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closeHOLY WEEK
Local churches celebrate the last week of Lent with worship services, activities
Joan Cronk / for The Herald
Holy Week, the last week of Lent, will soon be upon us and congregations in our area will be celebrating the days before Easter Sunday in various ways. Churches will be offering the community a variety of options in which to worship and participate.
Pastor David Rodes, senior pastor of Puyallup Church of the Nazarene, said his church will hold Holy Week services on Wednesday night and Good Friday at 7 p.m. The Good Friday service is a simple service of communion and reflection of what God has done for us.
“Our plan this year is to have an interactive engagement with the cross of Jesus Christ as a way of remembering what He did for us,” Rodes said.
For that reason, this service will be highly personal.
Services during the week serve as a build-up for Easter Sunday service at the Puyallup fairgrounds in the ShowPlex arena. Rodes explained that the hope is folks will find that venue a little less threatening than a church building.
“People might say ‘I don’t know about church,’” Rodes said, but they may find the ShowPlex site more comfortable. With all the bad news and the financial downturn, the Puyallup Church of the Nazarene hopes that folks will be ready to come to the Easter celebration and immerse themselves in the joy of the day. They expect 2,500 to 3,000 people at the 10 a.m. service. In addition to the message, the service will include the full choir, band and orchestra.
Childcare will be available, along with a full range of activities for children, including a huge Easter egg hunt, a bounce house and a large section for the youth.
“All needs will be met,” Rodes said. “That is our goal — to make this a happy time.”
Rodes’ message will focus on experiencing resurrection in your life.
Just up the hill at Bethany Baptist Church, Pastor George Bedlion and his team will be holding three services at 8:45, 10 and 11:11 a.m. Bedlion’s Easter message is on reconciliation made through Jesus and also between people.
The production team at Bethany has been busy building a real bridge and during the service the congregation will be offered the opportunity to physically cross the bridge to bridge the gap between themselves and Jesus. They can also use this time to bridge the gap between each other.
The service, Bedlion said, “will depict God’s Grace. If we try to build a bridge, the gap is too big, so God sent his son Jesus to bridge the gap.”
He added that folks can lay down their tool belts, but he will be wearing his tool belt to the Easter services. Bedlion likes to use a lot of illustrations.
Their celebration will also offer a lot of “neat stuff for kids,” like decorations and gifts that go with the lesson, just to mention a few. Childcare is always offered with activities for babies and toddlers as well.
And in Sumner, at St. Andrew Catholic Church, Father David Young will be overseeing all the activities leading up to Easter Sunday.
On Palm Sunday congregants will participate in a procession around the grounds of their stately and beautiful church on Valley Avenue in Sumner.
St. Andrew offers several services in Spanish as well and Pastor Young said, “We are blessed to welcome Spanish speaking people into our congregation.”
All the services are expected to be well attended.
On Holy Thursday they will celebrate a Mass of the Lord’s Supper at 7 p.m. and on Good Friday the service honoring the Lord’s Passion will take place at 7 p.m., with the Stations of the Cross at 6:15 p.m. Holy Saturday will be celebrated with Easter Vigil Mass at 9 p.m. and Easter with the Feast of the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead with sacraments of baptism and confirmation and first communion at 8 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. The Spanish speaking service will be at 1 p.m.
“We welcome and encourage everyone to celebrate this gift of God’s love and sacrifice for us,” said Young.