Cabot church worships in cemetery around bonfire Easter Sunday
JEFFERSON TWP — Most people don’t like waking up before sunrise, but St. Luke Lutheran Church and Schoo gives its congregation a compelling reason with its Easter Sunday tradition.
A congregation of about 80 people met around 5:45 a.m. before sunrise in the church parking lot to walk to the church cemetery about 300 yards down Hannahstown Road.
There, they joined others who went ahead to warm themselves at the large bonfire in the cemetery around which the congregation would worship and sing.
Pastors Benjamin Berteau and Brian Bocian don’t know when the tradition of hosting Easter Sunday’s sunrise service in the cemetery surrounding a bonfire started. Still, generations of families have witnessed it over the church’s 177-year history.
Bertanu said he has been at the church for seven years, and Bocian since 2005, without hearing the tradition’s origin.
“It’s the favorite of lots of folks around here,” Berteau said.
He described the service as an Easter vigil, but in the morning. The congregation ventures to the cemetery in the darkness, and the sun rises and birds sing as worship ends to bring the message Christ has risen.
The service embodies the Easter story of the women and disciples visiting Jesus’s tomb before sunrise and mourning him before seeing the stone rolled away, showing the tomb was empty.
Bocian said hearing the story of Mary Magdalene and the “other Mary” from the Gospel of Matthew walking to the tomb in the darkness as the congregation gathers in the dark cemetery for worship leaves a lasting impact, especially for the congregation’s many members who have family buried there. Part of Berteau’s message during the service included reflecting on the family members buried beneath them and knowing they will rise again.
“Nothing embodies your faith in the resurrection more than standing on the ground of those that have been before you, awaiting that return,” Bocian said.
He said the bare-bones nature of the service by standing in the cold darkness in the cemetery with only the voice of the congregation for music “strips away the fluff” and demands a larger commitment.
“It’s so meaningful to us here and the people personally,” Berteau said.
The sunrise service is held outdoors rain or shine, and the pastors said salt trucks are still passing by some years preparing for winter weather. Berteau said this was the nicest day he has seen for the sunrise service.
The moderate weather also allows for an easier time lighting the bonfire. The pastors said this fire was smaller compared to past years when its size had forced the circle around it to spread far. Berteau said the family who prepares the fire seasons the wood all year and arrives at 4 a.m. to prepare it.
After the service, the congregation returned to the church for a community breakfast.
The church hosts services at 8, 9:30 and 11 a.m. Easter Sunday in addition to the sunrise service and hosts Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday and Good Friday services leading up to it.
Berteau said he had never seen a church that adds a bonfire to its outdoor Easter Sunday sunrise service before joining St. Luke Lutheran. Bocian had used candles at the outdoor sunrise services at his home church in Pittsburgh but also had not seen a bonfire as part of the tradition before St. Luke Lutheran.
