Celebrating the fullness of Easter — The great fifty days!

Does your church suffer from “low Sunday syndrome”? Do folks wonder why a church that is full to brimming on Easter seems empty and lethargic the very next Sunday? Some congregations find that Easter can be a great burst of joyful celebration that quickly fizzles into a long, slow slide into summer.

It doesn’t have to be that way! Easter is the central event of the Christian year, but it’s more than a day. Most congregations observe the pre-Easter journey of Lent, but not all recognize that Easter stretches for seven weeks, culminating in the final Sunday of Easter: Pentecost. For centuries this season has been called the “Great Fifty Days.” Your congregation, too, can experience the richness of the full cycle that begins with Lent, climaxes with the celebration of the Day of Resurrection, and continues through the Great Fifty Days.

There are a number of ways that congregations can celebrate Easter for an entire season:

• Keep singing those Easter hymns! The Presbyterian Hymnal is full of wonderful resurrection hymns and songs — many more than you could possibly sing in one Sunday. Singing at least one Easter hymn each Lord’s Day between Easter and Pentecost helps to reinforce the idea that Easter is a season. The lectionary aids issue of Call to Worship: Liturgy, Music, Preaching & the Arts (volume 40.1) includes a host of suggestions for hymns to sing each Sunday during the Easter season (and every Sunday of the year).
• Incorporate “alleluias” as responses to the declaration of forgiveness. Some congregations “fast” from singing alleluia in hymns or responses during the season of Lent; others enact a burying or locking away of the alleluia at the beginning of the Lenten season and then make an event out of its unlocking or reviving on Easter. This makes the singing of alleluia — in hymns, songs or responses — even more powerful during the Easter season. You may use a verse or refrain from an Easter hymn to respond joyfully to the good news of forgiveness. Or you might use one of the alleluias in Holy Is the Lord, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) collection of service music (music that can be sung during different parts of the worship service, other than hymns, to enable the congregation to participate more fully through song).
• Keep the sanctuary adorned for Easter throughout the season. Many churches fill the sanctuary with lilies on Easter Sunday, then remove them immediately after worship that day, leaving the sanctuary suddenly bare. Consider other ways to use white and gold or yellow to adorn the sanctuary. Do you have a balcony? Drape generous swaths of lightweight cloth to remind the congregation of resurrection white. Keep the cross draped in white all through the Easter season. Call upon artistic members of your congregation for ideas about how to transform your worship space.
• Celebrate communion every Sunday! The Easter season offers a wonderful opportunity to highlight the Lord’s Supper as the “joyful feast of the people of God!” The Easter season is a good time to try to move to a weekly celebration of the Eucharist. (See “Invitation to Christ,” approved by the 217th General Assembly, for more on the whys and hows of celebrating communion more frequently.) The lectionary readings for the Easter season offer opportunities to link the preaching with the sacrament. There are stories of meals—think of Jesus cooking breakfast on the beach for the disciples (John 21:1–19, third Sunday of Easter), or the generous table set before the psalmist (Psalm 23, fourth Sunday of Easter). Other texts during the Easter season lend themselves to preaching toward the table, such as Peter’s vision in Acts 11 (fifth Sunday of Easter), in which he sees that the Gentiles — the outsiders — are to be welcomed to the font and the table.

Here’s how you can find these resources to make your church’s Fifty Days great:

Subscriptions to Call to Worship are available for only $29.95 for four issues, including the lectionary aids issue. Send your check to:

Call to Worship
Voucher Remittance Processing
P.O. Box 643660
Pittsburgh, PA 15264-3660

You may also contact Tammy Lloyd in the Office of Theology and Worship at (888) 728-7228, ext. 5331.

Holy Is The Lord is available from Presbyterian Publishing Corporation.

The office of The General Assembly will mail a brief introduction to “Invitation to Christ” to all PC(USA) congregations. It can also be viewed online on the Office of Theology and Worship Web site.

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For further information, contact Kimberly Long, associate for worship in the Office of Theology and Worship at (888) 728-7228, ext. 5311.