Sunrise services on Easter morning are a Christian tradition that many believe started with the Moravian church in Germany in the 1730s. For Episcopalians, the practice arose from the Easter Vigil, which, according to The Episcopal Church, is observed “sometime between sunset on Holy Saturday and sunrise on Easter.” The four-part liturgical format of the Easter Vigil echoes the rituals of the ancient church. “Believers would gather in the hours of darkness ending at dawn on Easter to hear scripture and offer prayer. This night-long service of prayerful watching anticipated the baptisms that would come at first light and the Easter Eucharist. Easter was the primary baptismal occasion for the early church to the practical exclusion of all others. This practice linked the meanings of Christ’s dying and rising to the understanding of baptism.”
In Maine Episcopal churches today, sunrise services are generally separate from the Easter Vigil. On a beach or lake shore, in a field or an urban setting, we can greet the new day and the Risen Christ. Allelulia!
The following churches are offering sunrise services this Easter:
St. George’s, York Harbor
5:30 a.m., Long Sands Beach Bath House, across from the Oceanside Store at 179 Long Beach Ave., York Harbor
St. Luke’s, Wilton
5:45 a.m., Wilton Ecumenical Sunrise Service at the corner of Orchard Drive and Colby-Miller Road
St. Margaret’s, Belfast
5:30 a.m., along the shore by the Belfast Boathouse, hosted by the Greater Bay Area Ministerium
St. Brendan the Navigator, Deer Isle
6 a.m., on the Fish Pier in Stonington, co-sponsored by Deer Isle Sunset Congregational Churches
Trinity Church, Castine
5:45 a.m, Ecumenical service at the Wilson Museum, 107 Perkins St., Castine
To add your church to this list, please email Susan Sherrill Axelrod.