Celebrating the Resurrection outside the church building.

Easter Sunday in the Christian church is a day in which to celebrate the risen Christ. “On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb...” (Luke 24:1-2)

When visiting the Darling Downs city of Toowoomba (sometimes known as QLD’s city of churches) there are many choices of where to attend an Easter worship service. This year, a group of about 30 young people and their leaders were camping at Easterfest in Toowoomba’s Queens Park and their youth worker had decided that a “campsite communion” service was appropriate and relevant on Easter Morning.

The elements of Communion

Rev Josie Nottle, presbytery youth worker for Bremer Brisbane Uniting Church Presbytery, said that its the perfect time to do it. “We’re here to celebrate Easter and so I thought lets do something simple and meaningful to connect the young people in our camp with the Easter Message”.

Fa Ngaluafe shares her testimony

With a short time of singing and an open invitation to share what Easter means to campers or leaders, it was leader and ministry candidate Fa Ngaluafe whose moving testimony had the rest of the camp in silence. Fa had shared how it was an Easter Sunday not much different to this one that she heard God really speak to her. It changed her life and her faith and despite being a little teary she said “this is not a sad day, this is a GREAT day and I’m just really happy to share how much God loves me and I love God”.

Rev Josie Nottle explaining the eggs

The sermon consisted of a reflection based around toy eggs (not unlike the toys you would get out of a novelty vending machine) being thrown to campers. When each egg was opened an element of the story of Jesus, in the lead up to and immediately following his crucifixion, was found and each of the recipients were asked to share and maybe elaborate on where in the Easter story this would appear. Rev Nottle then tied it all together with some reflections on the importance of the Easter message to the Christian church.

Tammy White serves Brad Case

During communion each of the campers was asked to actually serve the person next to them before they themselves were then in turn served. This seemed to cement the message of the selflessness of Jesus. Once again as the communion service finished, members of Glebe Road Uniting Church from Ipswich led the singing to finish the short time of worship. 

The genuineness of the worshippers was obvious and the connection to each other and to God was done with simplicity. This worship service in its simplicity managed to reflect the complexity of the Easter message and still connect to its “gathered congregation” of campers from Bremer Brisbane UCA congregations of Glebe Rd, Centenary, Indooroopilly, Oxley, Bulimba, Karana Downs and Forest Lake. 

Worshippers from Glebe Rd UCA as part of Bremer Brisbane Easterfest camping

For this blogger personally, it was the best Easter Sunday service of worship that I had been to in a long time. It was a privilege to be in the midst of these young people and their friendliness and genuineness of welcoming a stranger into their midst.

Engaging the Easter Message

Through my work with the Vision Radio Network's daily program Twenty20, you really do get a chance to delve into life culture and current events from a biblical perspective. As a theology student, I'm constantly questioning how much I know and have learnt in the years that I have put into working towards a bachelor degree. But when you get the opportunity like I did recently to sit down with a retired theology professor and to engage with the easter message, I left the discussions feeling "Wow, maybe I do know more than I give credit to myself for"and at the same "I still have A LOT to learn!".

Pastor Aeron Morgan and I sat down before easter to discuss 2 topics. Firstly "What's so good about Good Friday"and "Is the resurrection still relevant in the 21st century". It was an absolute pleasure to sit and delve into these discussion with him. Afterwards, I received this email...
  

Dear Matt,

I've arrived home safely - good run up to the Sunny Coast today. Just want to thank you for being so warm and welcoming. It was a joy to work with you. You showed competence in your work, and I trust that the fruit of our joint effort will bring glory to God in the lives of those who listen to the broadcasts. May God continue to bless you in all you are doing for Him. I tryst we will meet up again before too long. And every blessing on your studies, and may the Lord grant a clear sense of His direction for your ministry in days to come. What a privilege - to serve the Most High!

God bless you,

Aeron

His bio from http://www.thevanishinggospel.com/ says this:
AERON MORGAN and wife Dinah, have served the Lord for more than fifty years. They are Welsh and have pastored churches in the UK and Australia, where they now reside. Aeron served on the National Executives of the British and the Australian AoG fellowships.
He was the first General Superintendent of the British AoG, and was principal of the Australian National Bible College for twelve years. He was also an adjunct faculty member of the South Pacific Bible College in Suva, Fiji.
Now retired from active pastoral ministry he fulfils an extensive itinerant ministry in many countries speaking at churches, conferences, ministers' seminars, and short-term teaching in Bible Schools.

So here are the 2 discussions we had about Easter, may it be as much of a blessing to you as it was to me to explore these topics. (oh and it probably wouldn't go astray to have a bible close by if you can when listening to these podcasts).

Easter - Good Friday

Easter - Resurrection

"Easterfest" draws the crowds to regional QLD

The annual festival that started as the Australian Gospel Music Festival (AGMF) and changed its name 5 years ago to better reflect the festival's aim of being a festival at Easter about Easter; continues to attract massive crowds every year. "Easterfest" festival director Dave Schenk said “with the introduction of Easterfest TV this year and the ability to stream live across the world for 16 hours a day, we’re really hopeful that this will boost the profile of our festival globally. We continue to attract quality entertainers in the Christian Music Industry and this will just increase our credibility as Australia’s largest Christian Music Festival”. With international bands like Mercy Me, POD, The Lads and solo artists like CCM veteran Michael W Smith, this year’s Easterfest lineup promised big and certainly delivered.

