Dear Friends,
Last Sunday, we set aside our dignity for a few minutes during the homily and just . . . laughed!
“For centuries in Eastern Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant countries, the week following Easter Sunday, including ‘Bright Sunday’ (the Sunday after Easter), was observed by the faithful as ‘days of joy and laughter’ with parties and picnics to celebrate Jesus’s resurrection. Churchgoers and pastors played practical jokes on each other, drenched each other with water, told jokes, sang, and danced.
“The custom was rooted in the musings of early church theologians (like Augustine, Gregory of Nyssa, and John Chrysostom) that God played a practical joke on the devil by raising Jesus from the dead. ‘Risus paschalis – the Easter laugh,’ the early theologians called it.” *
In more recent years, an increasing number of churches have celebrated the Sunday after Easter as Holy Humor Sunday. I asked all of you a couple years ago if you’d like to give it a try, and you said, “Yes!” As Easter fell this year on April Fools’ Day, it seemed an auspicious year to give it a go.
So last Sunday, I shared with you some of the humor found in the Scriptures and we joked about ourselves as Episcopalians, celebrating the joy of the Resurrection. While there was neither drenching nor dancing, those in attendance received this time to sit back and laugh with enthusiasm. It was a time of blessing after the gravity of Lent and the emotional turmoil of Holy Week.
So we’ll expand on this a bit next year. I’m already making notes!
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
Mtr. TJ
P.S. – A Note from Miss Debbie:
Calvary’s children collected $495.13 this year during Lent for The Heifer Project. Here are the animals they chose to donate: 1 goat, 1 sheep, bees (This includes bees, a box & hive, and beekeeping training.), seedlings (coffee, fruit, and others), 3 flocks of chickens, 1 trio of Rabbits – and the balance went toward a water buffalo.
Our kids have so much fun collecting the congregation’s change, counting it, and choosing the animals for this outreach project, and they thank all our members who have contributed to this mission!
Calvary’s kids also chose to minister to AA during Lent. They made posters and wrote prayers, distributed palm crosses, and decorated fishing “bobbers” (“Believe, and God will not let you sink”) to give to them. We will continue to serve them. It has been fun!