leadinginworship

The Best First Day of the Week: A Zoom Easter Pageant

Based on:  Matthew 28:1-10; Mark 16:1-7;  Luke 24:1-12; John 20:1-10

Characters:       
 Narrator
Mary Magdalene
Mary the mother of James
Joanna (wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward)
Salome
Caleb: 10 year old son of Salome
Dinah & David:  eight year old twin children of Salome
Peter
John
Cleopas

This pageant would work for children, or with an intergenerational cast.

Props:             
Some baskets for Salome and Caleb
a bucket for David 
Headgear for actors to reflect their character. 
Signs: “The Best First Day of the Week”  Act 1, Act 2, Act 3, Act 4

Instructions: 

1. This pageant works best if you record your zoom call, and then play it at your Easter service. It’s a lot less stressful that way. If you really want to do it live, explain to audience that it is essential that everyone who is watching the pageant has their microphone muted and their camera off, and their zoom settings set on Speaker View.
2. The actors keep their microphones on throughout the pageant, but they have to be told to be very quiet when they are not speaking. Don’t even try to do the play with actors turning their microphones on and off because you know they won’t remember and they will say their lines and you won’t hear them.
3. If you have a technologically savvy person, they can edit the recording to take out gaps and pauses.
4. Actors must speak loudly so the microphone picks them up and Zoom automatically makes them the speaker. As you practice, make sure people don’t rustle their script papers by the microphone of their computer, or it will cause interference.
5. It can be helpful if you have the actors rename themselves on zoom, so their character’s name shows up when they speak. Having different hats or scarves can help the audience keep the characters apart (eg. if John has a red scarf on).

Act 1

 

Narrator:          Welcome to our Easter pageant, [holding up sign] “The Best First Day of the Week.”  Our story looks in on the friends of Jesus on the days after his death.  Let me introduce our characters. We have the women who will go to the tomb: Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, Joanna wife of Herod’s steward Chuza, and Salome.  The story begin at Salome’s house, and we meet three of her children, Caleb, who is 10, and the 8 year old twins Dinah and David.  Then we have three of Jesus’ male followers, Peter, John and Cleopas.  Act 1 [holding up sign] begins on Saturday, the day after the crucifixion, at sunset, just as the sabbath is ending. What’s happening at Salome’s house? Salome’s children will let us know.

Dinah:              Caleb, this has been the worst sabbath ever. 

Caleb:               Why are you complaining Dinah? 

Dinah:              I’m not complaining, I’m just stating a fact.  This has been the worst sabbath ever. Mother and Father’s friends are filling the whole house, but not in a good way. 

David:               She’s right...  It’s not like other times when they’ve visited... Today they’re either crying or they’re arguing.

Blessing a New Hymnal

In the midst of this pandemic,
when worship is disrupted and even more vital than ever,
we want to mark a transition in our congregation.
Since 1992, we have been using the blue Hymnal: A Worship Book.
Now our church has bought our new  denominational worship book--
it is called Voices Together.
Even though many of us haven’t yet held the book in our hands,
we will start to use it in our worship services.
Let’s take a moment to say a prayer about this transition.
If you have these books, I invite you to hold them while we say this prayer.

Thank you, God, for the gift of our old blue hymnal.
It’s accompanied us through decades of worship.
The bindings are loose; it’s been dropped by scores of toddlers.
The pages are wrinkled and dog-eared; touched by thousands of hands.
We know this book in intimate ways
because it has helped us express our petitions and praises--
there are songs and prayers we know by heart.
We’ve pulled it out Sunday after Sunday,
it’s been there for us at weddings and funerals.
It has been our constant companion for almost thirty years.
Some of us have never known another hymnal.
For this book, and the way you touched us through it, we are so thankful.
As we retire it from every Sunday use, we turn now to our new resource.
Thank you for all who helped to create this new purple Voices Together.
We launch it joyfully, confident that it will help our community find our voice.
Together we will explore the words and tunes and images,
hearing faithful voices from our own Anabaptist tradition,
and the worldwide Christian community.
As we worship, you will continue forming us into your people.
We dedicate these books to you,
and us to your service.
In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen