The most important day and festival for Christians was made extra special for many on March 26 with a moving Easter musical and a passionate response from a call to support the pending arrival of Syrian refugees.
It was an event shared by five local Christian churches.
The Saturday evening service before Easter Sunday at the Innisfail Church of the Nazarene began with an introduction from Pastor Jeff Baker. It was followed by special readings from representatives of four other local churches, including Pastor Len Nation of the Innisfail Baptist Church, Pastor Andrew Rilling of the Innisfail Alliance Church, Pastor Joanne Lee of St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church and Pastor Bud Sargent who represented the Bowden Institution.
The three-member worship team from the Innisfail Alliance Church provided hymns between each reading.
“We are opening our doors and welcoming new neighbours. This is exactly what our community is about,” noted Sargent to the packed audience, about Innisfail's commitment to support at least three new Syrian refugee families to the community. “Bless these families.”
The support that evening came in a collective offering of more than $1,200, money that will assist the Welcoming Communities Committee (WCC) and the Innisfail Alliance Church to support the pending arrivals of the second and third Syrian refugee families to town.
“We just felt it was a good thing to take an offering for something that was for everybody and affected everybody,” said Baker, whose church has a representative on the WCC. “The Syrian Refugee effort right now is front and centre with the ministerial and the welcoming communities and the Alliance church. We just decided that was a good cause for it.”
And then it was time to celebrate Easter with a 30-minute musical called Victor's Crown, a celebration of the risen Christ.
“It is the greatest story every told that Christ has defeated sin and that we are free in Him, and he wears the victor's crown,” said Baker.
The musical was about 30 minutes long, with the 33-member choir including singers from all churches. It was followed by Baker's devotional message around the resurrection story. The choir then sang one final song to close the service.
“What we really wanted to do through this was to try to have as many churches that were involved in having members in the choir. We wanted to involve those churches in the service,” said Baker. “It is held in our building (but) it is not all about us.”
Pastor Jeff Baker
"We just felt it was a good thing to take an offering for something that was for everybody and affected everybody."
