Quality of LDS Easter services varies considerably. Some congregations have nice Easter messages while others have hardly a mention. Please rate your service today, and give a comment on what you enjoyed or didn’t enjoy?
Christian, Culture, Jesus, LDS, Mormon, Mormon Culture, religion
How was your Easter Service?
Stake conference.
To be honest, I still haven’t decided if I’m going. I’ll catch a service at the local Episcopal church so that I can be sure that I’ll get an Easter service, and then I may or may not go to stake conference afterward.
Great hymns today, and Easter was mentioned. Our stake are also holding a special Easter event this evening, with our stake choir.
We had an Easter program, with hymns and Bible readings and musical items. 200% more interesting than normal sacrament meeting fare, but a strange selection of hymns, all but ignoring the already paltry Easter section from the hymn book.
It was stake conference, so it could definitely have been better.
All of the hymns were Easter appropriate and the counselor who was conducting mentioned Easter. But two talks were on the apostasy and restoration. The first brother’s entire talk was about the saints in Kirtland, land speculation, pride due to the accumulation of wealth, apostasy, and how Satan’s minions are trying desperately to get us out of the church. It was very detailed. I waiting (impatiently) to see how he was going to tie all of that in to the message of Easter and Christ’s resurrection. Didn’t happen. The last talk was ostensibly about Christ’s atonement and the resurrection was mentioned. But the speaker used a sport’s analogy and the focus was on how we have to do our part, even if we just make one point in the game.
The hymns and musical numbers were Easter themed, but the talks had little mention. Sunday school was on consecration and ph was fast offerings.
Great question because I get annoyed most years at this time at Church policy and practice.Sacrament we had two talks. One was great and focused on the atonement and even went into the suffering of Christ. The other went way off topic. That was it for Easter theme. Sunday school and priesthood had no mention of Easter, the atonement, or even the resurrection. For a Church that is supposed to have Christ at the helm, there is precious little about him this time of year. I never have understood this.
Sacrament meeting was Easter-themed, but nothing about Easter in the rest of church. I really enjoyed the music (primary kids sang as well as the ward choir) and the Christ-centered thoughts of the speakers (bishop and stake president), so I voted “better than average.”
How sad are the results of this poll. Currently “Hardly a mention of Easter” is in second place.
And some wonder why we need a Gospel Topics essay “Are Mormons Christian?”
I think stake conference should be banned on Easter
The choir performed multiple numbers and there were short recitations by several members interspersed throughout. The primary also sang one number. Additionally, there were confirmations at the beginning of the meeting. Overall a great service. There were several choir members noticeably moved with strong emotion during the final hymn. Hard to miss the celebration of Christ’s resurrection. The lessons were not following the Easter theme, but there was plenty in sacrament meeting.
Out here in the mission field (probably wouldn’t work for the gigantic UT wards) I would like to see wards combine by buildings to have a
program totally focused on Easter (music, talks etc) and then dispense with the rest of the meetings. We did this on Christmas this year and it was very nice.
Our ward this year, two of the three talks focused on Christ and we also had a special musical number. Again, not a single, solitary flower or any greenery to set the mood that this was a special day in our dimly lit, drab chapel. Attendance was somewhat down–obviously some traveled away to celebrate with extended family, perhaps too early for some (9 am) and/or illness kept others away?
Far better than average in our ward. The opening hymn was one of three Easter hymns. All three speakers spoke on the atonement & the resurrection, & the final speaker gave a wonderful, moving talk. The choir number was “This is the Christ”, which I thought was quite Easter appropriate. The closing hymn was “I believe in Christ”, which was ok, I suppose.
I am one of 4 organists, & we choose our own hymns to play. I know that “Christ the Lord Is Risen Today” is not a simple hymn to play, but the organist played it as postlude. I would personally have rather sung it as a congregational, but it was not my call. I have the last week of the month this time, & my topic is Joseph Smith.
MH wrote: “I think stake conference should be banned on Easter.”
Stake Conference AND General Conference!
We can’t complain about not being seen as Christians when we aren’t willing to move a meeting to celebrate with them.
Stake conference here too (it often is on Easter). My daughter’s singles ward in Palo Alto had a RS lesson on marriage… Still a ways to go when one can’t be confident in inviting an investigator to attend on Easter Sunday.
