BY DENNIS BARTLOW
DANVILLE
Tue, May 13 2008
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Today is Easter, the highest day in the Christian calendar.
Worshippers will flock to churches this morning. Many of them will hear the story they have heard over and over. For a few, it may be the first time they have heard the Resurrection story.
“The story of Easter is so marvelous,” said the Rev. Daniel Fienen, pastor of Immanuel Lutheran Church, 1930 N. Bowman Ave. “You don’t have to be creative. It is easy. People know the story.”
Fienen will culminate his Lenten messages this morning on tears.
We will go from tears of sorrow to tears of joy,” he said. “The women were shedding tears of sorrow on that morning until Jesus said, ‘I am alive.’”
Fienen said the service is pretty traditional. An earlier sunrise service will be followed by the youth serving breakfast.
The Rev. Connie Tapp Bandy, new pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Westville, will culminate five Holy Week services this morning by focusing “on how the Resurrection is a sign of new life. This is the first day of the new age, possibly a new life.”
The Westville church began the traditional Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday and Good Friday services, but Bandy, who graduated from Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis last summer, added an Easter vigil Saturday night, which began outside before moving into the sanctuary.
Bandy said today’s Easter message will be her first. She gave a Palm Sunday sermon while serving as an intern at First Presbyterian Church in Urbana.
Second Church of Christ probably experiences the biggest change today, as the congregation moves from three worships at its location at 3350 E. Voorhees St. to one service at 10 a.m. at the David S. Palmer Arena, 100 W. Main St.
“One of our main reasons is to invite people who don’t normally attend church and would feel more comfortable in a setting like this,” said Drew Mentzer, senior pastor. This is the 14th year that Second Church of Christ has taken its Easter service to the arena.
Mentzer’s theme this morning will center on “Great Expectations.”
“Easter means we have great expectations,” Mentzer said. “I am going to preach a simple message. People come with expectations.”
The Rev. Jerry Cummins, pastor at First Baptist Church, 1211 N. Vermilion St., said his congregation doesn’t make a lot of changes on Easter.
“Really every Sunday in Easter, but Easter is definitely the emphasis (today),” he said. “I don’t change a lot on Easter.”
His message will center around the Resurrection story.
“Easter is an old, old story,” he said. “We need to make application of the message.”
The church choir will present an Easter cantata tonight.
The Rev. David Anderson, pastor of First Church of the Nazarene, 2212 N. Vermilion St., will preach his first Easter message after 18 years as the church’s minister of music.
He was named pastor after the Rev. Jerry Short retired.
Anderson’s theme will be “It is a New Day.”
“I am going to talk about what the Resurrection is,” he said. “It will be a special service, and we will have special music.”
The church is not doing its typical Easter musical this year.
“The key is simplicity,” said the Rev. Thomas Hoehner, pastor of the Covington (Ind.) United Methodist Church. “It will just be a simple message of salvation.”
FAST FACTS
Easter is always the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox.
The vernal equinox is the first day of spring and usually falls on March 20, 21 or 22. It is the day when the sun is moving north and its rays fall vertically on the equator.
So Easter is the first Sunday after the first full moon after the first day of spring. It may be as early as two days after the vernal equinox if the date of a full moon is the first day after the vernal equinox and the second day is Sunday. It may be as early as March 22 or as late as April 25.
Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, which is 40 days, not counting Sundays, before Easter Sunday.
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