Good Friday Rites Recall ‘Way of Cross’

With another priest narrating from the Gospel of Matthew, Father Steven Tsichlis reenacted the scene Friday in which Jesus was taken down from the cross after his death nearly 2,000 years ago.

Tsichlis pulled the nails from the hands and feet of the large wooden icon of Christ. He wrapped the body in clean linens. And he then laid a tapestry icon of Jesus in a symbolic tomb covered with white flowers near the altar at St. Paul’s Greek Orthodox Church in Irvine.

“It’s like going to a funeral,” said St. Paul’s Dorothea Hartford of the ancient Good Friday services. “This week is so dramatic. It’s very draining because it’s reminiscent of something that actually happened.”

Late Friday evening, a candlelight procession carried the tomb around the church three times, stopping for prayers at the four corners of the property.

“This is to mark the church as the place of life,” Tsichlis said. “Because it’s here that God rules, and it’s here that life comes out of death.”

Congregations across the county commemorated Good Friday in a variety of ways, all designed to capture the drama of Christ’s death on the cross, when Scripture says the earth shook and the sun went dark for three hours.

Parishioners at Mariners Church in Irvine wrote down their “fears, failures and frustrations” on cards, then nailed them to large wooden crosses placed throughout the sanctuary, symbolically letting go of their sins.

Churches in Garden Grove joined forces for “Walk the Way of the Cross,” a noontime procession of hundreds through city streets. The three-hour walk covered the Stations of the Cross, a series of meditations that recall the journey of Christ from condemnation to crucifixion and the tomb.

Friday evening, parishioners from the Episcopal Church of the Messiah in Santa Ana took part in the Via Crucis, the Latino tradition of observing the Stations of the Cross throughout a neighborhood. Worshipers, mostly from Latin America, followed a large cross to the 14 stations, where they read and wrote prayers.

A similar tradition was started this year in San Clemente, where parishioners from St. Clement’s By-the-Sea paraded for two miles through the city.

The Good Friday observances served as a prelude to Easter, the holiest day of the Christian year. Since Jesus’ followers, led by Mary Magdalene, are said to have discovered Christ’s empty tomb at daybreak Sunday morning, Easter sunrise services will take place across the county. Among the venues:

* The Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre: Pastor Chuck Smith of Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa will lead an estimated 10,000 worshipers beginning at 5:30 a.m.

* The Huntington Beach Pier: Congregations from several local churches gather near the pier at 6 a.m.

* The Festival of the Arts Amphitheater in Laguna Beach: Calvary Chapel Laguna Beach will hold services at 6 a.m. A crowd of 1,500 is expected.

* Downtown Plaza in Fullerton: Five Fullerton churches will join forces for the city’s first ecumenical Easter service, starting at 6 a.m.

* Max Berg Plaza Park in San Clemente: The Rev. Packard Okie will lead the liturgy for St. Clement’s By-the-Sea.

* On the beach at 14th Street in Newport: Christ Church by the Sea will hold its 11th annual Easter sunrise service at 6:30 a.m. Worshipers are encouraged to bring a beach chair and blanket.

* Coto de Caza Equestrian Center: Pastor Lee Strobel will lead Saddleback Church’s sunrise services at 6:30 a.m.

* Santiago Canyon College: Calvary Church of Santa Ana will have a 6 a.m. service in the school’s parking lot.

* Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove: Congregants at the 6:15 a.m. service can see the sun rise through the church’s 10,000 glass panes. Those with a taste for nostalgia can view the service at the cathedral’s drive-in, where they can stay in their cars and catch everything on an outdoor Jumbotron screen.

* Mile Square Regional Park in Fountain Valley: The second annual sunrise service, sponsored by the city’s churches, starts at 6:30 a.m. and features a multi-congregational choir and orchestra. Pastor Karl Vaters of Cornerstone Christian Fellowship will be the featured speaker.

* Festival Amphitheater at the Grove Theater Center in Garden Grove: A 6:30 a.m. service will be presented by a variety of local churches. Pastor Erika Gara of the Garden Grove United Methodist Church will preach.