By JESSE GRAHAM
WHEN the Easter long weekend comes around and the family are all together, it’s important to not lose sight of the holiday’s meaning, says Yarra Glen pastor Mike Baimbridge.
Next weekend, from 25-28 March, will be the Easter long weekend, which brings with it the prospect of public holidays and chocolate for children (both young and young at heart).
In churches across the Yarra Valley and Dandenong Ranges, Good Friday and Easter Sunday services will be held to mark the occasion, which represents Jesus’ death and resurrection in the Christian Bible.
Senior pastor at Heartland Church, Mike Baimbridge, said the holiday had important symbolism to reflect on.
“Even when you think of things as simple as Mother’s Day or Valentine’s Day, we lost the symbolism of the giving – and that’s what it really stands for – in the ‘what am I going to get’,” he said.
Mr Baimbridge said the message of Easter was simply hope.
“I would say, for Easter, it’s a real message of hope,” he said.
“I think that one of the big issues in our society today is that so many people don’t have hope, and they work in a here-and-now mentality.
“Certainly, our society has become more wealthy, so it’s become more individualistic – so you’ve got a whole lot of loneliness.”
He said that the holiday was a chance for people to remember their relationships with one another, which was something that could be taken on even by those who do not believe in religion.
“I’m quite adverse to the term ‘religious’,” he said.
“If people can get away from ‘religion’ and get to understand what Easter really means in terms of relationships – the whole of creation is … interrelationship between us and nature, and us and one another.
“People need to be able to hear the story, without feeling like there’s an agenda being pushed, that ‘you have to believe or accept this’.”
He said that, in his experience, church attendance usually doubled around Easter time, but that he understood that many people used the opportunity to go on holidays.
“I’m not one to demand that people should go to church, but I would hate to see that we lost the story, and it became just another public holiday,” he said.
