Easter Sacrament Programs
Note: You will need three narrators (or you may choose to have many children act as narrators). If possible, you could use pictures from the Liahona or from the Gospel Art Picture Kit (GAK). The songs below are suggestions. You might consider other songs or hymns focusing on the Savior. SONG: ( Children’s Songbook, 62–63; Liahona, Oct.
1998, F4–F5). FIRST NARRATOR: Show GAK —Jesus Praying in Gethsemane. Jesus loves us so much that He gave His life to pay the price for our sins.
Easter Choir Arrangements Are you looking for Easter music for your program? Take a look at these Easter arrangements and choir numbers 1.) He Sent His Son.
SECOND NARRATOR: He said, “For behold, I, God, have suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer if they would repent”. THIRD NARRATOR: Jesus’s perfect life, His suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane, His death on the cross, and His are part of the Atonement. The Atonement makes it possible for everyone to live with Him again.
FIRST NARRATOR: That is why we rejoice. We are happy, and we show how grateful we are when we rejoice. SECOND NARRATOR: Show GAK —The Betrayal of Jesus. Soon after Jesus suffered in the Garden of Gethsemane, wicked people came with swords and sticks to arrest Him.
They took Him to the chief priests, elders, and scribes, who wanted Him to die. THIRD NARRATOR: Then they took Him to a Roman leader named Pilate, who had the authority to kill Him.
The people told Pilate that Jesus had committed many crimes and should die. FIRST NARRATOR: Pilate did not believe them. Pilate knew that Jesus was innocent and wanted to let Him go.
SECOND NARRATOR: The people cried, “Crucify him, crucify him”. THIRD NARRATOR: Finally Pilate told his soldiers to crucify Jesus. FIRST NARRATOR: Show GAK —The Crucifixion. Jesus suffered on the cross for many hours.
SECOND NARRATOR: Then Jesus cried in a loud voice, “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit”. THIRD NARRATOR: Jesus died. FIRST NARRATOR: The sky was dark. A great earthquake shook the earth. SECOND NARRATOR: Jesus’s disciples and friends were very sad.
SONG: Begin to hum or softly play ( Children’s Songbook, 88; Liahona, Apr. THIRD NARRATOR: After three days, Jesus’s spirit returned to His body.
He had been resurrected. FIRST NARRATOR: Because of Jesus’s Resurrection, everyone who dies can live again with his or her spirit and body reunited. SONG: Verse 2 of (Children’s Songbook, 88; Liahona, Apr. SECOND NARRATOR: The resurrected Lord appeared to many people. THIRD NARRATOR: Show GAK —Mary and the Resurrected Lord.
The first was Mary Magdalene. She loved Jesus very much and rejoiced when she saw Him. FIRST NARRATOR: Show GAK —Jesus Shows His Wounds. Later Jesus appeared to His disciples. They touched the wounds in His hands and feet. They saw Him eat.
They knew He was alive again, and they rejoiced. SONG: ( Children’s Songbook, 66–67; or “He Died That We Might Live Again,” Liahona, Apr. SECOND NARRATOR: Just as there had been a great storm in Jerusalem when Jesus died, there was an even greater storm in the Americas.
THIRD NARRATOR: Earthquakes, fires, and floods destroyed many cities. Mountains fell down. FIRST NARRATOR: The sky blackened. Candles would not light. Fire would not burn. No one could see anything. SECOND NARRATOR: The Nephites were frightened and started to cry.
Many of their members and friends had died. THIRD NARRATOR: Their homes were destroyed.
They wished they had repented of their sins. For three days they cried in the darkness. Then— FIRST NARRATOR: —they heard a quiet voice. It said: “I am the Son of God.
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Whoso repenteth and cometh unto me, him will I receive. Behold, for such I have laid down my life, and have taken it up again; therefore repent, and come unto me ye ends of the earth, and be saved”. SECOND NARRATOR: When the third day finally ended, light returned to the earth. The Nephites rejoiced and praised their Redeemer.
THIRD NARRATOR: Some time later many people gathered near the temple in the land of Bountiful. They talked about the changes that had come to the earth. FIRST NARRATOR: They talked about Jesus. SECOND NARRATOR: Suddenly, another voice began to speak. It was a soft voice.
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The people listened carefully to the voice of Heavenly Father. THIRD NARRATOR: He said, “Behold my Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, in whom I have glorified my name—hear ye him”. FIRST NARRATOR: Show GAK —Christ Appears to the Nephites.
The Nephites looked up and saw Jesus descending out of heaven. SECOND NARRATOR: Jesus said, “Arise and come forth unto me, that ye may thrust your hands into my side, and also that ye may feel the prints of the nails in my hands and in my feet, that ye may know that I am the God of Israel, and the God of the whole earth, and have been slain for the sins of the world”.
THIRD NARRATOR: The Nephites went to Him. They felt the wounds in His hands and feet and side.
SECOND NARRATOR: “Hosanna!” they cried. “Blessed be the name of the Most High God!”.
