By Lea Fowlie
The altar party and choir for Resurrection’s 60th anniversary on Palm Sunday.
What would you hope that your church would do if its 60th anniversary fell on Palm Sunday this year? Maybe you would hope for a huge Palm Sunday worship celebration, or a festive meal together, or a special new outreach ministry to help others.
All three of those things were exactly what Church of the Resurrection did on Palm Sunday, March 24.
The huge celebration service was a bit more difficult than you might imagine, as Resurrection became intentionally parking limited in 2021 to enable 113 units of affordable housing called The Spire to be built on its property.
Not to be deterred from giving thanks to God for its continued thriving and its new ministries, the congregation engaged a valet service for the day and gave thanks to its neighbors for sharing their scarce parking resources. This enabled all three of the church’s usual Sunday congregations (8:00, 9:00, and 10:30 am) to worship together at one time on its anniversary day.
The most special blessings of the day were the opportunities for all three congregations to meet both the church’s newest members and its second Rector, as well as to greet the “ambassadors” from The Spire who joined Resurrection in worship.
After a festive lunch, a Forum continued the discernment on what God might be calling Resurrection to do next, beginning with special anniversary outreach giving proposed in thanksgiving for all that Resurrection has been and will be, people working together to do “God’s work: hands, voices, and hearts committed to our community and our world.”
On to the church’s “Feast Day,” Resurrection Sunday.