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Bishop Tricia Hillas
Easter morning as the dawn comes. This day of all days when Christians celebrate their belief that in Jesus Christ death is defeated, despair turns to hope and new life begins.

To help explore and embrace aspects of Easter old and new we shall make our way through parts of the Isle of Man, set in the midst of the Irish Sea. We will journey from the mountain top to the shoreline, taking inspiration from the Island’s evocative landscapes, the lives of her saints and the faith of her people today.

We begin here on Snaefell, the mountain which is the highest point of the ancient and sacred Isle of Man. An Island unique, ancient and timeless, steeped in faith,                       enduring as these hills, fertile as the plains and as expansive as the sea.

This proud nation’s national anthem describes this Island as a ‘gem of God’s earth’ and it certainly rings true from here. From this place the whole Island and far beyond unfolds beneath us. On a clear day we can, it is said, see seven kingdoms from this spot: Man itself, England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, the kingdom of the sea and the Kingdom of Heaven.

Music
Ellan Dunnal (Courageous Island)
Manx Folk Musician David Kilgallon and friends

As in many places Christians on this island have kept a long-standing tradition of rising early, and making their way up to the heights of South or North Barrule, Sileau Whallian and Snaefell itself. Evoking the journey of the women going to the tomb that first Easter Day, in the half-light; longing and waiting for the dawn.

After the turmoil of the events of Holy Week, the crowds at the entry to Jerusalem, the turning of the tables in the Temple, the betrayal, arrest and trials of Jesus culminating in his being lifted up on a Roman cross and his brutal death. So it seemed all was over, finished. The night had fallen hard and was at its deepest. Disappointment and despair.

And then, when Christ’s followers had reached their nadir everything changed. Unbelievable, growing, creeping, dawning hope burst forth into life.

Music
Now the green blade riseth - Trad. arr. Simon Lindley
Sung by Peel Cathedral Choir

Throughout Scripture the hills are a place of encounter and the revelation of God. Moses received the commandments on Mount Sinai, Jesus preached on a mount, and on a hilltop was lifted on the cross. The hills so often the setting for heaven and earth to meet, calling us to look upward, beyond our despair and disappointment, beyond even ourselves, to the One who holds all in being and who makes all things new; Jesus the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.

The disciples in the days after the crucifixion had felt lost, afraid. Their encounters with Jesus, risen, alive turned sorrow to amazement and joy. They were gifted a new vision – one that changed our world forever.

Sunrise here on Snaefell, from where seven kingdoms can be seen, invites us to seek an ever wider and higher vision. In particular to catch such a vision of the kingdom of heaven, that we shall grasp and be grasped by God’s vision of justice and love for the people of this Island and far beyond.

Music
Now the green blade riseth - Trad. arr. Simon Lindley (final verse)
Sung by Peel Cathedral Choir

The saints, the followers of Jesus Christ who came to the Island in our deep history, were just such people who were grasped by that wider, higher vision of God and who came expending themselves out of love for God and neighbour.

Reflection: Rev Ian Faulds
It’s a wonderful prospect, isn’t it!? We can imagine the men and women who left home and country to bring the kingdom of heaven to this place, long known as the ‘Holy Isle’ because of their courage and endeavour. From this mountain top we can almost see the north-eastern shoreline, where the Island’s patron saint, Maughold, was washed onto the rocks in a frail coracle after a ferocious storm in about 450AD. Wet, hungry and manacled, after being expelled from Ireland as a criminal, he had a burning passion to share his story of forgiveness and transformation.

The Isle of Man’s shores have long been places of pilgrimage, where seekers have come to pray, reflect, and encounter God. The rhythm of the waves, ever-returning, reminds us of Christ’s resurrection—how, even after the darkest night, morning always comes.

Music
Irree ny Greiney (’Sunrise’)  - Bob Carswell arranged by Annie Kissac
Manx Choir

Bishop Tricia Hillas
We leave this exposed summit buffeted by the wind and elements, making our pilgrimage down towards the shoreline at Peel, close to the ancient Cathedral on St Patrick’s Isle. There is a Manx tale which says that the wind will always be at the North-East as Pilgrims enter the Cathedral down there below us. It is also said that if it would be dark a supernatural light would guide them.

We now make our way, Easter pilgrims of the 21st Century walking in the footsteps of those who have walked, lived, visited and worshipped here for over 1,500 years.

