When Rev. Paul Block finished his first Easter sunrise service at New Song Anthem Lutheran Church a few years ago, he noticed two jets crossing in the sky, leaving contrails that looked like a cross.
Serendipity or Divine Direction? It’s hard to say, although surprises like this are likely part of the outdoor appeal that many southern Nevadans have for Easter sunrise.
Last Easter, the COVID-19 pandemic forced the suspension of sunrise services around the valley. While many will return this year, Boulder City’s interfaith ministry in Hemenway Valley Park – an Easter tradition in southern Nevada for more than 30 years – is still being disrupted.
The service typically draws around 400 guests, said Kathy Whitman, chair of the Boulder City Interfaith Lay Council, which organizes the service. However, the state-prescribed public meeting limits of 250 made it difficult to limit this year’s attendance.
“We can certainly see the light at the end of the tunnel, but we just couldn’t find a way to limit it to 250,” she said. “It just didn’t seem fair.”
Whitman will miss the non-denominational congregation as well as the natural details that can come with outdoor service.
“It’s beautiful,” she said. The service “overlooking the lake … and sometimes bighorn sheep come down and join us.”
However, a decade-long line of Easter sunrise services is resuming in Palm Mortuaries. Services begin at 6:30 am at Palm Boulder Highway, 800 S. Boulder Highway, Henderson, and Palm Eastern Mortuary and Cemetery, 7600 S. Eastern Ave.
If last year’s services had not been canceled, this would be the 36th year Palm has been offering Easter services, said Glenn Abercrombie, general manager of Palm Eastern Mortuary and Cemetery.
The service at Palm Eastern typically draws 1,000 visitors while the Palm Boulder Highway service typically has around 200 hosts, Abercrombie said. Since the service can be heard in the entire accommodation, some participants sit at the grave and “enjoy it with their relatives who are buried here”.
This year’s services are limited to 250 people. To register, call 702-464-8500 for Palm Eastern and 702-464-8440 for Palm Boulder Highway. The services will also be streamed live on the Palm website.
Easter sunrise services have been a tradition at Christ Lutheran Church, 111 N. Torrey Pines Drive, since the Church was founded in 1964, said senior pastor, Rev. Bill Phillips.
“There are certain people who love it and others that it would be too soon for them,” he said. “We may only have 20 people in the prayer garden. We worship outside and then move inside. “
The service, which begins at 6:30 a.m., lasts about 50 minutes, Phillips said. “I think it’s different from what people get in worship every week. It just feels a bit closer to the biblical story of Jesus in the garden tomb. “
Rev. William Kenny has possibly the best seat in the Catholic Church of the Holy Spirit’s annual Easter sunrise mass home.
“At 5:30 in the morning it is pitch black,” he said. “Usually the sun rises in the middle of mass and I look east – I look at the people – so I see the sunrise.
“I let everyone get up. I say, ‘Please turn around and say hello to the sun. Happy Easter.’ It’s a nice experience. “
The Catholic Church of the Holy Spirit, 5830 Mesa Park Drive, has been celebrating Easter sunrise mass for about 10 years, Kenny said. “When we started we thought a few people would come to avoid the normal crowds at other fairs.”
Now the fair attracts 300 to 400 visitors each year, most of whom like the casual nature of the service.
“Often people come to Easter services and want to dress in their nicest clothes,” said Kenny. “For this fair they come in jeans and sweats and so on.
“And every year it was pretty cold on Easter Sunday, at least at this time of the morning. Sometimes they bring blankets. We ask them to bring their own garden chairs or folding chairs, and we’ve set up about 1,000. “
This year’s mass begins at 5.30 a.m. in the peace garden of the church on the east side of the building. Registration is not required, but guests must distance themselves socially.
Rev. Jim Davis, pastor of the Executive Department of Calvary Chapel Las Vegas, 7175 W. Oquendo Road, said the church’s Easter sunrise service typically attracts “a few hundred people.
“Being outdoors is a very casual, relaxed atmosphere and just one way to celebrate an important event in Christianity, namely the resurrection of Christ.”
This year’s service takes place at 6 am and “because it’s outside … people can distance themselves socially,” he said.
Davis finds the Easter sunrise service “special” because it “reminds us of that morning and what it must have been like when they came and found an empty grave.
In addition to possible cross-making jets, attendees at this year’s New Song Anthem Easter sunrise service will include the church’s signature exterior crosses and the model of an empty tomb in their sunrise service.
According to Block, worshipers will walk from the crosses to the tomb. “It’s like a bridge from Good Friday to Easter Sunday, so very impressive.”
The Easter sunrise service in New Song typically draws around 60 people, he said. “I don’t know what to expect with COVID this year. Hopefully we’ll get roughly the same. It’s just good to be outside. “
And Block said, “The service is just a kind of intimacy. It’s kind of a day awakening. It’s less of a hurry. “
Contact John Przybys at jprzybys @ reviewjournal.com. Follow @JJPrzybys on Twitter.
