While Still Dark: Easter Light, from St. Augustine's Chapel in Nashville, Tennessee

Easter rituals begin by lighting a pascal flame. You take the flame from a small fire in the darkness and carry it into church with a candle.   This candle flame is kept burning all year.   But on Good Friday we blow out that candle and remember what it means to sit in darkness without that assurance. Good Friday is the day it appears that love is in ashes, snuffed out by violence, fear, and brokenness. Then every year, three days later, before the sun rises, we ignite a new pascal flame, celebrating that love didn’t die good Friday was simply it’s crowning achievement.  

         In our Easter Celebration we will celebrate that truth with beautiful candles made by the women of thistle farms, a justice enterprise run by women survivors who make more than 50,000 candles a year to help women find their way home from some pretty dark and desolate places.  The candles will shine bright from a willow cross and remind us of Magdalene’s hope in troubled times  and how we can move forward while it is still dark. 

        We hope our hour-long service rekindles a living hope that dances in our hearts. We will share old hymns and original music with first class singers and instrumentalists! Marcus Hummon, will share the song Bless the Broken road he wrote and won a grammy for.  Graduates of the Fisk Jubilee singers will come together to share new arrangements of old hymns.  The entire choir will join in on Radney Foster’s little Revival.   The Easter story preaches that when we keep the candle burning, it carries us beyond grief. The stone has rolled, the shroud has fallen, and we are free. 

 And visit us at Thistle Farms. https://thistlefarms.org