Easter Sunday

On Easter Sunday,  the Resurrection of Our Lord will be celebrated at Good Shepherd at 9:30 am with Holy Communion and festival brass.  The festival service will feature a New Liturgical Season, Colors, and Symbols

The Season – The Fifty Days of Easter began on Easter Sunday and lasts through the Day of Pentecost, Sunday, May 15. It is a time of celebration and rejoicing over the resurrection of our Lord.

Colors – White, symbolizing the joy, gladness, purity, and light of Christ, is the predominate color for the Easter Season. It is seen in the gates in our sanctuary weavings, altar and pulpit paraments, and Pastor Amy’s stole. Barbara Berg also added gold, the color of royalty, into the design of our paraments and pastor’s stole. On the Day of Pentecost, the last day of the Easter Season, the color will be bright red.

Symbols – A very visible symbol of the Easter Season in our sanctuary is the Paschal Candle. Symbolizing Christ’s resurrected presence, it is the large white, decorated candle predominately displayed near the altar throughout the season. It will be lighted when the sanctuary is open for worship and extinguished after worshipers leave as a reminder of the unity of the fifty days of celebration. After the Day of Pentecost, it will be moved closer to the baptismal font and lighted for baptisms and funerals.

The hand-formed, colored and applied decorative designs and symbols chosen for our Paschal Candle, the Good Shepherd Paschal Candle, are very meaningful for our congregation. In the center is a gold pastoral staff shaped like a shepherd’s crook incorporating a gold cross with silver highlights. Four colored squares representing the liturgical colors, red, purple, green, and blue, are placed on the corners of the cross. The Greek letters, Alpha (the beginning) and Omega (the ending), are attached on each side toward the bottom of the shepherd’s cross. Five wax covered nails containing grains of incense, representing Christ’s wounds, are attached to the cross portion; four white sheep below the shepherd’s cross look toward it; and the date of the current year is noted at the bottom. Our candle is 39 inches tall and is to be the largest candle in the sanctuary. Feel welcome to take a close look at it.