Myriad services this year despite early Easter

I've read that Easter is as early this year as it's ever going to be in our lifetimes.

It seems the shorter hop from Christmas to Easter hasn't deterred some churches from making big plans, though.

Here's a sampling of what's going on in the Fox Valley for this holiest of Christian holidays and the week preceding.

Palm Sunday, March 16

With the help of a live donkey, kids at St. Barnabas Lutheran Church in Cary will lead the congregation in "A Walk Through Holy Week" during the Sunday School hour at 9:15 a.m.

The little kids start things off by waving palm branches and singing at the head of a processional to the church's Family Life Center, where older children re-enact Jesus' cleansing of the temple, the Last Supper, prayer at Gethsemane and the meetings with Pilate and Herod.

The crucifixion and resurrection will be re-created by the high school youth in the church sanctuary.

Afterward, kids can hang around to meet and pet the donkey for a few minutes until 10:30 a.m. worship begins.

The church is at 8901 Cary-Algonquin Road.

Maundy Thursday, March 20:

Congregational Church of Algonquin, 109 Washington St., opens its worship time with a Passover Seder similar to what Jesus and the disciples would have eaten at the Last Supper.

After the 6 p.m. meal, featuring soup, matzoh, herbs, haroseth and grape juice, worshippers will move into the sanctuary at 7:30 p.m. for a dramatic, low-light service with song, Scripture and a re-enactment of Jesus' last meal before he went to the cross.

At King of Glory Lutheran Church, 36W720 Hopps Road Elgin, Pastor Keith Perry and a dozen parishioners will portray Jesus and friends at a Living Last Supper at 7 p.m.

"We walk in one by one," said Perry -- who plays Jesus, of course. "As we walk in, the narrator tells something about that disciple."

The congregation will learn a bit about the disciples' backgrounds, where they were from and how Jesus came to choose them, Perry said.

"It's a very educational thing."

Good Friday, March 21

Two dozen area churches and Christian ministries will come together at 7 p.m. for an annual, multiracial and multi-denominational event that used to be held at Hemmens Cultural Center but takes place this year at Second Baptist Church, 1280 Summit St. in Elgin. The service is a cooperative effort between the African American Christian Ministers Alliance and the Pastors' Prayer Group.

Music will be provided by M.O.S.T. Men of Spates Temple. and a mass choir with singers from the various churches.

If you like a classical Tenebrae service for Good Friday, there will be many to choose from at churches all over the area.

But for something a little different, the choir at Elgin Evangelical Free Church, 1900 Big Timber Road, will perform an extended work, "The Shadow of the Cross," in a contemporary update on the Tenebrae.

The choir will be supported by a five-piece chamber orchestra of flute, clarinet, French horn, cello and piano. Following tradition, the 7 p.m. service ends in darkness.

Altar candles also will be extinguished a la tradition at Elgin's Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, 357 Division St., where a string ensemble and pipe organ accompany the choir in another Tenebrae variation, "Light in the Darkness."

"Music can bring out that emotion that plain preaching cannot do," said Pastor Olin Sletto.

But Sletto also is a big believer in visual aids, so the stage will be set again this year with a very large, very realistic tomb that an artistic church member made of polystyrene. The tomb will be dark on Good Friday, and before the 7:30 p.m. service is over, a weighty-looking stone will be moved in front to cover it.

The congregation exits the church to the steady beat of a tympani.

For you early risers, CrossWinds Church of Elgin will take its worship band to the Elgin YMCA, 50 N. McLean Blvd., for a joint Good Friday service at 6 a.m.

The YMCA even provides a little breakfast.

Easter Sunday, March 23

Churches across the Fox Valley will be pulling out all the stops to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ in different ways -- some with sunrise services and breakfast, some with dance, and many with special music.

Remember that faux tomb on stage at Holy Trinity?

It'll still be closed as the congregation enters for services at 8 and 9:30 a.m., and the tympani will still be beating.

But now there's a shiny gold cloth inside the tomb, and as the stone is rolled away, six spotlights hit it for a dramatic blast of golden light.

The tympani begins a roll, and the pipe organ bursts into "Jesus Christ is Risen Today."

Sletto said the effect is magnificent. "It's spine-tingling, to tell you the truth."

• What's going on at your church or synagogue? Do you have a special program, new staff, big plans? Someone who deserves recognition or something a little out of the ordinary? Contact "In the spirit" at cmchojnacki@yahoo.com.