Easter seems to have been falling out of favour in recent years, as far as the number of church visitors is concerned at least.
Easter cards are also increasingly hard to find, though we’ve been able to buy chocolate eggs in Tesco’s since November.
Musically, however, Easter is still well worth investing in, as the well-known carols are often much clearer and punchier than their Christmas counterparts — there’s not really an Easter equivalent to ‘Little donkey’.
Look at the power of these words by Wesley: ‘Lives again our glorious King: where, O death, is now your sting? Once he died our souls to save: where’s your victory, boasting grave?’ How wonderful to be encouraging everyone to give praise and honour to their risen Lord.
Keep it simple
As with any service that is likely to host visitors, if I have any advice at all it would be to keep it simple. Whatever we do musically we need to do it well. I know that there are some powerful choral movements from Handel’s Messiah and from some of the big Passions, but getting a choir together can often lead to major headaches, however keen and gospel-hearted the singers are. Countless extra rehearsals, staging, advertising, ticketing, your main/only tenor getting ill the night before the big day, etc. etc.
I’m no party pooper!
I don’t want to be a party pooper, and if you’re in the middle of rehearsals for a big Easter event, go for it — you’re a lot braver than me! But usually there are concerts put on by the big choral societies at the nearest cathedral or town hall that will do much better renditions of these works than we could ever hope to achieve with much more limited resources. In my view it would be a much more efficient use of time and money to organise a group to go to hear the job done well. We can ask someone to give a short talk about Jesus over something to eat before the concert. Then, to follow up, we may be able to invite our guests to our own Easter service, where we can do what we do best — help people sing hymns and songs of praise to the risen Lord Jesus.
Having said this, I know that churches have put on ‘Scratch Messiahs’ where singers and an orchestra just turn up on the day. These seem to be very enjoyable and not as much work as a full-blown production. However, do make sure that there is some spoken content about the gospel somewhere — as I said in my last article, sometimes over-familiarity can deafen the ears of those we would love to reach with the good news.
Above all, I hope that we’re able to sing clearly that Christ risen, ascended and glorified over the Easter season, before the tinsel arrives in Tesco.
Richard Simpkin is Director of Music at St. Helen’s Church, Bishopsgate, London.
