Over the last five years, political and social groups have
called for the removal of references to God and religious symbols
from our nation’s currency, the Pledge of Allegiance and various
public places.

Three Bradford area pastors talked with The Era on Good Friday
about celebrating Easter in 2007.

All three recognized there is a semi-annual phenomenon – around
Easter and Christmas – when their congregations swell, and even
those who don’t normally find the time for weekly services make
their way to church.

The Rev. Leo Gallina, pastor at St. Bernard Catholic Church,
said he is “very thankful” for his congregation and the extra
visitors during the holidays. The Rev. Robert Brest, pastor of the
First Free Methodist Church on Boylston Street, agreed, saying he
is also “thankful for the opportunity to minister to” an increased
audience.

The Rev. David Stains, pastor of Evans Memorial United Methodist
Church in Lewis Run, explained Christmas and Easter are “central to
the Christian message,” which is likely the reason people make the
extra effort to make it to services at those times.

“Sure we’d like to have them all the time,” Stains said. “Who
wouldn’t?” he asked, adding people’s extra efforts, however, should
be honored.

This Easter, each of the churches have special services slated.
At St. Bernard’s, there is an Easter vigil set for 8 p.m. today,
and two Masses at 8 and 10 a.m. Sunday. The First Free Methodist
Church is having services in conjunction with the Bradford
Salvation Army, including sunrise services at 7 a.m. Sunday and
breakfast following at 7:30 a.m. Worship is set for 10:30 a.m.,
Brest said, and a small choir of children will give a small
concert. A junior high student will play the offertory. At Evans
Memorial, special services were slated Thursday and Friday nights,
including symbolic tearing of cloths meant to represent the
“tearing of the temple veil.”

Gallina said this Easter, his message to his congregation will
be about “the re-awakening of the importance of God in (his own)
life,” and that “God speaks through the beauty of the liturgy.”

Brest said he intends to speak about the resurrection and about
his belief that “he (Jesus) lives, and so will we … forever.”

Stains said his Easter message will be to encourage his
congregation to “find the best of what Jesus has to offer. I
believe he is the best expression of humanity and our hopes.”

When asked about religion’s place in modern America -ðwhere it
seems a large portion of the population is moving farther away from
traditional religion every day – the pastors offered these final
philosophies.

“It (religion) is our moral pinning,” Brest said, adding he is
frustrated with recent trends in shutting out religion and he
believes backing away from religious values is directly correlated
to a rise in crime and other negative aspects of American
society.

Stains said that “as an American people, we are traditionally
free to make choices, and that has been a positive side of our
religious experience.” During the era of the American Revolution,
he said, church heads in Europe were very concerned about what
would happen if people were free to choose their own religion.

He pointed out that human beings are religious creatures by
nature, and that if it is not God that we worship, it will be
something else instead. And that, he said, has the potential to be
very dangerous.

“When you discard the values and religious direction and
compass, that something … could be bad,” Stains said.

Gallina expressed a hopeful view of the contemporary status of
religion in American society, saying messengers of God must work
harder these days, but that he thinks the “message of Christ … will
be heeded.”

“God will win in the end through the kindness of others,” he
said.