Prayer wall returns at First Westminster Presbyterian Church in Steubenville
PRAYERFUL EXPRESSIONS – The Rev. Jason Elliott, pastor of First Westminster Presbyterian Church at 235 N. Fourth St., Steubenville, and Amy Parikakis, the church’s director of marketing and communications, write on the church’s outdoor prayer wall. Anyone is welcome to do likewise while the wall is up until the week after Easter. -- Janice Kiaski
PREPARING PALMS – Readying palms Thursday afternoon for the Palm Sunday service at First Westminster Presbyterian Church in Steubenville are members, clockwise, from left, Nancy Hanlon, Ginny Zoric, Lee Gillison, Kimberly Hargett, Gail Saner, Ruth Sutherin, Bonnie Kerr and Sammie Tate. -- Janice Kiaski
PRAYERFUL EXPRESSIONS – The Rev. Jason Elliott, pastor of First Westminster Presbyterian Church at 235 N. Fourth St., Steubenville, and Amy Parikakis, the church’s director of marketing and communications, write on the church’s outdoor prayer wall. Anyone is welcome to do likewise while the wall is up until the week after Easter. -- Janice Kiaski
PREPARING PALMS – Readying palms Thursday afternoon for the Palm Sunday service at First Westminster Presbyterian Church in Steubenville are members, clockwise, from left, Nancy Hanlon, Ginny Zoric, Lee Gillison, Kimberly Hargett, Gail Saner, Ruth Sutherin, Bonnie Kerr and Sammie Tate. -- Janice Kiaski
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STEUBENVILLE -- It might seem odd to revert to a holiday tactic that proved successful during the social distancing days of the pandemic, but First Westminster Presbyterian Church in Steubenville has done just that, bringing a return of its prayer wall outside the front entrance at 235 N. Fourth St.
The Rev. Jason Elliott, the church's pastor, and Amy Parikakis, the church's director of marketing and communications, were the first to take chalk in hand Thursday and jot a prayer on the wall that will remain in place until the week after Easter.
Everyone in the community is welcome to do likewise.
"Prayer" has been the Lenten theme at the downtown church where preparations are in place for Palm Sunday and Easter services at 10:45 a.m. A group of members worked Thursday to prepare palms for distribution on Sunday.
"We'll be handing out the palms before the service just as a reminder of the great sign of salvation through Christ, and hosanna in the highest," Elliott said of what's "a celebration that the son of man is coming into the last week of his life to pay the ultimate price of his sacrifice."
Elliott recalled how the church worked to think outside the box during Easter 2020 when COVID-19 restrictions brought traditional worship practices to a standstill.
"It's interesting this year that we're kind of taking a page out of when COVID hit, how do we get palms in people's hands, and we developed a prayer wall that is outside and available for anyone from the church or in the community to come and offer a prayer request," he said.
"It's something that we did that was very interactive during COVID, and we thought that we would bring that back as an opportunity for people to post those prayer requests, whether it's individual prayers or for the community or for our EMTs and firefighters and police, the business community or national or world concerns," he said.
"In COVID we actually put clotheslines out and placed the palms on the clothesline with clothespins for people to come and take those palms with them, but now that service is back and we'll be handing those palms out, but we just encourage folks to come and put a prayer request down, and to be thankful and grateful for God's presence," Elliott said.
The take-a-palm option and write a prayer enabled social distancing without compromising expressions of faith, according to Elliott, and the church continues to embrace a creative approach to reaching out, pandemic or no pandemic.
"I think that's why the prayer wall is out there this week, to engage the community and say, hey, this is a celebration, and this is a way we can offer our praise and thanksgiving but also to offer encouragement to people that there's hope," he said.
"It's a beautiful expression. The prayer wall is there now and will be up until the week after Easter."
Palm Sunday involves the children's cantata and "an Easter spectacular" afterward for the children with an Easter egg hunt and fellowship. A Maundy Thursday service is set for 6 p.m.
Easter Sunday brings a special tradition - the flowering of the cross.
"Our people bring flowers, whether they get daffodils out of their yard - or their neighbor's yard, right," he laughed, "hopefully with permission, or Kroger's, and we'll have cut flowers here, and at the beginning part of our service, it's an expression of how we all bring our gifts, and we present our gifts back to God for the great gift of life that he gives us, and it's just a very meaningful spiritual time to watch this cross that is very plain get filled with vibrant colors representative of all of the people and the gifts that God gives and how we participate in the kingdom," Elliott explained of how the cross is adorned with fresh flowers.
"That cross, immediately after the service, will be out on the front porch so people can come and take pictures," he said. "There are so many people from neighboring churches, they'll come and get a picture and we'll have that up for a week, too," so the prayer wall will be there, and the cross will be there, barring any 80 mph winds," he said with a chuckle.
The Easter service begins at 10:45 a.m. April 9.