Celebrating Easter: Local churches plan variety of events to make holiday

Several area churches want to make the Easter season memorable for children this year, and they hope to do it mostly through plays and pageants.

Centenary United Methodist Church in Cape Girardeau will begin holding special events March 28, Palm Sunday. Associate pastor Karen Nothdurft said the church will have a procession of children with palms at both morning services, as well as an Easter event later in the day at Kiwanis Park. The event will include games, activities and an egg hunt for children ages 1 to 10 from 3 to 5 p.m.

The Rev. Jeff Long said the Easter egg hunts are fun and let the children be active, but there's also a message to be given with Easter eggs.

"What the eggs represent is hatching new life, so there is always a tie to the resurrection," Long said. "I am not always sure that kids make that connection. They are there to get what's inside of them, which is typically candy, but that's the hope, is that there is some understanding to this is why we do this. Life comes from eggs, and a new life came on Easter as Jesus was raised from the dead."

Long said the church decided to hold its Easter events on Palm Sunday because it marks the kickoff of Holy Week, and he thinks families should be together on Easter after they come to church.

Associate pastor Rob Hurtgen, right, played Jesus' apostle Judas Iscariot in the First Baptist Church of Jackson's One "Life" Changing Lives Easter Pageant. (Kit Doyle)

Also for Palm Sunday, the church's choir will perform a special cantata called "No Greater Sacrifice" with the Westminster Presbyterian Church choir. The joint choir will perform at the 8:45 a.m. service at Centenary United Methodist, and at Westminster Presbyterian at 10:45 a.m.

The combination of the choirs for an Easter performance is new, Nothdurft said.

"We have a new choir director, Mike Dumey, and he has ties with Westminster. We have used a couple of their folks at different times for music so we've had a good relationship among our congregations," she said.

Nothdurft said Centenary also has a 6:30 a.m. sunrise service on the lawn of the church planned for Easter Sunday morning.

St. Andrew Lutheran Church in Cape Girardeau will hold its second annual Easter Egg-Stravanganza at 10 a.m. Saturday in the church's activity center. During the event, children ages 2 through third grade will celebrate Easter with games, crafts, snacks and an egg hunt. For admission, children and their parents are asked to bring one nonperishable food item per child, which will be given to the local FISH food pantry.

Rosalee Plunk, a congregation member at St. Andrew, said the children will participate in activities that are religious-oriented such as reciting a "jellybean prayer," where candy in eggs will describe associations with Jesus, such as "red is for the blood he gave, green is for the grass he made," and covers several colors.

"What the kids will do is, they will each have an egg with the jellybean colors from the prayer and receive a copy of the prayer to go along with that," Plunk said.

Other area annual events for all ages include a large Easter pageant at First Baptist Church of Jackson, which includes a cast of about 115. The theme for this year's pageant is "Indescribable -- That's My Jesus!"

The pageant will begin at 7 p.m. Thursday at First Baptist Church of Jackson with performances scheduled for Friday and Saturday evenings at the same time. The last performance will be at 3 p.m. March 28. Tickets are free and available at the church office, Country Mart in Jackson, the Jackson Baptist Association office and Gospeland Bookstore and Schnucks in Cape Girardeau.

The Downtown Council of Churches will again hold its "Walking with Jesus: The Way of the Cross," a walk beginning at Old St. Vincent's Church at noon on Good Friday, April 2, which will visit local landmarks and recite Scripture. The annual community sunrise service sponsored by the council will be at 6 a.m. Easter Sunday at the old river bridge outlook.

Several area churches also offer a sunrise services and egg hunts, and traditional and contemporary services. Pick up a copy of the Southeast Missourian's special publication "In The Spirit" for more stories and events during the Easter holiday season or check www.semoEvents.com.