Ecumenical Easter Sunrise Service

For several years now, the Churches of West Point Grey have been coming together for a shared Easter Sunrise Service in Trimble Park. The service arose out of the shared youth ministry of the parishes in this neighbourhood.

St Helen's Anglican Church, West Point Grey United Church and West Point Grey Presbyterian Church are all engaged in a common youth ministry - the West Point Grey Ecumenical Youth Group. This group meets weekly, rotating between the three Churches with junior youth meeting every Friday and senior youth on Sundays.

The youth, together with their youth leaders, Vancouver School of Theology students Muriel Gallo-Chasanoff and Margaret Evans, planned and led the Easter Sunrise Service. The service began at 6:00am with a fire, coffee and hot chocolate. We began with some high-energy singing and drumming all in an effort to stay warm. Once we were good and energized, we did some creative Scripture assembly where teams had to act out or describe the missing words in the text. This activity engaged the whole group, even Muriel's little dog Manny who spent most of the time darting around the circle of worshipers. After we had filled in all the blanks and put the reading together, the text was read along with a spoken word poem about the Resurrection. We then were asked to share with the group why Jesus rising from the dead was important to us.

In timing that could not have been improved by Hollywood magic, it was just as we were reflecting on the meaning of the Resurrection in each of our lives that the Sun finally appeared over the mountains in the east. Bathed in the warm light of the sunrise we finished our reflections and then sang, drummed and danced our way to then end of the service.

This service, led and designed by the youth of West Point Grey, brought together people and worship elements from different Christian traditions to share how the Resurrection had touched each of their lives. The opportunity to do something very special for worship by getting up early, worshiping outside around a fire and watching the sunrise, set Easter a part as an important moment in the Church year.

As we at St Philip's continue to work with other youth groups through Constellation Ministry, we hope that youth from this parish can take advantage of wonderful activities such as this Easter Sunrise Service. If ever there was a good reason to wake up early, an amazing experience of the greatest mystery of our faith on the most important day of the year fits the bill.