Pastor Tricia Calahan offers the benediction at the end of the 2014 Sunrise Service. There was more daylight that year, because Easter arrived in late April.
It was dark when the first worshipers parked behind Town Hall and walked toward Ring’s Pond for the annual Easter service. All they could see was Rev. Julia Winward’s white robe, as she stood in front of a cross adorned with flowers.
Some people brought flashlights so they could read the prayer bulletins. At 6:30 a.m., it seemed unlikely that the daylight would arrive before the service was over.
The Easter morning observance is a community tradition in Cornwall. About 60 people attended this year, and one of them asked Rev. Patricia Calahan why the service was held so early.
Rev. Calahan referred to the question, without revealing its source, before reading the Gospel lesson for the morning (John 20:1-18). “Early on the first day of the week,” she began, “while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb.”
Rev. Calahan paused after the word “dark,” and the people standing in front of her chuckled — perhaps knowing the source of the question. The pastor continued to read about Mary’s discovery of the empty tomb and her seeing the risen Jesus without recognizing him.
The clergy woman referred to that scene a few minutes later when she delivered the message for the morning. She started by saying that even in a crowd (with everyone talking at once) if someone calls our name, we hear them.
Mary Magdalene’s experience in the Gospel reading was like that. She mistook Jesus for the gardener, but when he called her by name she immediately knew who it was.
God often calls us by name, Rev. Calahan assured her listeners. And she urged them to do the same for the people around them who were lonely and despairing.
She never revealed the name of the person who inquired about the time of the service. But whenever Rev. Calahan referred to the question, she grinned at her eight-year-old daughter Emma, who was in the front row.
Revs. Calahan and Winward took turns leading the service. In keeping with tradition, Linda Parrette and Richie Miles played their guitars before the service and during the singing of three hymns.
As the worshipers returned to their cars, the darkness lifted — as it had done on that first Easter morning.