Alleluia! Christ is Risen!
The season of Eastertide has begun!
The great 50 days where we celebrate resurrection, new life, and hope everlasting.

As Holy Week was nearing we were chatting at staff meeting about what is more stressful for church staff—Christmas or Easter?
It was unanimous—Easter!

Holy Week at Colchester Federated Church features worship services on Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday.
Every service is different!
Different liturgy, different sermons, different bulletins, different music, different liturgical elements needed.
Palm Sunday needs palms, of course.
Maundy Thursday needs Communion prepared.
Good Friday needs stations in place around the sanctuary.
Easter Sunday needs the okay from the good folks at Lake Hayward to even offer the sunrise service and Communion and flowers and singers for the Hallelujah Chorus at the 9 AM service and on and on.
Each service stands on its own and helps tell the story of Jesus’ life and death and resurrection on the holiest week of the year for Christians.

So this Thursday Thought is mostly taking a big deep breath and sharing a great big thank you to our congregation.
This year we needed 6 readers for Maundy Thursday, 6 readers for Good Friday, and readers for Easter. Thank you for reading Mitch, Nicole, Tom, John J, Cara, Mark, Dick, John D, Cheryl, Kim, Suzanne, Jen, Alice, Caroline, and Oliver). Thank you to John D for organizing it all too!
We had special music offered at the sunrise service on guitar and flute (thank you Todd and Ben) and trumpets helping us celebrate the resurrection at 9 AM (thank you Ethan and Annie). Thank you to our choir and for everyone who sang a rousing rendition of The Hallelujah Chorus. Thank you to Kim for her exceptional leadership of our music program here at CFC.
Thank you to Nicole for getting all the bulletins together and for leading our children and youth through Holy Week in such moving and meaningful ways.
Thank you to Avis and Amy for helping us have gorgeous flowers to decorate the sanctuary on Easter. Thank you for all who donated the flowers.
Thank you to Tom for recording our services and to Steve, Rich, Tom, Sam, Oliver, Essie, and Anora for ushering.
Thank you to Deb for being our Communion steward and to Deb, Jocelyn, Nicole, and Cheryl for serving on Easter.
Thank you to everyone who attended these special services as we came together as a Christian community to worship God and celebrate the resurrection of Christ together.

I know I’m probably missing someone . . .
Because this is just how many people help make Holy Week happen around here.
Thank you for all you do!

Love,
Pastor Lauren

Photo by Nikita Turkovich on Unsplash

Thursday Thoughts 4/9/26