Resurrection Celebration

FirstLight worship will begin outdoors this week. All during Lent we have written on small pieces of paper a word or phrase describing our weekly confession. These have been saved and will be burned as a sign of our forgiveness as our first act of worship this week. Also, we have been reading a story each week; it conclude this week with a burst of butterflies! We will process into the sanctuary singing the Caribbean "Halle, Halle, Halle." Bring a drum and join the procession! We will also be singing Tommy Walker's "That's why we praise him," and the quintessential resurrection hymn, "Christ the Lord is risen today" (EASTER HYMN). We will be worshiping in the sanctuary this week, with access to the organ, so we will use that instrument as accompaniment to the Charles Wesley hymn. The Prophets will sing Stuart Townend's "In Christ alone" at the offering.

Worship at 11 AM will begin with a setting of "Gelobet sei Gott" by Healy Willan; the arrangement calls for organ alone, but with the especially talented Anna McC. on hand, we've scored it to have a festive trumpet at the beginning of worship. Handbells and trumpet will help us sing "Jesus Christ is risen today" (EASTER HYMN); other congregational hymns include "Good Christians all rejoice and sing" (GELOBET SEI GOTT), and "Christ the Lord is risen today" (LLANFAIR). The choir anthem will be Thatcher's setting of "Come ye faithful raise the strain. The Tune Weavers (our resident men's quartet) will sing Allen Pote's "A jubilant song" at the offering. The organ postlude will be Cesar Franck's "Final." This work begins with an extended solo for the pedals alone. One of only 12 works Franck wrote for his primary instrument, this one has arguably the most triumphant sound.