Fairbanks congregation gathers at Eagle Summit for special service
A solstice celebration with a spiritual bent is in the works for Sunday night and Monday morning atop Eagle Summit.
For the 11th consecutive year, St. Matthew’s Episcopal church congregants and anyone else interested in joining the journey will travel to one of the highest road passes in the area (elev. 3,685 feet) to celebrate the midnight sun with a Eucharist service. The event will be followed by a covered dish picnic.
“I love going up there because I can see out there in this big, wide-open space, and I think of God’s creation,” said Irene Roberts, one of the congregants. “It is wonderful, and we invite all the rest of the people up there looking for the midnight sun to join us.”
An outdoor service at Eagle Summit was suggested by Helen Howard 11 years ago during a vestry meeting brainstorming ideas that could involve the whole congregation.
Howard thought the time of year and locale were perfect to enjoy nature’s displays of the midnight sun and arctic wildflowers.
“The arctic wildflowers are quite different,” Howard said. “They are short-stemmed and sometimes have no stems.”
St. Matthew’s rector, the Rev. Scott Fisher, who has presided over the service for the past decade, never takes the summit weather for granted.
“The first time, it was absolutely perfect. The sun came down and came up and ricocheted off the chalice,” Fisher said. “It was spectacular, and we said we have to do that again.”
More here-
http://newsminer.com/news/2009/jun/20/fairbanks-congregation-gathers-eagle-summit-specia/
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