The annual Community Good Friday service at noon Friday at The Commons in downtown Columbus will highlight the Stations of the Cross that focus on Christians’ savior’s painful suffering, mocking and eventual execution.
The stations, which worshipers will follow from their seats, trace Jesus of Nazareth’s humiliation from the hall of Roman prefect Pontius Pilate, where he was condemned to death, to the site of his execution on Golgotha, also known as Calvary.
Good Friday is considered the most somber day for Christians since it marks Jesus’ death to atone for the sins of mankind. It makes way for Easter Sunday, when Christians celebrate Jesus’ resurrection and their own eventual eternal life.
The Rev. Dan Cash, who has participated in the Good Friday service — open to all — for several years, will again be one of several area ministers offering a Scripture reading on those events.
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From year to year, the theme, music, Scripture readings and prayers changed slightly with the event’s planners.
“It’s a good opportunity for the larger Christian community to gather on such a significant holy day of our faith,” said Cash, senior pastor at First Baptist Church in Columbus. “My hope is we provide an opportunity for worship, but also that those of us who gather (at The Commons) bear witness to the rest of the community that local churches want to celebrate this day and this season together.”
The 50-year-old, Christ-centered Ecumenical Assembly of Bartholomew County Churches, which has 25 member churches, has organized the gathering for years. In the past decade or more, it has attracted from 150 to 300 people from 20 or more churches.
Elizabeth Kestler, the ecumenical assembly’s executive director, often has highlighted the importance of a place for local believers of various denominations to pray and reflect as one body of the faithful.
“It’s the atmosphere of this whole community — the willingness to come together, to work together, to pray together,” Kestler has said.
The Rev. Marc Vance, rector at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, organized a Stations of the Cross Good Friday service last year, and the planning committee has slightly modified it this year, Kestler said. Vance will lead the proceedings.
Local worship leader and singer/guitarist Dale Sechrest will lead the music with pianist Ed Bruenjes.
The service frequently has been marked by symbolism. Examples include a nail that worshipers took home with them a few years ago to reflect additionally on Jesus’ suffering for them and an extinguished candle at the close of several services through the years to symbolize Jesus’ death.
“There’s a fair amount of reflection just in helping put the liturgy together,” said Laura Wenzler, immediate past president of the ecumenical assembly and a member of the planning committee for this year’s service.
She said her hope is that Friday’s service can be a significant part of area Christians’ Holy Week experience.
“We’re all a part of this journey together,” Wenzler said.
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What: Annual Community Good Friday Service marking Jesus’ suffering and death on a cross.
When: Noon Friday, lasting slightly less than an hour.
Where: The Commons, 300 Washington St. in Columbus.
Information: Facebook page for Love Chapel — Ecumenical Assembly of Bartholomew County Churches.
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