While Easter Sunday has come and gone, the glorious day remains on my heart. 
Thank you to everyone who helped make Holy Week so meaningful. 
I hope and pray that Easter Sunday was an uplifting day for you as well.

It’s always interesting to hear about church traditions when coming to serve a new congregation as a settled Pastor.  I can remember having conversations about the Holy Week and Easter traditions here at CFC when I first arrived, and about how important it was to some of our church members to offer the sunrise service at Lake Hayward on Easter Sunday.  Now I am not a morning person by nature, and I recall thinking that this was going to be a real challenge—to be awake enough to lead a service that early!  Plus, in New England you just never know about the weather and what any given early morning will be like in the spring. 

Though I have found that the Easter Sunrise service at Lake Hayward has become a beloved tradition for me too.  Because there is something special about hearing, “Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they came to the tomb” (Mark 16:2) while outside in the darkness of an early morning.  Somehow the setting helps us understand and feel on a sensory level just how miraculous it would have been for the women to discover that empty tomb just after sunrise. 

Don’t get me wrong, I also love the pomp and circumstance of our Easter Sunday service in the sanctuary.  The trumpet and the flowers make my heart soar.  I love hearing and singing the Hallelujah Chorus, offering Communion to our members and many guests, and the kiddos running around the front yard after worship to find Easter eggs.  I love preaching to a full sanctuary, even more so after preaching to a phone and then a mostly empty sanctuary during the height of the pandemic.  What joy to witness the blessings of community.

All of this to say, it’s wonderful to offer both services here at Colchester Federated Church. 
That’s what I’ve been thinking about this week as I wrap up my seventh Holy Week here.
And there’s a reason why some of us love attending both services every year.
It’s a blessing to celebrate Resurrection outside and inside, on a lakeside beach as the sun is rising and in an old historic sunlit sanctuary. 

Happy Easter! 

Love,
Pastor Lauren

Thursday Thoughts 4/4/24

Photos by Steve Bradstreet