Based in Dallas, Texas; Mercy Me have been playing gigs all over the world for the last 17 years and yet this was the first time they have been to Australia. With a tight tour schedule, Mercy Me played in Sydney, Toowoomba and Melbourne with a press conference at Easterfest in Toowoomba attracting a huge crowd. Lead Singer Bart Millard told the crowd that their name came from an exclamation made by his grandmother when he told her he was trying to start a rock n roll band “Mercy Me, why don’t you get a real job” was the response; and so Mercy Me the band became. Their performance on Main Stage on Good Friday was filled with hits from their current album “The Generous Mr. Lovewell” and past hits including their biggest “I Can Only Imagine”.

"Mercy Me" rock the crowd on Good Friday at Easterfest 2012 Main Stage, Queens Park, Toowoomba QLD

Michael W Smith, a multi Dove Award and Grammy award winning artist performed to a crowd of thousands at main stage on Saturday night. Playing songs from throughout his career, he was well received with the audience responding to the polished performance. It wasn’t until he started to play a string of his worship songs towards the end of the performance that the crowds really came alive and sang along, many with outstretched arms in an attitude of praise and worship. Songs like: Here I am to Worship, Above All, Agnus Dei and Majesty really highlighted the way that “Smitty” has connected with worshippers of God over the last decade or more through his musical abilities.

Michael W Smith and band (featuring a drummer from Sydney) perform on the main stage at Easterfest 2012

Raw Sugar cafe in Maragaret Street Toowoomba QLD

 But it wasn’t just the festival goers who benefit from this festival. Easterfest City is part and parcel of this massive Easter celebration with artists and patrons spilling out of Queens Park in the CBD and frequenting the many café’s, restaurants and retailers within walking distance of the festival hub. Local businesses were busy over the public holidays many doing equivalent to two weeks normal trade in just one weekend. 

Co-owner of local café “Raw Sugar”, Cindy Cook, said that they have a prime position just across the road from the festival and every year open their business at Easter. “We do a massive trade every year, so it’s definitely worth it” Cindy said. “We have always had artists playing here and this year for the first we had one of them not show up for a scheduled spot. But the organisers of the festival are great to work with and if there are any hassles they are always happy to help sort it out.”

Tickets were on sale at a special discount price over the Easter weekend for the next festival, despite no major announcement being made of who will be on the 2013 roster. “This has been the biggest year of pre sale tickets so far” said Festival Director Dave Schenk “which is surprising considering we haven’t yet been able to secure anyone for next year’s festival. We only announce that an artist will be playing once contracts are signed. In previous year’s we’ve had that sorted out sometimes only hours before it’s announced. But we’re just really excited that there is that the experience of being at the festival is what seems to draw people back again and again.”

Palm Pasen (Palm Sunday)

In the reformed traditions of the Christian church, Palm Sunday is celebrated the Sunday before the easter weekend. This day signifies the entry into Jerusalem by Jesus of Nazareth riding a colt (a young donkey) and the people welcomed him by laying down palm branches and clothing for him to ride over. One of the reasons this is recognised is that it is where Jesus is welcomed as a king and then less than a week later, he is tried by the religious leaders and the Roman governor and put to death.

Palm Sunday however has many different ways of celebration in the Christian Church. One of the most common is to have a procession into a church waving palm branches and singing Hosanna! Sometimes this procession features someone posing as Jesus riding a donkey.

In Holland though, the traditions are a lot different and those traditions were introduced to the Wellers Hill-Tarragindi Uniting Church (WHATUCA) in Brisbane QLD recently. 

The first thing about these traditions is that it is based on the northern hemisphere season cycle where Easter falls in Spring and there is a sense of excitement of new life. Easter is a celebration of the Christian faith and of new life. 

On Palm Sunday its almost like the lead up to the final celebration a week later in Holland. “I remember for Palm Sunday it was a wonderful pre-celebration for Easter and quite a big deal in our family compared to what it might have been like in other families” explains Lydia Pitcher, a first generation Australian whose parents emigrated to Australia from Holland in the sixties.

Lydia Pitcher explains to the children how to dye their eggs

“In our family, in preparation for Palm Sunday we would bake special bread in the shape of Roosters and this would be part of a traditional celebration centerpiece with little roosters and a braided basket and in that basket we would put coloured eggs that had been coloured with food dye.” Lydia says 

“My Mum would teach us how to do the dyeing in bowls with hot water and a little bit of vinegar and food colouring. As a child just watching those eggs change colour and the patterns you could make and then polishing them up with a bit of oil, it was a wonderful happy kind of feeling.”

The Palm Paas Stock

Another element that was introduced to WHATUCA was “Palm Paas Stok” – a wooden cross with some ribbon and a rooster on top. It could also have an orange or some coloured eggs that were hand blown and dyed or even a wreath plaited out of bread. “In Holland each child would make their own cross and in some villages have a parade through the village and the children would add some twigs and greenery to symbolize new life” Lydia says “much the same as some of the young kids would have an Easter bonnet parade here in Australia”.

3 year old Alexandra Gees gets into the dyeing of eggs

With Australia being regarded as a multi cultural society more and more, it’s fascinating to discover the rich Christian heritage that exists. The Children and parents at WHATUCA had a great time colouring hard boiled eggs and sharing in just a small part of a tradition that would have seen many children on the other side of the world doing the same thing.

Nathan and Daniel Godfrey proud of their efforts

20120402 Palm Sunday Dutch tradition