Services for Good Friday take place throughout the day at our churches in the Launde Deanery Community – See all the details here:

Good Friday and Easter Sunday

Two services at St Peter’s Church this Easter and a family service for children at Thorpe Langton on Sunday 12th April, as some of our families are away over the holidays. Everyone welcome.

• Good Friday Reflection, 2pm – 3pm and
• Easter Sunday 5th April 11.00am

Good Friday

Good Friday is the most sombre and saddest day of the Christian calendar. We remember Jesus’s death upon the Cross; the most brutal end to life we could imagine. We remember his sacrifice, his promises and kindness to the prisoner crucified with him and the awful moment we all feel at times, that God, his father abandoned him in his greatest hour of need.

Why is it Called Good Friday?

This strange name for something so horrendous seems almost cruel in its irony. The reason for this paradox perhaps, lies in the evolution of our language and the way words change their meaning over time. The word ‘good’ in older times also meant ‘pious’ and reflected personal behaviour. In other words, ‘being good’. So ‘Good Friday’ was a day to observe, pray, fast and remember the death of Jesus. To be ‘good’ on that Friday and behave appropriately, as we would when a loved-one dies, seems more understandable in that context.

The real reason why Good Friday is ‘Good’

‘Good Friday’ though has always been about hope in the worst of times. The word, ‘good’ is used for this day, because Jesus’s dreadful death was not the end. In fact, it was the beginning. Jesus’s suffering and death on his cross was the last sacrifice. Everyone who comes to him will find salvation and love.

The most beautiful gift of love and new life, which can be described with only one word…GOOD

Good Friday for children

Traditionally, in the UK, Good Friday is marked by eating hot cross buns – a lovey soft bread flavoured with cinnamon and marked with crosses, served hot and oozing with butter! A super treat after six weeks of restraint during Lent. Hot cross buns are on sale everywhere and throughout the year, but to enjoy one on Good Friday is a real treat.

Making an Easter Garden

Making an Easter Garden, or drawing or painting one is a lovely Good Friday activity. These miniature gardens are made simply on a plant pot tray, with a little plant pot disguised as the tomb, with a cloth inside and a stone cover. This stone comes off on Easter Sunday. The surrounding tray is filled with little plants or grass to represent the hill and topped with the three crosses, of Jesus and the two men crucified alongside him.

More details can be found here

The Church of England has a really useful guide online called Good Friday Fact File which you might enjoy reading