Weekender: Joy and strength show in Easter celebration

Harvest Apostolic Church pastor Dave Moore.

After a decade of services the combined churches traditional Good Friday celebration still retains its significance among Rotorua Christians, says Harvest Apostolic Church Pastor Dave Moore.

Congregations from the majority of Rotorua churches will gather in the City Focus this morning to listen, pray and sing to sanctify the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

"We have the benefit of hindsight in that the day was a bad one and turned into a great one several days on when Jesus was resurrected,"says Pastor Dave.

"Our colleagues back in time did not have that ability to foresee what would happen after Jesus sacrificed himself for us."

Pastor Dave says the hour long Good Friday service, co-ordinated by the Rotorua Christian Ministries Association, is still an important day for Rotorua residents.

"Many associate Good Friday and Easter as a holiday.

"It can be treated as both a holiday and a holy day."

Pastor Dave says the service programme has differed little over the past 10 years.
He will present a sermon on a central theme but there will be no old school fire and brimstone rhetoric, he says.

"The main theme is about the crowd's choice to release the criminal Barabbas and call for Jesus to be crucified.

"There is a modern day application to their choice which will be in the sermon."

There will also be kapa haka groups, prayer readings, congregational singing and other musical items, and graffiti art for the remainder of the service.

"It is both part of the joy and strength of showing all the components of the various churches who are involved," says Dave.

"We are working together around our one common faith."

The service has always been based around celebrating Jesus' death, burial and resurrection, and focusing on his sacrifice of giving up his life to us all, he says.

"When we celebrate now we know what the outcome is."

Last year 500 people attended the service and as many are expected today, he says.

"It's cool to have so many churches involved and to have it held in the heart of the city and not in a church.

"It's always worth remembering Jesus wasn't crucified in a church, but on a public path outside Jerusalem so the City Focus venue is an appropriate setting for us."

In the afternoon around 100 people from Ngongotaha congregations - St Barnabas Anglican Church, Oasis Church and Trinity Presbyterian Church - will walk through the township carrying the Cross to celebrate the Procession of Witness.

The procession begins at 1.30pm from the Scout Hall, on Western and Ngongotaha Roads.