Mount Vernon News

MOUNT VERNON — Holy Week is an eventful week in the life of local churches. It begins with Palm Sunday on the Sunday before Easter, which symbolizes Jesus’ triumphal entry into the city of Jerusalem.

Next is Maundy Thursday, in observance of Jesus’ arrest by Roman soldiers after a Passover meal with his disciples. The symbolic observance of that meal continues in the present-day communion, or Eucharist, sacrament. “Maundy” is Latin for “commandment.”

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Many church offices are closed on Good Friday, in remembrance of the day Jesus was crucified. Both Thursday and Friday are days of solemn, sometimes sad, contemplation for Christians, as they remember Jesus’ painful sacrifices and death.

“Sometimes I wish we could just skip over Thursday and Friday, and go right to the resurrection,” the Rev. R. Keith Stuart told his congregation during First Congregational United Church of Christ’s Maundy Thursday service, which included the serving of communion.

Good Friday services at the Fredericktown Freewill Baptist Church included communion and foot-washing, in remembrance of Jesus’ washing of his disciples’ feet to show them his commitment to serving others. During that act of servitude, he also reminded the congregation it should serve in the same humble way.

“We try to do things similar to what the Passover would have been when Jesus observed it with his disciples,” said the Rev. Aaron Boggs about the Freewill Baptist Good Friday service. “We sit down at the table in groups of 12. We have the bread and the grape juice. Then we have worship, then we have the foot washing. The men wash the men’s feet and the women wash the women’s feet. It’s a wonderful service.”

Following such solemnity, Easter morning — which symbolizes Jesus’ resurrection and ends the sacrifices of Lent — brings great joy. Many churches will hold early morning sunrise services — outdoors if the weather is warm — followed by breakfast, then continue with regular worship and Sunday School classes.

Colorful spring flowers play an important role in observing Easter. It is traditional to decorate a church sanctuary with lilies, hyacinths and tulips, which are then taken home by parishioners to decorate their houses.

All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church in Bellville will observe “flower communion” on Easter morning, a ceremony the members look forward to, said Bill Millikin, a member of the church.

“Rather than a sacrament kind of communion, we do a communion with flowers,” he said. “Everyone brings a flower and we put them in vases by the pulpit, when we come into the church. There’s a reading that goes with that, about the purpose of it. Then when we leave, we take home a flower that we didn’t bring. It’s a beautiful little ceremony.”

At First Congregational, a new Easter morning tradition — begun last year — is the “flower cross,” a six-foot wooden cross covered in mesh wire. Church members will bring their own flowers or, since Easter is early this year, flowers will be purchased from a florist. One by one, those attending the service will come forward, as sacred music plays, and tuck a flower or two into the wire, gradually, and beautifully, filling the cross with colorful petals.