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| Front Cover to the Traditional Order of Service |
Alleluia, Christ is risen!
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| Hand Bell Choir practising |
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| Front of Decatur First UMC |
It was wonderful that I may be the other side of the Atlantic, and yet the celebration of Easter includes familiar elements reminding me that it is the same risen Saviour whom we all worship. I had intended to start the day with the sunrise service on the Square in Decatur. However, I didn't make it (not to do with the fact that I couldn't get up in the morning!) as the weather was awful the night before, and the forecast was not good for Easter Sunday morning. So, instead, my Easter Sunday celebrations began with the 8.45am traditional service. This is usually a quieter service with not too many people present. However, the church was fairly full, even though there was a repeat at 11. Everybody turned up in their Sunday best, which is something I think happens less of in churches in the UK these days, and was lovely to see. Even the children were in suits, or shirts and bow ties. It gave the impression that this was something important to which people were coming.
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| Choir and others singing Handel's Messiah |
The full church choir were present as were one of the hand bell choirs and a brass ensemble with timpani! So the service began with a resounding fanfare sounding Voluntary on brass and organ which set the tone for an fantastic service. The opening hymn was Christ the Lord is Risen Today which with the choir, brass and organ lifted the whole congregation. Also in the service, and most importantly for me, we sang Low in the grave he lay (Up from the grave he arose). My judgement on an Easter Sunday worship service is based solely on whether we sang that hymn! What made this even better was that our organist, despite apparently not liking the hymn (as we found out during the sermon) re-wrote the music so that there were organ, brass, choral and timpani parts to make the chorus even more uplifting than it usually is. Any members of the congregation who wished to were invited to join the choir in the choir loft at the close of the final hymn because, after the Benediction, the choir and those who responded all sang Hallelujah from Handel's Messiah which gave a fitting end to the worship.
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| The empty cross |
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| The completed cross |
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| Dressing the cross |
After the service was over many went downstairs to join with those for the 11am service who had arrived early for something called 'Easter Eats' (so was definitely going to appeal to me!). It was a time of fellowship over cakes and other finger foods instead of the usual Sunday School classes that many attend. However, I didn't have long to enjoy these as I had to make my way over to the chapel for the Come As You Are (CAYA) service. This was definitely different in tone to the first service, yet it was still evident that many people had put on their Easter finery for the service. CAYA is the more contemporary service at Decatur First and so gone was Handel's Messiah replaced by a praise band playing more contemporary worship songs. The atmosphere was more relaxed and the celebration more informal. One of the great things they did was to dress the cross. During the first couple of songs people were invited up to place flowers in the cross. Some had brought flowers from their own gardens, others used those provided by the church. It was powerful to see this cross transformed in just a few minutes. The sermon was entitled 'Water Flowing Uphill' about how ridiculous the whole resurrection story really is. Yet it continues to be believed because people experience it, rather than because they can ever be convinced of it rationally.
After the service I had time to go home and get changed into something more casual before going out for lunch. The Mobley family who had kindly invited me round for Christmas Day dinner, repeated the offer - so I obviously can't be too bad a guest. It was so nice to be part of a family at Easter and share in a traditional Southern dinner. We had smoked meats, spinach casserole, pineapple casserole, corn casserole, potato salad, green beans - and then they brought out various chocolate pies and cakes for dessert! I'm fairly sure we all finished the day feeling fairly full!
The day certainly was a celebratory way to start the 50 day Easter Festival!
He is risen indeed, Alleluia!
