LOCC hosting annual Easter Sunrise Service

After two years of pandemic, the 21 Annual Easter Sunrise Service is back at the Reynolds Linger Longer pavilion. According to the Christian Gospels, Christ’s empty tomb was discovered very early in the morning. Centuries later, European Christians began holding sunrise services to celebrate the resurrection. The first Easter Sunrise Service recorded in history took place in 1732 in the Moravian congregation at Herrnhut in the Upper Lusatian hills of Saxony. After an all-night prayer vigil, the Single Brethren -- the unmarried men of the community -- went to the town graveyard, God’s Acre, on the hill above the town to sing hymns of praise to the Risen Savior. The following year, the whole congregation joined in the service. Thereafter the “Easter Morning” or “Sunrise Service” spread around the world with the Moravian missionaries. In America, the first sunrise occurred at the Salem Congregation of the Moravian Church in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, which began welcoming Easter before sunrise in 1772 and has done so every year since. Friends who have taught at Wake Forest University tell about the impact of that service on the surrounding community. Having taught ministerial students at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology for 17 years, I am aware of another long-running sunrise service which dates back to 1944 atop Stone Mountain near Atlanta with the park opening extremely early at 4 a.m.