Celebrating Easter will look totally different this year. In quarantine from COVID-19, many Christians will attend Good Friday worship and Easter morning services at home by watching online.
I read somewhere of one church having a “drive-up” service, which caused me to dig through my old files to find a church history seminary paper I wrote many moons ago. Here’s what I found:
Mt. Pleasant 1949–1980: Union Easter Services at Drive-In Theatre
Beginning in 1949, “the churches of White River Township united their forces to make the real spiritual significance of Easter more realistic.” The churches that united included: Bluff Creek Christian Church, Smith Valley E.U.B., Honey Creek E.U.B., Mt. Auburn Methodist, Bargersville Christian and Mt. Pleasant Christian Church. They would start on Thursday with a communion “Last Supper” service at one church, go to the Good Friday service the next day at another church, then go to the Sunday sunrise service at another church — and then members would go back to their respective churches for a 10 a.m. service.” — Mount Pleasant New, April 1952
By 1954, a united Good Friday service was held at Center Grove High School and the 6 a.m. “Union” Easter Sunrise Service was held at the Meridian Drive-In Theatre on State Road 135. Approximately 1,000 people attended the drive-in sunrise Easter service in 1954.
Over 22 years ago, November 1998, I interviewed the late Kenneth Arnold who pastored Mt. Pleasant from 1960–1980 who added: “Ministers rotated the preaching each year and there was a combined choir and congregational singing.” He reminisced: “Families would drive in and mount the speaker onto their car window. The owner of the Meridian Drive-in Theatre served hot chocolate as a service because it was so cold.”
Though it won’t look the same because family and church family won’t be celebrating the death and resurrection of Jesus together, here’s how some of our creative neighbors are commemorating Easter 2020:
Tina Pierce: “We are celebrating Easter COVID-19 style, instead of our annual Easter get together for 20 extended family members. Our small family of five (Tim, Andrew, Tyler and Olivia, our daughter-in-law) are watching Easter service online in our own homes. We will then gather in our barn at two 6-foot tables, end-to-end for Easter dinner. Tyler and Olivia will be seated at one end and Tim, Andrew and I at the other end.”
Dianna Lynn Bennis: “We are doing a special Easter egg hunt for our 4-year-old granddaughter. Because I only have leftover jelly beans from last Easter, I’m putting some of my old necklaces in the plastic eggs. She loves to dress up. We will watch from the windows while she hunts.”
Lorrie Burkhart: “I think I’m putting garden seed in the Easter baskets and hunting real eggs — retro Easter.
Brenda Allen: “My in-laws are going to hide eggs in their yard, and we’ll take our kids over to find them while they watch from the windows.”
Teresa Theis: “Instead of Easter baskets for the adult children, I will make a $25 donation to their charity of choice.”
Pam Rider: “If the weather pans out, we will be sitting on all four corners of our basketball court and one-by-one going in to get our food off the grill and return to our seats. Everyone will wear gloves when gathering their food as I am while cooking. There are only four corners so we are set — Us 4 Riders.”
Beth Rugenstein: “We are watching church from our home. Our family outside of our home are invited to watch through Facebook live. We will be delivering baskets with needed item to the doorsteps of our sick and/or quarantined loved ones.”
Local Author Carol Michel: “We aren’t doing anything too crazy for Easter. As you know, I host the World’s Greatest Family Easter Egg Hunt. It is being postponed, though how I’m going to garden and mow around those plastic eggs until we do have the hunt … yet to be determined. I might have to leave a note for the Easter Bunny to hold off on hiding the eggs until Memorial Day or 4th of July? But in the afternoon, we will have a Zoom family conference call and there will be a quiz about Easters past. We are also speculating on how long an unopened bag of jelly beans will stay fresh.”
Lodema Decker Lines: “We bought a ham and will have the traditional Easter meal. We have a Facebook portal and will have all the kids and grandkids together as we eat together via video on Sunday and see our 14th granddaughter who is being born Saturday. Yes, she will be home for Easter!”
Jane Bowman: “Felson and I will celebrate our 56th wedding anniversary on Saturday (today) with a shared steak on the grill. Sunday we will watch church on our phones (if we get power back after Wednesday night’s storm), then share a rack of ribs from City Barbecue. Finally on Monday, we will celebrate Felson’s 81st birthday — a busy weekend for two old people.”
Vicki Vibbert: “We are celebrating Passover, focusing on God passing over those with blood on the doorposts and the direct correlations to being set apart inside.”
S.E.: (a music teacher, who asked to remain anonymous) “I’ve been making unleavened bread and making communion kits! So far I have 28 families for Easter Sunday! I have friends who are posting it for me on Facebook and through text so I can remain anonymous! (And like others I’m also making masks.) [My communion kits include unleavened bread, a small bottle of Welch’s grape juice and a list of Bible verses I have meditated over as I make the bread.]
“I’m so grateful for the opportunity to do something to help families worship and remember Christ during this time!”
Happy Easter neighbors!
Janet Hommel Mangas grew up on the east side of Greenwood. The Center Grove area resident and her husband are the parents of three daughters. Send comments to [email protected].
