Lent and Easter Highlights: I

Thursday afternoon about forty adults and children joined me, music director Mark, and DCE Beth for our first ever "family-oriented" Maundy Thursday service. It was Thursday afternoon, soon after children's choir. We'd decided to do this because we realized that our regular service, at 7:00 pm, was not really a child-friendly experience, if only because of the time; and if it's not child-friendly, it's not parent-friendly, either. Maundy Thursday is just too important to the Christian faith for us to neglect educating kids about its meaning.

We three staff can easily get a bit overwhelmed by the requirements of Passion Week, but in this case we had so much fun, both in planning and execution! The service was in the "crossing," the gigantic area between the pulpit and the pews. It centered on three things--telling the story, the foot-washing (which we did as a hand-washing), and communion. We performed two or three Taize songs. It took less than thirty minutes.

The families were so excited to be there! Many of them were already here for kids' choir and they just played in the front lawn of the church until it was time. It was a beautiful Spring day. The children at the service ranged from under two to probably ten or eleven. They wandered and squirmed freely, and I had the impression the parents knew that was fine, because they seemed relaxed and worshipful themselves.

In addition to parents, there were grandparents and even adults of all sorts who simply wanted to be there for whatever reason. "Miss Paula," as she is known, the wonderful woman who teaches our "Godly Play" class for pre-schoolers, was there. So were Ada and her beau, Bill. Ada is in her eighties, a lifelong member of St. Stephen. She is spry, stylish, and youthful; she and Bill go out dancing regularly. As Beth and I were performing the handwashing, Ada was smiling and dashing away tears. We were performing it at the baptismal font, and Bill whispered to me, "This is the eighty-nine anniversary of her baptism."