Vicar’s April Letter

Dear friends,

“Cancel Easter, everyone. Trust us, after hearing the bombshell we’re about to drop, you won’t feel like celebrating anything ever for the rest of time.”

The above is not my view! This is a quote from an US online news site and refers to the recent argument about the change to the chocolate in Cadbury’s Creme Eggs. If you haven’t been aware of this (perhaps because you have been on holiday on the moon) then I will explain. After many years of the shell of Cadbury’s Creme Eggs being made from Cadbury’s Dairy Milk, the recipe has been changed this year and there is great controversy about the new chocolate which is generally felt to be not as good (by a long way).

The story has been covered by the BBC, in most UK national papers, online and in social media with headlines including ‘The Cadbury’s Creme Egg scandal’ and ‘Cadbury’s Creme Egg chocolate controversy’. Some of the comments on social media also talk about Easter being ruined, echoing the sentiments of the US site quoted above. I am not a Creme Egg fan, but I do love Cadbury’s Dairy Milk (particularly in its Fairtrade formats!) so I can sympathise with those who are upset.

Headlines and social media comments are often intended to be somewhat controversial to attract attention, but I am interested in the association between Easter and chocolate and the thought that problems with our favourite chocolate would ruin our Easter.

Obviously, Easter isn’t really about chocolate. Or eggs. Or bunnies. Or even daffodils. The reason we have associations between eggs, bunnies and daffodils and Easter is because they provide images of new life. We could easily write this off as being to do with Spring and the fact that Easter occurs at this time of year, but obviously the idea of new life is tightly bound with the theology of Easter. At a simple level we could associate new life with the resurrection of Jesus on that first Easter Sunday and this is probably where the images come from. But for Christians, the real message of new life associated with Easter is that through what Jesus did for us on the cross we have the opportunity for new life, with Jesus, with God the Father, starting now and lasting on into eternity.

That’s Good News! Always has been. Always will be. No change. Ever. So let’s not cancel Easter.

If you are a Creme Egg fan, I hope you are not too upset by the Creme Egg ‘scandal’. I hope you enjoy some chocolate eggs and bunnies and have daffodils in your garden and home over Easter. But more than anything I hope you have found new life in Jesus. If you would like to talk about this, please get in touch. It would be great to celebrate Easter with you at one of our services.

Have a joyous and life-filled Easter.

God Bless,

Mike