Following a long Thompson Holy Week tradition, a number of evangelical churches in the community will exchange preachers for services this week and on Easter Sunday.
Pastor Dan Murphy of Thompson Pentecostal Assembly on Goldeye Crescent says it is a tradition that goes back to before any of the current ministers were in town and they have just carried on with it.
"Our worship practices are different, but the Resurrection is the central common ground," noted Murphy, as Easter is the most important date on the Christian calendar. "We come together." If Christ didn't rise from the dead there would be no basis for Christianity, Murphy said.
Easter, which this year falls on April 4, is a moveable feast, tied to the lunar cycle rather than a fixed date. It is observed on the first Sunday following the Paschal full moon.
The various congregations also seem to "enjoy the change of pace" in having a visiting preacher from another church for a service, Murphy said.
Murphy, who has been a Pentecostal minister for 23 years, has been the senior pastor at Thompson Pentecostal Assembly for 3 years. He has lived in Thompson for six years. Prior to becoming pastor at Thompson Pentecostal Assembly he was chaplain for Skyward Aviation Ltd. of Thompson, which filed for bankruptcy protection in April 2005.
Murphy says it all comes down the Apostle Paul's First Letter to the Church at Corinth.
In Chapter 15, Verses 14 to 19, Paul writes of the resurrection of Jesus as being the central doctrine in Christianity: "If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain," Paul observed. And if Christ has not been raised, he added, God is being misrepresented because "we testified of God that he raised Christ." Therefore, if Christ has not been raised, "your faith is futile: "If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men."
The entire Christian faith hinges upon the centrality of the resurrection of Jesus on the third day, and the hope for a life after our own death, Murphy observes.
Continental Mission's Thompson Bible Chapel leader Bert Brown will be preaching at the Christian Centre Fellowship, which is a member of the Manitoba Conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches, at 7 p.m. tonight.
On Maundy Thursday tomorrow, Pastor Sean Kim from St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, will speak on the "body of Christ" at First Baptist Church. Good Friday sees Murphy speaking on Good Friday at Thompson Bible Chapel, while youth pastor Trent Kemsley will be at the Christian Centre Fellowship Saturday. Finally, Pastor Ted Goossen from Christian Centre Fellowship will speak on the Resurrection - " there's no body there!" - at Thompson Pentecostal Assembly Easter Sunday.
All of the services are at 7 p.m.
At St. Lawrence Roman Catholic Church, Father Eugene Whyte says, "The liturgical celebration of Holy week is a very ancient tradition for us in the church with some scripture scholars detecting its outline as a special week of holiness even in the fourth gospel.
"There are records of Holy Week liturgies in Jerusalem from the fourth century beginning with the triumphal procession with palms we now celebrate on Palm/Passion Sunday followed by the celebration of the Lord's Supper on Holy Thursday, the Passion of the Lord Jesus Christ on Good Friday at 3 p.m. and then the great Easter vigil with the blessing of the new fire and the lighting of the Easter candle as we proclaim, 'He is Risen! Alleluia.'"
"We keep to the standard practice. Holy Thursday at 7 p.m. we celebrate the Lord's Supper, Good Friday we celebrate at 3 p.m. the Lord's Passion and at 9 p.m. on Holy Saturday, after dark that is, when the Sabbath is over and it is the first day of the week, and also the third day, the first beginning at dusk on Holy Thursday, we celebrate the Resurrection of the Lord," Whyte says.
Although our celebrations for Holy Week in St. Lawrence are not as liturgically elaborate as they are in Rome or they were historically in Jerusalem and the early Church, yet they are the same celebrations, as we, the faith community of St Lawrence Church, enter into the great events of the passion, death and Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ."
Confessions for Easter duty at St. Lawrence will take place today from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., tomorrow from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. until noon.
Whyte is a member of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI). He came from the order's Lacombe Province to serve in Zimbabwe from September 2002 to July 2005.
"We celebrate liturgically the Paschal Mystery in a particular week, Holy Week, to remind us that the Paschal Mystery is present to be celebrated at all times.Jesus is Risen is the proclamation of Easter, as present now to all since that unique event ofEaster. As the catechism reminds us, The Paschal Mystery is a real event that occurred in our history but it is unique: all other historical events happen once and then they pass away, swallowed up in the past," Whyte said.
"The Paschal Mystery of Christ by contrast, cannot remain only in the past, because by His death He destroyed death, and all that Christ is, all that He did and suffered for all men, participates in the divine eternity and so transcends all times while being made present in them all. The event of the Cross-and the Resurrection abides and draws everything towards life.
"This unique event of history does not pass away, it is eternally present, how we celebrate it depends on our particular orientation to or understanding of the faith we profess but, more importantly, how we live the Mystery of the Cross, whichis determined by the particular attitudes and actions we display to our neighbour - when I was hungry, you gave me food ... From a Christian perspective, all creation is charged with the grandeur of God as Gerald Manley Hopkins reminds us."