Before we leave this place, a prayer:

Risen Lord,
You who were lifted high upon a Roman cross,
Now lift our eyes.
From this high place we pray for clearer vision,
The vision you gave to our saintly forebears
That we might see the world as you do;
Beloved even whilst broken, beautiful and made for resurrection.
May the light of Easter guide us and bring dawning hope to all who long for life.
Amen.

Bells of St German’s Cathedral, Peel

Having greeted the dawn on the mountain, encountered the saints whose lives were rich with Easter faith we approach the shoreline and see before us the outline of St Patrick’s Isle the site of the ancient Cathedral of St German.

We call on the way into the new Cathedral of the isle of Man in Peel, also dedicated to St German. In this newly restored Cathedral the names of the known bishops going back through the centuries are carved into the floor, including mine. It’s a connection between the present, the past and the future. In the present we are rejoicing that over 18,000 people visited the Cathedral for the exhibition of the Moon, young and old from all across the Island, that’s a fifth of the Islands current population walked through these doors to marvel, to be together, to pray and to worship.

Here at the new Cathedral, a prayer:

Lord of all ages,
In this holy place, echoing with the prayers of saints,
We give thanks for those who have gone before us,
Who kept faith when the world trembled.
Teach us, like them, to carry the light of Christ
Into every part of life—into our work, our homes,
Our doubts, and our dreams.
Strengthen your Church,
That she may be a beacon of compassion,
A haven of peace, and a voice of courage
In a world that hungers for resurrection.
Amen.

That old Manx tale about the wind and the light pointing pilgrims in the direction of the Cathedral continues to be a resonant prayer for today, that the light of hope and the wind of the Holy Spirit might point and draw people to the authentic, transforming love of the risen Jesus today.

Music
Exsultet (An Easter Song of Praise)

As we come to the shore there is another unique Manx Easter tradition to mention. Well is about the keeping of Good Friday actually… 

Tradition to gather with family on the shore on Good Friday and to forage for, cook and eat flitters (limpets). They would be eaten in their shells there on the shore. The essential thing was the cooking and eating must be done without the use of any metal. No metal because of the association with the nails with which Christ was crucified. Manx music historians also accept that this tradition was associated with a flitter dance, for which one dance tune still remains. There’s a growing revival of this Good Friday tradition by families with children, and chocolate cooked in limpet shells and marshmallows toasted over the shore fire.

Music
Flitter dance
Manx Folk Musician David Kilgallon and friends

Reading: John 21. 1-14
read by Judith Ley

Reflection: Rev Alex Brown
I love the fact that as a Pioneer Minister here on the Island, I can take elements of things we know Christians have been doing right from the word go, and enable people to experience them fresh in this generation. This actual beach, Fenella Beach, links the ancient city of Peel behind me, to one of our most iconic landmarks in front of me – St Patrick’s Isle. Just a few years ago, we held a service on this beach to open a week of mini pilgrimages to our historic sites where ancient places of worship were dotted across our hills, glens, cliff-edges and fields – we call them Keeills. To begin the week of walks, a monk arrived on a paddle-board from around the Castle, onto the shore. He handed the scriptures to a Viking, who handed them on to an ancient Manx crofter woman, who handed them to a Victorian Mine-worker, who handed them to a teenage girl, and together the five of them walked up to meet the congregation. It was a genuinely emotional moment as we saw visually represented the message of Jesus being handed through the generations.

I think what I also love about meeting as people of faith in the open like this – is the authenticity of it all - for some finding faith, this visceral experience connects them with God – a global movement of Jesus disciples – re-inventing the new, celebrating the ancient.

Music
Now the boats are outward sailing
Peel Cathedral Choir

The journey does not end here. The shore line is not just a destination but a place of arrival, and of embarkation and of connection. Easter does not end here, the pilgrimage goes on.

Easter began not with answers, but with an empty tomb.

With a name spoken in the dawn light.
With a promise: that love is stronger than death.
And so, from the mountain to the Cathedral, to the sea,
We proclaim with the saints of the Isle of Man
and millions of people around the world today:

Alleluia! Christ is Risen. He is Risen Indeed. Alleluia!

‘Bannaghtyn Caisht ort!’ – ‘Easter blessings upon you!’

Music
Jesus Christ is risen today
Peel Cathedral Choir