The churches together in Pudsey did a silent walk of witness today. As we rounded the final bend and approached St Lawrence Church, we walked past this felled tree.

To me it was an arresting sight. It brought home the reality of the cross. I realised that the cross Jesus hung on was indeed a tree. It wouldn’t have been carefully hewn. It would have been a rough tree trunk like this.

As Paul writes in Galatians 3:13:

Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.

We adore you O Christ and we bless you because
by your cross you have redeemed the world.

Holy God,
Holy and strong,
Holy and immortal,
Have mercy upon us.