Our stake president is a surgeon and he spoke today on the details of crucifixion and it’s infliction of painful suffering in context that I had never heard before–and I have heard some good descriptions about the suffering from crucifixion in the past. He talked about the rendering useless the intercostal muscles for respiration, the requirement and futility of diaphragmatic breathing, the infliction of median nerve pain from the nail in the wrist and the exacerbation of the scourged back pain as the one crucified pushes up with back to board scraping, as he tries to gasp for air. Quite the opposite of the absence of this focus that was mentioned by Jana Riess on her blog, which I, coincidently, read just after this meeting.
My sacrament meeting was Easter focused with extra musical numbers. Sunday school and priesthood had only passing references to Easter as the teachers stuck quite well to the manuals.
On the subject of Conference and Easter, I think it is worth being more specific about why it is not a great idea to have conference on Easter weekend. There is the obvious irony of missing the sacrament on the day we celebrate the resurrection. Also, there are quite a few people that only go to church for Christmas and Easter. This is the chance for them to participate with the church in their community, while stake conference is usually less personal and more removed from the local community.
In theory, Stake Conference could do an awesome Easter program with a talented stake choir, carefully chosen speakers, and extra music. Maybe do sacrament as a stake? And consider shortening the program. But this Will. Never. Happen.
Having conference of any kind on Easter isn’t a great way to reach out to those people who come less often. They may not even know to show up at a different building and a different time, so they show up at an empty building on they one day they are most likely to go to church.
We had some of the best, most meaningful Easter talks and two musical presentations, one by the choir and one by a soloist (my daughter, who was better than I’ve ever heard her — I think she got spiritual help). I heard a couple people leaving the building saying it was the best and most spiritual sacrament meeting ever.
I think I live in a place where the church members are genuinely spiritually alive. I loved Easter. I feel so grateful.
The service at my Presbyterian church was a joyous celebration of the Resurrection from beginning to end.
That’s great, but why don;t you do that at a Good Friday service, so you can use Easter to focus on celebrating the Resurrection?
For the record, the suffering of Christ is not an Easter theme. It’s a Good Friday theme.
I mean, obviously it’s an appropriate topic 365 days a year, but on Easter the Christian church celebrates Christ’s Resurrection. You could talk about Christ’s suffering on Christmas, too, but it wouldn’t be specifically a “Christmas theme.”
I, for once, am with Kullervo – in fact, I taught the GBH Lesson #8 in priesthood yesterday, which opens with the story of Pres. Hinckley explaining to a Protestant minister why we don’t use the cross as a symbol. (Spoiler: Because it’s his method of execution, and we celebrate the Risen Christ.) I can’t think of anything more off-putting on Easter Sunday than excessive discussion about the Crucifixion, especially a detailed medical discussion of the way someone dies of it. Barfsville.
To me the point is clearly explained in the actual Easter scriptures: “Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, for he is risen[!]” To Kullervo’s point, I wouldn’t wish to see us adopt a liturgical year approach to worship, but a little more awareness of things like Good Friday, etc. would stand us in good stead, both for understanding our neighbors (if we live in places like Minnesota, home to Catholics and Lutherans) and to orient us in the point of the Atonement and Resurrection. I can’t tell you how many times I had to explain what “Carnevale” was to my mission companions in Italy, or tell people why “Mardi Gras” is a big party, or explain to some baffled Utah export what it means to “give something up for Lent.” And what “Lent” even is.
Holding a stake conference on Easter is shameful and inconsiderate. That suggestion should have lasted about as long as it took three high councilors to raise an eyebrow and say, “You’re kidding, right?” Their job, after all, is to counsel.
Oh, and BTW, not only did we have a very Easter (resurrection)-oriented sacrament meeting, one of the talks and one of the musical numbers were about Mary and her discipleship, and her emotions over Easter weekend, and the women disciples’ roles in the events of Easter morning.
We’re not particularly liturgical (in the sense of worshiping according to a high-church liturgical year calendar), but we do celebrate Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, because they’re just as much holidays as Easter is.
We had an Easter themed sacrament service from the opening hymn and prayer on.
Nicely done.
Well, we made it to our stake event in the evening. The music was mostly good, but it was hard to gauge what exactly it was meant to be; a devotional meeting with a missionary bent I’m guessing. It was very atonement heavy, mapping out the plan of salvation from the pre-existence and the need for a saviour on, with readings and music. Coverage of the resurrection was fairly brief at the end by comparison, and not particularly celebratory. Sadly.
