Local churches in Scott County will be holding their traditional Easter programs through Holy Week leading up to Easter Sunday.
One of the many events will be The Easter Cantata that will be performed by the Forest United Methodist Church (FUMC) and the Forest Baptist Church (FBC) and will be held at FBC on Sunday, March 25 at 11:00 a.m.
Also, at 2:00 p.m. on March 25 at Trinity Family Life Center there will be an easter egg hunt. Throughout the week FUMC will be hosting Holy Week along with the Forest Baptist Church.
Lenten Lunches will be served at the FUMC on Monday, March 26 and Tuesday, March 27 and at FBC on Wednesday, March 28 and Thursday, March 29.
Speakers from different churches in the county will be conducting Lenten Sermons at both locations, FUMC and FBC at 12:00 p.m.
On March 26, Rob Hunt Associate Pastor for the FBC will begin the Holy Week sermons at FUMC.
Jason Tillman, the youth leader at Harperville Baptist Church will conduct the sermon on the following night of March 27 at FUMC.
The next night Will Dowling the Pastor of Raleigh UMC will be speaking at FBC.
The fouth speaker will be Scott Adcock the Pastor of Kalem UMC who will be closing out the Lenten Sermons with his words of inspirations at FBC.
On March 30, FUMC will be observing Communion during the service at 6:00 pm.
“It is an amazing gift to our community to have all of our churches coming together to celebrate Holy Week,” Rev. Trey Harper, Pastor of Forest United Methodist Church said. “Also we encourage the community to come and participate in these times of worship and fellowship.”
Also, in Forest, Easter Services will be held at Embrace Church. Services will be held at 10:00 am. The Theme will be “Resurrection Power.
“We minister to those who are recovering from an addiction,” Minister Andy Boles said. “This Easter service “Resurrection Power” will consist of a Card Board Testimonial. For example, a person that has or had an addiction of some kind will walk on stage onto a piece of cardboard and state that they were lost. Then they will flip the cardboard over and it will read through the resurrection power I am now set free.”
St. Michael the Arch Angel Catholic Church will start their Holy Week services on March 23 at 7:00 pm with Reconciliation which will be a bi-lingual service. Palm Sunday will be on March 25 which will be regular services for Forest and Morton (Sanmatin de Porres Center).
Then on Tuesday March 27, the Chrism Mass will began at 5:45 at St. Peters in Jackson. The Tridium will begin on Holy Thursday, March 29 in Forest at 7:00 p.m. followed by the Adoration in the Parish Hall will be at 7:00 p.m. mass in Morton. In Morton at Sanmatin De Porres Center at 7:00 p.m. on the same night a Mass will be conducted by an Adoration.
On March 30 at 5:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. a tri-lingual liturgy, veneration of the cross, and communion service will be held St. Michael’s in Forest. The following day Vigil Mass will be held at 8:00 p.m on Holy Saturday at the Crudup Activity Center.
“In Catholic faith this is considered the Holiest week of the year,” Lizz Edmonson Business Administrator of St. Michael’s Catholic Church said.
“Also, this week reflects the final days of Jesus’ life. The Chrism Mass is where the holy oils are distributed to each of the churches, Holy Thursday is commemoration of the last supper, Friday is commemoration of his crucifixion and death, Saturday evening and Sunday morning is commemoration of his resurrection.”
In Morton, the First Baptist church will be sponsoring it’s annual Easter Program including music and drama, Your Grace Still Amazes Me. This musical will be performed at 6 p.m. on Sunday, March 25. This program will be directed by Choir Director Barbara Ott and the special effects and special lighting will be included which will be under the direction of Dr. Judy Lewis.
“This musical was created by a wonderful couple Dennis and Nan Allen, and it has very familiar songs and gorgeous arrangements,” Ott said. “When I presented this to the choir they loved it, so we decided to go with it.” Dr Lewis stated that the musical starts off with an up beat song “Hallelujah is the King. “It really sets the stage for the musical,” she added.
