Friends,

Oh, my goodness. It has been an incredible, beautiful, anxiety inducing, and hopeful week. To be honest, I still feel like I am recovering from the marathon that we have been running toward Easter. We were not just preparing for the holiest day of the year, but for the bishop’s visit at the Easter Vigil, which entailed preparing those to be confirmed and received into the Church, which was a whole other endeavor entirely. We consistently tried to go above and beyond and embrace opportunity, even if we were already stretched thin, and now that we are on the other side of Easter, I feel no regret for opportunities not taken, and an overwhelming sense of thanksgiving for the vibrant spirit of this place. Since we are on the other side of Easter, I thought I would share of numbers with you, and give you a litany of thanksgiving to those who made this season possible.

Easter Vigil

In-person attendance: 170

Online attendance: 183

Minutes of Music Performance: 41.3

Bishops: 3 (one was hiding in the congregation)

Priests: 5 (at least two were hiding in the congregation)

Deacons: 1

Confirmations and Receptions: 42

Baptisms: 3

Reaffirmations: 3

Easter Day

8:00 am attendance: 56

10:00 am attendance: 368

Online attendance: 124

Combined minutes of music performance: 68.7

Eggs found: 543 and counting

Bunnies caught: 0

Exceptional Ministries

Choir: They sang at soooo many services between Palm Sunday and Easter. They even got up to sing at the 8:00 am. Not only did they show up and sing, they also went to rehearsals, and we sourced all of our solos and instrument music from the extremely talented members of the congregation.

Altar/Flower Guild: In a very short amount of time the altar went from purple to red, to covered in wine I spilt during communion, to completely bare, and finally to white and decked out with flowers. Behind the scenes the altar guild worked to make the Church feel sacred as we went through all of the emotions that go with Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and the sheer joy of Easter.

Eucharistic Ministers and Readers: Coordinating all of the ministers at the altar and all of the readers through complex services required a lot of extra work from an expert like Lisa Maple. The passion narrative is powerful and requires a team of coordinated strong leaders, and serving communion with multiple Bishops requires nerves of steel and confidence to match.

The AV Team: Richard Maple and his intrepid crew set up the cameras and mics for five services in seven days and were often here late and night and early in the morning. They even problem solved how to broadcast outside so everyone at home could see the lighting of the Easter fire and the Liturgy of the Palms. A TON of people watch from home, and their ministry keeps them connected to their families, community and Church while they are away.

Acolytes and Vergers: Here’s the thing, confirmation services are unusual and I only experience them once every two years, and we only get to practice the Easter Vigil once every year. Mashing them together and throwing in two Bishops and 48 people getting confirmed, received, reaffirmed and baptized was a complicated, sacred and very nerve wracking. More than once I leaned over and whispered to the verger or an acolyte something like, “Hey, you I need you to grab that thing you’ve never seen before, and go light something on fire”, or “go grab that bowl and wash the Bishop’s hands…” or whatever other weird thing they had never done before. Each time they handled my last-minute instruction like a champ. Anyone can do anything with enough preparation and instruction. It takes an expert to jump in and do something new and make everyone believe it was rehearsed.

Staff: Sooooo much stuff happened behind the scenes. Bulletins take a lot of work, and that was a lot of bulletins. Stephanie Kaye put in a ton of effort to make the bulletins accurate and to make our Easter advertisements attractive, concise and fun. Confirmations take a lot of coordination and paperwork, and guess who is terrible at that stuff. ME! I tried my best but Sue Bentley kept things rolling, while keeping a pulse on every other aspect of doing Church. Cecil made sure everything worked and looking nice. When tables and chairs just magically appeared, that was all Cecil. Courtney and her kids worked closely with the Easter Bunny to make sure we had adequate supplies of eggs and treat. Kate stepped up and filled our Holy Week with sacred music. Let’s also not forget about Rev. Cory Irwin. We don’t even pay him, but our Lenten program would not have been nearly as successful without him.

Ushers, Greeters and Random People I Got to Help: We knew that 10:00 am on Sunday was going to be big, but we had no idea it was going to be that big. Every single parking space was filled on both sides of the Church, and I was literally grabbing trustworthy people to help direct traffic, and pick up people who parked far way on my golf cart. Did you know I even got one of our more physically imposing members to act as discreet security? He wasn’t needed, but I was glad he was there. There are also those who helped set up the tent, get the fire pit, and all of the extra ushers that helped cram people into the pews and pull-out chairs and to make St. Luke’s as welcoming as possible, even when we were jam packed.

Food: The Burger Nights were huge and lasted six weeks. The reception after the Vigil was a huge lift. I feel like at every turn the past two month there has been new faces met with good food, whether that is cookies on Sunday morning, Burgers during Lent, the DeMarco’s delicious appetizers after the Vigil, or the hot breakfast for the choir. You’re probably not surprised that it was often the same group that showed up time and time again. John Verghese and Courtney Jukuri who made weekly trips to Costco, and Kristen and Mary Grace who provided extra hours of nursery care. Tim Staples, Bradley Lisenby (we paid him but that still counts), Wendy Joachim, The DeMarco Family, Suzanne Reynolds, and Bill Overby consistently went above and beyond to make delicious food for St. Luke’s.

In addition, during these weeks of Lent, various teams cooked weekly for those at the hypothermia shelter, finding ways and places to cook without our kitchen on Wednesdays.

Conclusion:

I hope the message above is clear. We tried our best to go above and beyond the past few months, and I believe we were successful. But why? We knew some of the people on the guest list for Easter, namely the bishops. I am not going to lie to you, and say that some part of me was not trying to impress them. I was. I want St. Luke’s to get a Bishop’s visit every year, and I want the Diocese to see the best side of St. Luke’s, so of course I wanted us to put our best foot forward. Though this is a factor, there is much bigger reason to go all out this time of year, and that is for the stranger. In many ways the Easter Vigil was for our new members. It was geared toward welcoming them into the Church in grand fashion, but Sunday morning was all about welcoming in the stranger. Easter is a season, and you’ll find the lessons focus on how Christ was encountered after the resurrection, and in nearly every story there is an element of surprise. On Sunday we saw a lot of people walk in for the first time since Christmas, in years or maybe the first time ever, and everything from the music to the flowers, to the bulletin, to the ushers helping them find a seat should point to the truth that we were welcoming someone back into the body of Christ. How exactly? We didn’t hand out pledge cards, ask for political affiliation, or even recruited for our great ministries. We just wanted them to feel welcome, and hope to be surprised when they come back and show us what their ministry will look like.

-Nick