Foot-washing ritual recalls Jesus' Last Supper
By BARBARA KARKABI
Houston (TX) Chronicle
April 5, 2007
As soon as the Rev. Reagan Cocke finished, Adams moved to a chair at the front of the chapel. He took a towel from a colorful stack, carefully removed his socks and shoes and placed his feet in a plastic bowl.
Cocke, associate rector of St. John the Divine Episcopal Church, kneeled in front of Adams.
He poured water from a pitcher over Adams' feet, then slowly wiped them with a towel before moving on to the next.
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Ancient story revived
HILLARY BORRUD
Victorville (CA) Daily Press
April 5, 2007
VICTORVILLE — Christian congregations swell each year on Easter, often one of the two most highly attended days of worship during the year.
It is a time to make occasional worshippers feel welcome, and keep the faithful engaged with innovative reprisals of a story that they hear every year.
Not surprisingly, this can be a challenging and stressful time for clergy.
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Somber walk crowns local Lenten services
April 7, 2007
Dawn Cribbs
McCook Daily Gazette
Icy sidewalks and freezing temperatures did not deter 14 hardy souls from taking the annual Way of the Cross pilgrimage into downtown McCook Friday, nor did it deter the 81 attendees from the Good Friday service that followed at First Congregational Church.
A solemn atmosphere pervaded the sanctuary at the First Congregational Church as the Rev. Sam Williams, rector at St. Alban's Episcopal Church fulfilled the office of celebrant and evangelist, leading the congregation through the Good Friday service and the traditional reading of the Passion of the Lord Jesus Christ according to the Gospel of John. The Rev. Jason VanPelt, associate pastor at McCook Christian Church, served as intercessor and spoke the part of Jesus.
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Pastor discusses control at Good Friday breakfast
By Chris Buckley
VALLEY INDEPENDENT
April 6, 2007
CARROLL TOWNSHIP - "All of us can find times in our lives when we had no control," the Rev. William Ilgenfritz told people attending the 45th annual Mon Valley YMCA Good Friday breakfast.
"But we can find comfort in knowing that God is in control."
Even on Good Friday, when everything seemed out of control and it was hard to find something good about it, Jesus was in control, the pastor of St. Mary Episcopal Church in Charleroi said.
On Good Friday, Ilgenfritz noted, Peter denied Jesus and other apostles ran away when Jesus was arrested. Jesus later was struck by a soldier without provocation, and he is ultimately crucified.
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Christ's suffering remembered
Stations of the Cross recount the story of the final days of Jesus
By Christine Pizzuti
The Poughkeepsie (NY) Journal
April 7, 2007
A small, intimate group walked and sang together at St. Paul's Episcopal Church on Good Friday, the day Christians honor Jesus Christ's last hours at Calvary.
Pieces of artwork depicting the historical day decorated the walls and led worshippers through stained glass lighting and past the Stations of the Cross.
"Yesterday, he was betrayed. Today, he was crucified," said Cynthia Benjamin, a Town of Poughkeepsie resident who participated in the service.
Benjamin is originally from St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands, where Good Friday is a national holiday, and so are Holy Thursday and Easter Sunday. She said when she moved to Poughkeepsie, she couldn't believe how little recognition the day receives here.
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'It's a rebirth'
Berkshire (MA) Eagle
April 7, 2007
Cries of "Let's see your arm," "Heads up" and "Watch out" filled St. Stephen's Episcopal Church on East Street last night as the congregation held its second annual "Chucking of the Sacred Tennis Balls" event to decorate the inside of the church for the Easter holiday.
The inside of the red brick church is adorned with ornate wooden buttresses that climb to the ceiling. And it was artist-in-residence Jim Day who came up with the idea last year to attach fishing line to tennis balls to help string banners and streamers across the rafters.
"It's uplifting. We use the colors of the Easter season, gold and white," Day said. "The idea is to get people looking up."
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Today's sermon is big
Ministers find keys to message for Easter crowds in surprising moments
By ANITA WADHWANI
The Tennessean
04/08/07
To some preachers, the right words come at unexpected moments: mowing the lawn, waking from a Saturday afternoon nap, doodling in a spiral notebook.
Others turn directly to prayer and the Bible, surf the Internet, and fill their trashcans with draft after discarded draft of their Easter Sunday sermons.
In the flurry of public duties that fill the holiest week in the Christian calendar — extra services and Easter egg hunts among them — pastors also faced the largely solitary task of crafting one of the most important sermons of the year.
Delivered this morning in churches across Middle Tennessee, it's a message that must convey the biggest story Christianity has to offer, delivered before the largest congregations pastors will have all year. Ministers know that many will hear only this one sermon until — maybe — next year.
"I'm partially terrified of getting in the way of the message and partially elated at the opportunity to get to preach the best thing the church has to offer," said Episcopal priest Matt Greathouse, 37, who will preach the first Easter Sunday sermon of his career today.
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Easter shares special meaning for priest fighting cancer
BY ALLISON KENNEDY
Ledger-Enquirer
HAMILTON, Ga.
Apr. 08, 2007
If Easter Sunday means new life -- budding flowers, chirping birds and white cloth draped over crosses -- the Rev. Beverley McEachern seems to have found it. But not just in these visible ways. She has hit on rich soil through cancer. To get to Easter, Christians have to go through Good Friday, and McEachern's own Good Friday has been a nearly five-year battle with a deadly disease.
This Episcopal priest, wife, mother and grandmother, recently announced to leaders of her congregation at St. Nicholas that she's going on part-time disability. That means she will almost completely step out of her church duties and concentrate on healing. Every few months, she will re-assess. For the past year, she was unable to predict week to week how she'd feel on Sundays, and often had to scramble to secure a substitute. She's spending Easter in the hospital, following weeks of treatments that left her fatigued and malnourished.
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Church ushers in Easter with traditional splendor
The Record
Sunday, April 8, 2007
By JOHN CHADWICK and MONSY ALVARADO
St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Teaneck replaced its somber Good Friday garb with Easter finery Saturday as more than a dozen volunteers pitched in to complete the dramatic transformation.
Gone were the black veils over the tabernacle and the altar crosses. In their place were white and gold linen on the altar and rows of purple, pink and white flowers.
The makeover -- from dark and barren to bright and joyful color -- was the church's way of welcoming Easter, the day when Christians commemorate the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
"It's transformed into a garden," said Shirley Robinson of Teaneck, one of more than a dozen volunteers readying the church for evening and today's services. "He's risen."
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Kids at St. Andrew’s fill up Easter baskets
By Corrinne Hess
Daily Herald Staff Writer
April 09, 2007
In many churches across the country Sunday, worshipers remembered the Resurrection.
At St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Grayslake, 10-year-old Leah Dahlstrom planned her strategy.
“We got here late, so I was able to see where they were all hidden,” Leah said, smiling and holding up a plastic bag filled with candy. “I bet I found 60 eggs.”
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Because He Lives
By: DEREK HODGES
April 09, 2007
Easter holiday customs vary
Easter is known as a time of tradition and, to be sure, there are some that a large majority of those who celebrate the holiday keep. From Easter dinner with ham to egg hunts with a bunny, there are some things that are universally accepted as part of the annual spring holiday.
However, when it comes to the religious side of the holiday, traditions are as widely varied as is each Christian denomination. There are even traditions specific to certain congregations and even certain families within each church.
"Easter is a time of symbolism and traditions and we have as many traditions as everybody else," Charles Livermore, rector of Trinity Episcopal Church in Gatlinburg, said. "Some of the things we do would certainly seem unique to folks in other denominations, though we are all Christians."
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