Each year, the Bluffton Area Ministerial Association plans an ecumenical Good Friday service.
"We begin by carrying a cross to local Bluffton Area Ministerial Association churches, pausing to pray at each church entrance," said Louise Wideman.
This year the processional will begin at the English Lutheran Church at 11:30 a.m. From there, the cross will be carried to St. John's United Church of Christ, then to St. Mary's Catholic Church, to the Bluffton Presbyterian Church, Bluffton First United Methodist Church and finally to First Mennonite Church.
Hesston College and First Mennonite Church will partner to host Common Threads: Anabaptist and African American Songs and Stories of Suffering and Hope at 6 p.m. Sunday, April 15. The event is free and open to the public, though a free-will offering will be received to cover program costs.
Common Threads is a program of story and song that features current Hesston College faculty members Tony Brown, John Sharp and Ken Rodgers. They will give voice to Anabaptist martyrs and enslaved African Americans by singing their hymns and telling their stories.
This blooming tree - a portion of which is on the home page - displays its full spring time colors. It is at the parking lot entrance of St. Mary's Catholic Church.
Several special musical presentations are planned during Sunday worship services in April at the Bluffton Presbyterian Church.
On April 1 Julia Szabo, mezzo-soprano, will sing Faure's "The Palms" as the prelude/processional for the Palm Sunday service.
The choir will sing "Of Palms and Praise" by Furman/Drennan with a violin obligato played by Emily Sycks. At the same service, Linda Sycks, oboe and Jeremy Szabo, oboe d'amore, will play a duet from Bach's Cantata No. 94.
Grace Mennonite Church in Pandora will hold its annual Holy Week Services on Sunday and Monday, April 1-2, according to Dennis Schmidt, pastor.
The speaker this year is Janeen Bertsche Johnson, campus pastor at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, Elkhart, Ind. She will preach using the series "Seeking the Mind of Christ." It explores Philippians 2:5-11 and what it means to "let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus."
