Eastertide

Did you know that Easter is not just a single Sunday, but a season of celebration from Easter Sunday to Pentecost...that’s fifty days! Fifty days of celebration.

It’s called Eastertide - the time between Easter morning and Pentecost.

When you take a moment and think about it, it only seems reasonable that we have such an extended celebration of the resurrection of Jesus - after all, it’s a rather significant miracle.

We, at St. Stephen’s, have started this celebration off rather well. First, we had an incredible amount of people joining us for worship on Easter - trumpets and beautiful singers - and a bishop. We followed that with a church wide progressive dinner and then a Sunday filled with red noses, scripture, and some knock knock jokes. Easter brings out all sorts of joy and celebrating...and this coming Sunday will be no different. While I am taking some R&R, our guest pastor Fred Melton will be joining us. Pastor Fred is going to help us understand where all that loose change we have been gathering goes - he will help us learn more about the ELCA World Hunger program.

Easter is a time for celebration - and it is not hard to understand why. If you recall from my Christmas letter I quoted Christina Rossetti’s famous words turned into a Christmas hymn. Below is a poem by her. May you have a blessed Eastertide!

Easter Even

By Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830–1894)

THE TEMPEST over and gone, the calm begun,

Lo, “it is finished,” and the Strong Man sleeps:

All stars keep vigil watching for the sun,

The moon her vigil keeps.

A garden full of silence and of dew,

Beside a virgin cave and entrance stone:

Surely a garden full of Angels too,

Wondering, on watch, alone.

They who cry “Holy, Holy, Holy,” still

Veiling their faces round God’s throne above,