“That’s great, but why don;t you do that at a Good Friday service, so you can use Easter to focus on celebrating the Resurrection?”
I’m not opposed at all to that concept, but the honest answer is that the mundane things of life such as work, work-related travel, and children’s school events were heavily booked on that day. A cultural change could be very meaningful to me in that regard, though I could hear my children grumble if another service in the week was proposed. I might have to use PTO to negotiate the time for such a service–are they usually in the working hours or evening?
Well, I meant “you” as in “you Mormons, as a church,” but as long as you’re asking:
Maundy Thursday and Good Friday services at any church that has them are almost always in the evening, because everyone else has to go to work too. And as far as grumbling children go, maybe it wouldn’t make a difference but I suspect you’d find Maundy Thursday and Good Friday services to be extremely different from what happens at an LDS sacrament meeting. Holy Week as really the high point in the church year.
I went to a evangelical Easter service with my wife and then we went to an LDS Sacrament meeting. We live in the South.
The evangelical service was outstanding. The music was joyous, powerful, a couple of the numbers almost brought me to tears. Professional musicians (strings guitar, violin and cello) playing with everything they had. It was a celebration. About 50% of the hour long service was singing hymns and often the congregation didn’t want the song to end so the music leader sensing the mood of the congregation would have us sing the last verse again. The attendance was probably double and they anticipated it by having two services instead of only one. A friend from our scout troop was “church shopping” and thinks maybe they have found a new home, depending on how the youth program works out for his 4 teenagers.
The sermon seemed partially aimed at potential doubters and less actives that might only attend once or twice a year. The Scottish pastor was in top form and made a strong, compelling and impassioned case why belief in the resurrection was cause for celebration. We sinners put Christ on the cross but he overcame death and hell and we are everlasting glad He did. We never ever hear sermons of this caliber in the LDS wards I have attended.
Three times in the service the congregation stood and shouted: Christ died! Christ is risen! Christ will come again! I can’t get it out of my head. Coincidentally both services sang the same hymn at the end. Christ the Lord is Risen today by John Wesley. For the evangelicals this was a pinnacle moment, we sang many verses not familiar to me with all the energy and enthusiasm that one might expect after winning a championship football game. We sang the last verse three times.I left feeling elated , tingling all over.
The LDS service was poorly attended with some people out of town, others taking a vacation. The A-priesthood was disorganized and fumbling around with the sacrament preparation well into the opening song. Nothing unusual about that day. The music sounded like we were at a funeral as it always does and the chorister was late enough that they had to round up a substitute. The first speaker was not well prepared and didn’t have much to say. I don’t remember any of it. The second speaker is a friend, the former bishop and one of the best speakers in the ward. At least he talked about Christ as he reviewed the many witnesses of the resurrection in the New Testament. He included a couple of dubious and marginally related missionary stories. I thought it had substance and was delivered well, far better than our typical talk in Sacrament meeting.
My wife thought it was a good talk about us, more than Christ but was not really an Easter message because it didn’t celebrate Christ’s resurrection, merely described witnesses to it. The focus was on what we must do. Even though Christ did it all when it comes to the resurrection, (even as we Mormons teach it). I was glad that he didn’t go too long.
During the morose closing hymn that seemed to drag on forever I could not deny that we really do need to step up our game. This was a farce of an Easter celebration and it was better than most of our meetings. I had so little time between the two meetings to process the first and fabricate my usual excuses and pick apart the evangelicals, that it was unusually jarring for me.
We talked about sharing our thoughts with our friend about this message but concluded it would do little good and could harm one of our best friendships in the ward.
It wasn’t many years ago that we did not have any special Easter program. I recall a family with children the same age as ours who expressed interest to us in attending a Mormon Easter service. We had to sheepishly admit that we didn’t have one, that we really don’t celebrate Easter in the same way as the rest of Christianity. They joined a Methodist church later that summer. In the almost 20 years since then I do see incremental improvement.
I think the top leadership must be aware of this problem. But they lack the motivation, the energy or the ability to initiate the kind of revival that is needed for us to compete with evangelical churches. I have not noticed a shortage of excuses when I point this out. With every passing year where little to nothing is done, we lose many more opportunities.