There's More! Easter in the RGV Part III

If you're rolling your eyes and asking, "Girl, what is UP with the three posts about Easter? Give it a rest already," I'll understand. Nonetheless, there's still more to say about Easter in the RGV if you feel like reading further.

First: Don't go shopping during Holy Week. Every Mexican national with disposable income is in McAllen buying stuff. I spent 45 minutes in the checkout line at Ross on Good Friday afternoon wondering if Mass was anywhere near as crowded.

Second-and-harder-to-accept: the Mormons here don't do a bleeding thing to celebrate Easter and no one seems to notice or care.

Since our ward has the 1-4 pm timeslot this year, Mike and I decided to alternative services Easter morning. I'd written a Monitor column about St. Matthew's peace gardens & labyrinth and talked with the rector a couple of times, so we decided to go there for their second Easter service with music.

It was a good call. There were Easter lilies and flowers decorating the sanctuary, beautiful music, an intelligent sermon, welcoming people and--best of all--palpable Easter joy.

I had to sightread most of the hymns. I enjoyed the selections from the Book of Common Prayer and the interactive Peace part of the service, during which people greeted each other enthusiastically and wished each other peace.

The rector announced the church's upcoming Holy Smoke BBQ, which gave me the giggles. And I met the woman who planted the peace gardens who was a client of the physical therapist I worked for on whose desk I found the postcard about the labyrinth and peace gardens which is how I learned about St. Matthew's in the first place.

Several people invited us to stay for coffee after the service, but we had to dash back to make it to our ward. We should have quit while we were ahead.

The assistant organist was mutilating the opening hymn when we walked in and I made an unfortunate pew choice which put us in front of the mission president's wife who sings loudly off key, bless her heart.

Mike nudged me and whispered that there were NO Easter hymns on the program. I knew there weren't going to be any choir numbers, but no congregational hymns, either? The bishop got up and announced it was Fast & Testimony meeting. My surprise turned to dismay then to shock and disbelief and then to RAGE.

I sat there seething and wishing we hadn't come at all, since being pissed was crowding out all the good juju from St. Matthew's. So I grabbed the hymnbook and sang all the Easter hymns to myself. Meanwhile, a couple of testimony-ers mentioned Easter in passing and others not at all.

I thought about going up and bearing my own rip-roaring testimony of Easter in Pasadena Ward with resplendent choir numbers with pipe organ accompaniment and last year's program focused on the women in the Easter story. Alas, I was too PISSED OFF and didn't trust what I might say with an open mic in front of me.

Instead, I read the Easter/resurrection story from all the gospels. Finally, the bishop stood to wrap things up--and called on ME from the PULPIT to say the closing prayer! If he'd had ANY idea of the murderous anger in my heart about testimony meeting trumping EASTER, I'm sure he would have asked someone else.

But he "asked" me and I got the last word. I asked that we'd ponder and grow in our understanding of the Easter story and the risen Christ--and I worked in a little something about the women who found the tomb empty on resurrection morning.

After SS opening exercises were done, I turned to the SP and tried to get some kind of explanation, saying "I don't remember the last time Easter was on a Fast Sunday--I mean, I know it has to happen, but I can't recall the last time it did." He explained (like I was four) that last Sunday was conference, so testimony meeting got bumped back a week. No apology or acknowledgement that this completely dissed Easter.

The rest of the meetings were equally void of Easter. According to several ward members, no one gives a rip about it and the ones who do are tired of fighting to get good music onto the program or wrestle people into attending choir.

I just don't think I can let this slide without officially registering how appalled I was that THE foundational event in all of Christianity was treated like any ordinary Sunday. Makes me HOPPING MAD.

I don't know that it would do any good, but at least it will explain our absence from on any/all subsequent Easters the ward chooses not to recognize.