SONG: ( Children’s Songbook, 68–69; Liahona, Apr. 2003, F8–F9). FIRST NARRATOR: Show GAK —Jesus Praying in Gethsemane. Jesus loves everyone so much that He paid the price for our sins.
He also made it possible for us to live again after death. THIRD NARRATOR: That is why we rejoice when we think of Him. That is why we rejoice at Easter. SONG: ( Children’s Songbook, 70; or “The,” Liahona, Apr.
I’m a big fan of Christmas, so I was looking forward to the Christmas program at Church this morning. While the choir sang two Christmas numbers and two of our congregational hymns were also from the Christmas section of the hymnal, the talks had nothing to do with Christmas. We have five missionaries serving in our ward (three sisters and two elders), and each of them spoke. I’m not sure what the theme was supposed to be, or if there even was one; I guess it was on missionary work.
Christian Sacraments Vs Catholic Sacraments
I couldn’t believe it; we had visitors in the congregation who doubtless had come expecting a Christmas service, but no such service was presented; I imagine them scratching their heads as they left the building. I assumed this was just some sort of weird fluke of scheduling in our ward and put it out of my mind. But I just read a comment on Facebook where a sister reports that their ward’s sacrament meeting theme was on tithing.
That reminds me of the year, about a decade ago, when my ward devoted the Easter Sunday talks to tithing. Now, Easter moves around on the calendar, and in that case I’m pretty sure it was just a matter of someone being a little too efficient in long-term planning of sacrament themes without bothering to consult an actual calendar. But I can’t fathom that someone would not be aware that this is the Sunday immediately preceding Christmas, so no such lunar calendar explanation would fly.
Can you imagine if you brought your neighbors to our Christmas service, only for them to have to sit through an hour of sermons on the concept of tithing? That is unthinkable to me. So now I’m curious. Are we outliers, or were there other wards out there where for whatever reason they whiffed on providing an actual Christmas program and instead devoted the service to some other topic? Return and report!
Our sacrament meeting was entirely special music that all had to do with Christmas interspersed with readings of quotes and scriptures about the meaning of Christmas. It was well done. Of course, my primary lesson was on the Christmas story, but the youth lesson was on “signs of the times.” I am not judging the wonderful teachers, I am sure that was on their schedule.
I noticed some families left after sacrament meeting. I am considering it for next year if I am not teaching (similar to what happens if Christmas falls on a Sunday)–the spirit was wonderful in sacrament meeting and Christ centered on this Sunday before Christmas, but then why lose it?
I know we Mormons do not do ritual, but I think the pendulum has swung too far and we need to go ahead and on focus on Easter and Christmas–yes, to the exclusion of other gospel topics, on the appropriate Sundays. Best Christmas progr I have been to in many years. It was our first Sunday in our new ward in Alaska. It the beginning, the bishop explained that one of the main ways we worship is through music, the sacrament where we remember the Atonement in our lives, and when we pray alone and together.
We had a fantastic choir presentation for most of our meeting. The visiting new SP counselor had high praise for all involved. He said we need to get this spread to more wards.
With such a Christmas focus in sacrament meeting, the other lessons which only marginally tied to Christmas were fine. I was once asked to substitue in Sunday School on Easter. I scrapped the manual lesson and talked about the atonement. There were no adverse comments at all.
I have also heard of ward choirs getting such a negative review that they may not be asked to present much on Christmas. I am sure that appropriate talks would be just fine in that situation. I attend church via Skype as part of the Central China International District. For the sacrament program they asked us all in advance to sign up to read various verses of scripture about the birth of Christ and alternated scripture readings with Christmas songs that ward members had volunteered to sing. Despite the various tech and sound issues it went wonderfully. We even had a beautiful rendition of “What Child is This?” accompanied by the ukulele in our apartment.The meeting was so peaceful and brought the Christmas spirit to so many of us who are celebrating Christmas in a place where it is not celebrated.
Our branch has done such a wonderful job in helping us to have Christ in our lives this Christmas. Skype church really is wonderful. Because of limitations we keep everything simple and to the point and everything is focused on Christ. Plus there is only two hours of church which is always nice:). Since I am the ward music chairman, I made sure that we had a wonderful Christmas program yesterday — new converts of the year read Christmas scriptures, and each scripture block was followed by a ward choir Christmas piece (4) or a solo/duet (3) or a YW chorus piece (1) plus 4 Christmas hymns.
The bishop gave a short closing talk. It was WONDERFUL!!!
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But I started planning it in August and got almost no help in getting the new converts to come to back to church and read. (Some didn’t show up at all.) Our ward has always done Christmas well — it’s Easter that gets some serious hits. We have had both temple and tithing themes in past years, plus once it was changed to another Sunday (!!) to accommodate stake schedules. I always hope that we have zero guests for Easter. Last Easter, our ward almost had an Easter service. One Easter hymn (only), one irrelevant talk, and then the Bishop tried talking about grace, a concept he hadn’t quite wrapped his head around. He admittedly fumbled the “balance” of grace and works, and then struggled to define and testify of grace.
