Sunrise Mass

I've done Masses at the beach at sunrise with small retreat groups before, but I've never done a full parish Mass on a beach. I wanted to do an Easter sunrise Mass, both to bring prayer to a place where people already have an innate sense of awe and wonder, and because the ancient symbol of Christ's resurrection is the rising sun. Bishop Peter gave permission for us to give it a go.

The day was perfect, still, clear and just a wisp of cloud. We had no idea how many people to expect, but we think there was 200-300 people of all ages.

We stopped to watch the sunrise at 6.17am in silence, then sang Alleluia and proclaimed the gospel of Jesus risen.













Eucharist continued reverently with people kneeling in the sand.

At the end we baptised 4 primary school aged boys by full immersion, which for many people was the highlight of the day. I asked one of the boys the following week what he remembered, and he said "from the first time I went under, all I could think of was God".


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