Hope Rises at Break of Easter Day

For Lynn Decker-Mahin, celebrating Christ’s resurrection just as the sun peeked over the horizon was more than just a joyful remembrance of the Christian messiah’s sacrifice. It was also about making a new beginning and reaffirming her spiritual belief.

“Sitting outside in the cool air reminds you of the return of spring and life to Earth,” the 44-year-old Camarillo resident said. “You get the feeling that it’s a new day, a day to begin a new path or remember why you chose the one you’re on.”

Decker-Mahin joined about 70 other worshipers in the concrete courtyard outside the United Methodist Church in Camarillo to mark the Easter holiday with prayers, music and thoughtful reflection on what it means to be a Christian.

“For me, the services are more intimate,” said 35-year-old Bill Low of Oxnard, who has been attending Easter sunrise services with his wife, Joan, for the past eight years. “I know that afterward I felt that Jesus was here, right now, in my life and this isn’t just something that happened 2,000 years ago. It’s still relevant.”

Throughout Ventura County, from Fillmore to Thousand Oaks, the faithful flocked to area churches to attend Easter services at sunrise.

In Newbury Park, about 16 parishioners from St. Matthew’s Methodist Church gathered next to a gurgling fountain under the fragrant pine boughs to celebrate the holiday.

“It’s a very special time for all of us because this is when God rose from the dead,” said 56-year-old Nancy Rank of Newbury Park. “That’s why we come.”

According to Pastor Stan Ferguson of United Methodist Church, sunrise services play an important role in Christian liturgy because it offers worshipers a tangible reference--the approximate time of Christ’s resurrection--to relate to.

“It’s a way for people to connect with the first Easter,” he said. “Parishioners want and need to share the experience of Christ and his disciples.”

While thought by many to be a simple remembrance of Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection, Easter is perhaps the most important holiday on the religious calendar because its themes of sacrifice, spiritual succor and eternal life are central to Christian philosophy.

To underscore its religious importance, Easter is preceded by a period of spiritual preparation and fasting called Lent, followed by a 50-day celebratory period called the Eastertide or Paschaltide.

Today, as members of the clergy see around them despair sometimes so dark that whole groups can be driven to suicide, they are confronting anew how to make relevant a 2,000-year-old story of hope that to some is, if not incredulous, at least archaic in its accounts of life after death.

A poll this year by Barna Research Group of Oxnard found that 39% of Americans believe that Jesus did not return to life physically after his crucifixion, 50% believe that he did, and 11% had no opinion.

Ferguson said he tailored a special sermon for Sunday’s services that he hoped would find fertile ground in the minds of parishioners.

“Each year I try to make my sermons a little different, but I always want them to have an experience of God that will make them better Christians,” he said. “I hope what I said got through.”

At United Methodist’s sunrise ceremony, Pastor Tom Tran said his sermon touched on themes other than the Resurrection, like Christ’s compassion for the downtrodden, and hoped they would inspire his flock to reach out to a needy community. The message apparently found eager listeners.

“It gave me hope,” said 62-year-old Cay Friederich, of Camarillo. “Hope that one day there will be an acceptance of people by people, and isn’t that what it’s all about?”

Times religion writer Larry Stammer contributed to this story.