The Rev. Michael Davis, Rector of St. Anne's Church, Southampton, on the events of Easter Week:

Palm Sunday is bathed in the glorious light of victory. We celebrate the Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem with a solemn procession from the church hall down into the church. We remember that Christ set foot on that road which was to lead to his death.

There he stands conqueror and victor. Mother church puts a symbol into our hands, a sign to show that we are Christ's fellow-warriors, that we die with Christ and with him gain victory.

She gives us branches of palm for the festal procession. We carry them in our hands with pride and joy, as we accompany Christ the Warrior, the Conqueror, our Brother, friend through death to resurrection.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of holy Week, we celebrate the Stations of the Cross in church. As we walk the road taken by Jesus our minds once again are moved to compassion and horror and wonder as our thoughts dwell upon the `suffering Servant'.

As we take at step at a time and pause before each station, we need to hear again his own warning admonition. `Weep not for me'. It is the only divine prohibition in the Passion Story.

Maundy Thursday we celebrate in Church that Christ began his sufferings with his agony on Mount Olivet, and Judas imprinted the traitor's kiss upon his cheek.

On this day, too, Christ gave his Church the mystery of love, his own flesh and blood offered in sacrifice, and by washing the feet of his disciples bequeathed a precious legacy to his church: the spirit of loving service

Good Friday is the day when we remember the rallying cry, `It is accomplished' if that cry from the Cross is heard it needs to be heeded by the Church today. That cry will spell an end to that almost morbid self-denigration and defeatism which has marked some sections of the Church for all too long.

Surely, we follow a Christ who, at the moment when men thought they had defeated him, saw that he had defeated the forces of evil and cried. `Accomplished!' Consummated! Achieved! Here is our hope. We who have taken up that cross follow him as heirs of that hope. We lift up our hearts!

On Easter Sunday we remember at all services that, Christ's death and resurrection belong together and are both included in the `Queen of Festivals'. We realise what our Easter resolution must be: A programme which demands all our love and zeal and strength of purpose.

We rise again, with the unleavened bread of purity and sincerity. We remember what the Church has so much at heart: that we should rise again with Christ in the spirit of love.

At Easter Eucharist we pay for this special grace: `Pour into us, Lord, the Spirit of your love, that we, whose hunger you have satisfied with your Easter sacrament, may, by your loving kindness, be made one in heart.

Reprinted from the Diocesan Newsletter of the Anglican church of Bermuda.