UMs plan special celebrations for Easter


Churches schedule
musicals, novel rite
during Holy Week


By Rachel L. Toalson
Staff Writer
When asked what his out-of-the-ordinary Easter service would do for his congregation, the Rev. D. Stephen Clinton simply chuckles.
The pastor of First UMC, Weslaco, has already seen its results.
Clinton offered his community a Christmas musical he had written. It drew about 470 people—more than the church’s Easter attendance any prior year.
Many of those who visited the church for the Christmas production kept coming back, Clinton said.
“I think we’re finally starting to get into the community,” he said. “And we have developed some wonderful talent here.”
Clinton plans a sequel for Easter. It is one of many special events on tap in congregations across Southwest Texas for Holy Week and Easter to celebrate Christ’s resurrection, the most holy event in the Christian year.
The Weslaco Christmas musical—for which Clinton said he “borrowed” choral and contemporary Christian songs—featured a view of the wise men’s journey to Bethle-hem—including the men’s wives and teenagers. The dialogue followed the wise men’s take on their lengthy trip and what their wives and teenagers thought about it.
The Easter musical is part two. It picks up 33 years later with the wise men’s now-grown children telling others about how Jesus provided more wine at a wedding and created enough food for a multitude using fish and bread borrowed from a little boy (whom Clinton has named Timothy).
Clinton ends the story in Bethany, with everybody crying because Jesus has been crucified and Lazarus telling them that he would rise again.
“A Promise Kept,” which includes 54 singers and actors, is to be performed at the church April 7 at 6:30 p.m. and again at 10:30 a.m. Easter (April 8). It runs about an hour and 20 minutes and includes five choral and nine contemporary Christian songs, Clinton said.
The Weslaco congregation plans an Easter morning sunrise service as well, he said.
First UMC, Victoria, plans a sunrise service April 8 at Memorial Park Cemetery, across the street from St. Joseph High School, to celebrate Jesus’ resurrection, said Associate Pastor Marilyn Roeder.
Beginning at 6:45 a.m. with “contemplative guitar music and hymn singing,” the service mirrors worship in the catacombs during early Christian times, Roeder said. Worshipers are to hear applicable Bible verses and share the community’s joys and concerns during reflective prayer time. Holy Communion is to be served.
The service is designed as a “spontaneous, from the heart worship time with no bulletin,” Roeder added. It is to close at 7:30.
Roeder said those interested in attending should bring a flashlight and a lawn chair. If weather doesn’t permit outdoor worship, the service is to be in the church’s Wesley Hall.
In addition to the Easter sunrise service, the Victoria congregation is planning a Maundy Thursday service April 5 to mark Jesus’ Last Supper with his disciples the night before his death, said the Rev. J. Jason Fry, senior pastor.
“The focus for Maundy Thursday is Jesus’ washing his disciples’ feet and commanding them to ‘love one another as I have loved you,’” Fry said.
During the service, a pastor is to wash the feet of a representative group of church members—men and women young and old, including a teenager and a child, Fry said. Worshipers are also to celebrate Holy Communion.
For Good Friday the Victoria congregation plans a “Tenebrae” service of shadows April 6, Fry said. As the “passion story” is told, candles are extinguished. After the service, the sanctuary is stripped of all altar pieces and crosses.
The many different services offer something for everyone, Roeder said.
“We do this so that our congregation has an opportunity to do a lot of various things to experience different worship styles—so we might stretch them a little,” she said. “In all of these services, we create an environment where people feel comfortable to worship so they don’t think they’re put on the spot to look at something a certain way.”
Other churches with special worship services for Holy Week and Easter include:
> First UMC, Corpus Christi, which is offering Palm Sunday worship April 1 at 8:30 and 10:50 a.m., with palm waving and hymn singing. The church has also scheduled an African Children’s choir concert at 6 p.m. in the sanctuary.
Maundy Thursday services are planned at 12:10 p.m. April 5 in the church’s chapel and 7 p.m. in the sanctuary. At the close of each service, people are to sit in groups of 12 around a table to share the celebration of the Last Supper.
The chancel choir is to present “The Seven Last Words of Christ,” by Theodore Dubois, April 6 at 7 p.m. in the sanctuary.
Easter worship is planned for 8:30 and 10:50 a.m. in the sanctuary and 10:50 a.m. in the fellowship hall.
> Tarrytown UMC, Austin, is to have an evening Holy Communion and healing service April 4 as well as evening services Maundy Thursday and Good Friday.
> Lytle UMC plans a palm parade during Passion/Palm Sunday April 1. Worshipers are to hear the story of Jesus’ last week in Jerusalem. A covered dish meal is to follow the service.
The Lytle church is to present the worship drama “Transformation: A Living Last Supper” April 5 at 7 p.m.
The church is to have a sunrise service April 8 at 7 a.m. on the front lawn. An Easter egg hunt is to follow during Sunday school beginning at 10 a.m. Before the hunt, children are to see parts of the movie “The Resurrection,” a portrayal of Easter morning.
Easter worship in Lytle is scheduled for April 8 at 8:30 and 10:45 a.m.
> Bracken UMC, Garden Ridge, plans a Good Friday drama and cantata April 6 at 7 p.m. in the church sanctuary. The drama, called “The Living Last Supper,” focuses on the Last Supper and Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross.
> Medina UMC has scheduled a celebration with palms for Palm Sunday April 1, a Maundy Thursday service April 5 at 7 p.m. in the Corky Craddock Cottage and an Easter egg hunt April 7 at 10 a.m.
The church is to have a SONrise service April 8 at 7 a.m. at Deer Creek Camp. A reception and continental breakfast are to follow. An 11 a.m. Easter service is to feature a flower cross.