He ended up just about saying that he didn’t really have a testimony of all the complicated atonement stuff which he didn’t understand, but he saw God in little “tender mercies” each day, and was blessed to be the bishop and help people. Swing and a miss.
Our ward had three numbers by the choir, and two excellent talks. I have it on good authority that in at least one ward, there’s an Excel file out there with a list of good Sacrament meeting topics for the year. There will be a little shuffling around, but not much, and the list gets copied from one year to the next. That’s how you get topics like Joseph Smith for Easter Sunday – because somebody three to seven years ago thought that would be a good basic topic for the 2nd Sunday in April (or whatever). So, when our Bishopric did the same thing this year, one of the idiots there spoke up and suggested that we at least check to see when Easter, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Pioneer Day, Thankgiving, and Christmas fall, and tweak those topics accordingly.
Our ward – lots of Christmas music, with short (5 minute) talks by a member of the Temple Presidency and his wife, focused exclusively on how we can put more emphasis in our families on Christ for the season. Half of my ward consists of student families and a number of them (including the choir director) were leaving for the holidays, so our Christmas program was held two Sundays ago.
It was all musical, without any talks or narration. The topic of this week’s Sacrament Meeting was missionary work and the speakers made no mention of Christmas.
There were two Christmas musical numbers and we sang Christmas hymns, but I’m sure that some of the newer members thought it was a little odd that in the past month we never had a single talk about Christmas. Is there some rule that you can’t have two Christmas themed meetings in a year? We had no ward Christmas party either. Anyway, my husband’s dragging me to Midnight Mass tomorrow. I just wanted to report that not only did we have a Christmas program the Sunday before Christmas, but we had one yesterday, too.
The theme of the speakers was “Joy to the World.” The first speaker talked about Mary’s joy when the angel told her she would bear the Son of God, and the joy of the shepherd’s when the angel told them of the birth of the baby in Bethlehem. He also told a little about the author of the hymn. The other speakers talked about various aspects of the joy that comes to all of us through the life and light of Christ. We also sang “Joy to the World.” In GD, the teacher said since we had no lesson, he could do what he wanted and he wanted to talk about Christmas, so we did. He said Christmas was a celebration of the birth AND LIFE of Christ. And in RS the last lesson in the Lorenzo Snow manual was on Christ, so we actually had two Sundays of Christmas in our Ward.
Kevin, I don’t know what happened in your Ward because it certainly wasn’t a Stake level thing. In the 2 Wards and Branch that meet in our building all of them were Christmas themed. You might bring it up to your Bishopric – since I know all three of them relatively well – and ask them to consider ensuring Sacrament meeting is Christmas focused for December 21st next year. We just finished planning our meeting themes for next year and we have a spreadsheet that identifies any key holidays or dates (Easter, Christmas, Joseph & Hyrum’s martyrdom for instance) and tried to align themes for Sacrament meeting where it made sense.
I know some Bishoprics are not quite as organized around what topics to cover for Sacrament meeting but I can say this approach has worked well for us. BTW, we change up our topics each year so this is not just a shuffled sheet of topics, it’s just the format of the spreadsheet that offers a structure. Our Christmas theme was heavily focused on music. We do the same for Easter The opening and closing hymn were With Wondering Awe and I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day. Following the sacrament we had three songs by the Primary children: Far, Far Away on Judea’s Plain, Stars Were Gleaming, and Samuel Tells of the Baby Jesus. A short talk about Christ by a Sister A men’s chorus singing God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen A male solo, tenor, singing O Holy Night he pulled off very well.
The Ward Choir singing a very lovely arrangement of Silent Night The Bishop with a short message on service at Christmas time and keeping our hearts focused on the Savior throughout the year. Originally I posted that I attended a fantastic ward Christmas Sacrament Meeting. I still stand by it. I did and it was wonderful. It wasn’t my home ward. It was the ward that meets before us. This past Sunday while talking in the hall I learned my home ward didn’t have a Christmas program.
The choir did sing two songs but that was it. The rest was a baby blessing and 3 baptism confirmations, 3 speakers. Driving home this past Sunday I began to contemplate writing a letter to someone and ask why Christmas programs and a full month of December – Christ focus couldn’t happen church wide. There seem to be enough wards that just make it a regular Sunday that I think it warrants a letter. I just don’t know who to send it to. A few years ago, when I served as the Ward Music Chair, we had a lady who had the training to play the guitar.
I scheduled us to sing “Silent Night”. Before the organist began, I went to the podium and briefly told the story of that hymn was first played on the guitar, by the composer (as I recall), because the organ had malfunctioned and could not be repaired in time. We sang the first verse accompanied by the guitar. The subsequent verses were accompanied by the organist. A number of people afterward expressed positive comments about it. Fortunately, in our ward this past Sunday, both the music and the talks were Christmas related.