Sun to rise on Easter service’s 25th year

Members of My Soul’s Dance Ministry from Wesley Chapel United Methodist Church perform during the 2012 Community Easter Sunrise Service in downtown Little Rock. This year’s service begins at 7 a.m.
Members of My Soul’s Dance Ministry from Wesley Chapel United Methodist Church perform during the 2012 Community Easter Sunrise Service in downtown Little Rock. This year’s service begins at 7 a.m.

In years past, worshippers gathering for the Easter sunrise service at Riverfront Park have bundled up in frigid, sometimes rainy, conditions. Organizers of this year’s Community Easter Sunrise Service are praying for a bright, clear dawn for the 25th annual gathering.

Regardless of the weather, planning co-chairman Dawne Vandiver said the service “is always magnificent.”

“It’s my favorite service,” Vandiver said. “You’re outside, at the river, you have a beautiful view of the sunrise and people all around you singing. There’s just a real spirit of unity and you leave there feeling better about your community.”

Organized each year by Pulaski Heights United Methodist Church, the service was started by longtime member Swann Kohler in 1989. Kohler will be recognized during this year’s event, which is expected to draw about 2,000 participants. This year’s gathering was organized by Vandiver and Shannon Aston.

Music starts at 6:30 a.m. Sunday and the service will begin at 7. Participants include Gov. Mike Beebe, as well as Donna Terrell, Fox TV news anchor; Sharon Bale, former Miss Arkansas; and Anthony Lucas, a former Razorbacks football player. Music will be performed by the combined choirs of Pulaski Heights UMC, Philander Smith College and North Little Rock High School. The dance group Danza San Judas Tadeo will perform, as well as the Ozark Point Brass ensemble.

The Rev. Britt Skarda, senior pastor of Pulaski Heights UMC, will deliver the Easter message.

The gathering is a casual one, designed to appeal to Sunday regulars as well as those who have never stepped through the doors of a church. That means the message has to appeal to a wide audience, too. Skarda has titled this year’s message “Community.”

“I’ll be focusing on what it means to be a community under God and how we live out the Resurrection in making the community a better place for all people,” he said.

This will be Skarda’s sixth Community Easter Sunrise Service, after an interruption of 18 years. He was on staff at the church for the second, third and fourth services before being assigned to other congregations for several years. He was named senior pastor at Pulaski Heights in summer 2010.

Skarda said he thinks the service is important for the community.

“It really does a magnificent job of pulling a diverse group of people from many different traditions or no traditions,” he said. “It’s a safe place for those who feel uncomfortable within the boundaries of a church sanctuary.”

Skarda said the service has been tremendously popular.

“We receive messages from people who say, ‘This is my service, the service where I am able to worship outside, with a diverse crowd and to sense the freedom that comes with that openness,’” he said.

The service lasts about an hour, which Vandiver said gives those who want to attend services at their own churches time to do so. She calls it a pressure-free Easter service.

“I think it’s a wonderful way to get the whole community involved,” she said. “The intent was to make it casual enough for those who didn’t want to dress up to come down and have a spiritual experience, to have that special day.”

Vandiver said seats are available but those attending are encouraged to bring lawn chairs and blankets.

“If you don’t sit on it you can certainly wrap up in it,” she said, adding that she recommends layered clothing and sunglasses.

“I’ve learned through the years to layer because it might get warm before the end,” she said.

The offering collected will benefit the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Cord Blood Bank of Arkansas.

Information is available at communitysunriseservice.com about the event at 400 President Clinton Ave.

Religion, Pages 12 on 03/30/2013

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