Church + Easter + Me = AAAAAHHH!!!

Most weeks are fairly easy as far as church responsibilities go. Then there is Easter week. Holy Week is a long week for the people behind the scenes at our church, and for some reason some members feel the need to add to the already insane week.

Let’s see, we’ve got Palm Sunday where we somehow have to coordinate all the children in the church to carry and wave palm branches down the center aisle to the alter as a procession for the choir. That wouldn’t be such an ordeal if some kids didn’t try to poke each other’s eyes out with the fronds.

Then we have Maundy Thursday, what with the lamb dinner, for which the dining hall needs to be set up and decorated, food needs to be prepared, and of course there has to be cake afterwards, which of course I opened my big mouth and offered to make. Oh well, we got a lamb dinner out of the deal, and I do love me some good lamb. Maundy Thursday also has foot washing in a separate room, which thankfully I wasn’t the only one to set up and decorate. But apparently there was an assumption that I would also help do the foot washing, and there was no way I would. Besides, I still had to set up the cupcake tower before people arrived for dinner! After dinner is the service, and then back downstairs to the dining hall for cleanup.

Good Friday, fortunately, doesn’t require much effort, because it is not really something many people do at our church anymore. But the church is open for contemplation and prayer, and that requires someone to be there at all times, whether that be the secretary, pastor or a volunteer.

Saturday before Easter is the Easter Egg Hunt, which I’m not really certain if we are doing this year because I was not recruited for helping out with it, and with everything else going on, decided not to even inquire about it for fear of being pulled in to help. Crap, now I have guilt!

And of course, Sunday is Easter. Now, to prepare for the influx of one-timers who only go to church on Easter, the walls separating the Sanctuary and the Narthex are taken down and seats placed in the Narthex for the overflow. Not such a big deal, if you know what you are doing. And fortunately we have a guy who does, and would be at a complete loss without him. But for some incredibly odd reason, our choir director thought it would be neat to have a fundraiser on Easter morning to raise money for our roof and skylight replacement by serving breakfast that morning before service. I went along with it and offered to shop for the groceries needed, figuring that would get me out of cooking, cleaning and decorating. Well, let’s just say it was assumed I would be decorating, so that is what I’ll be doing in about an hour from now. With the help of another person on our Parish Life Committee, which my second and final term is up this June, we went to Cash & Carry to purchase the groceries needed for the breakfast, which of course over a hundred people signed up for, probably in large part to my announcement about it using two puppets and myself, which, by the way, having a three-way conversation where you are playing all three characters is much harder than I made it appear. Anyway, I offered up our chafing dishes and somehow that also meant that I offered to help make and serve breakfast. Really? I don’t know if I can be showered, dressed, coffeed and ready to cook by six in the morning, for the simple fact that I can’t keep my big mouth shut offering advice on how to execute things more efficiently. Damn.