to receive Holy Communion they are no more than 10 feet away from the garden!

We have a crib beneath the altar at Christmas (we leave it there for 40 days until Candlemas) and the Easter Garden at Easter (which stays there now for 6 weeks as against 40 days). The rest of the year we have a nice cream, green and gold frontal on the altar.