Maryville College invites community to annual Easter Sunrise Service at 7 a.m. Sunday, April 9
March 28, 2023
Across the Maryville College campus, signs of spring abound.
Daffodils provide vibrant relief against the slow greening of Pearsons lawn. Birdsong has returned to the Maryville College Woods, buds awakening along dormant limbs and branches. And Jamie Webster, interim campus minister, is preparing for the College’s annual Easter Sunrise Service.
The service will take place at 7 a.m. Sunday, April 9, on Lloyd Beach, the lush field across Circle Drive from Lloyd Hall. As always, it’s an informal and interdenominational gathering designed to one thing: celebrate the risen Christ.
“I think with Easter services, wherever they’re happening, people really care about the tradition,” Webster said. “For some people, Easter morning may be the only time they ever set foot in a worship service — and where in the world is it a better place to celebrate new life than on the hillside at Maryville College, looking out toward the mountains?”
The first Easter Sunrise Service was held in the center of campus in 1918, a tradition begun by the Rev. Dr. William Patton Stevenson, the Maryville College faith leader who came to East Tennessee from the pastorate of First Presbyterian Church in Yonkers, New York. In 1938, the annual observance moved to the Maryville College Woods, where it was held for the next five decades.
In recent years, the service was moved to Lloyd Beach, located behind Lloyd Hall on the southeastern end of the campus and offering a spectacular view of the sun rising over Chilhowee Mountain. The service is casual, and attendees are encouraged to dress for the weather and bring lawn chairs and blankets. In the event of rain, the service will be held indoors in the Samuel Tyndale Wilson Center for Campus Ministry, where Webster serves as the spiritual liaison for the MC community.
After obtaining her undergraduate degree from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, Webster went on to receive her Master of Divinity from the Boston University School of Theology, returning to East Tennessee from the Boston area last year.
Returning to East Tennessee, especially to an institution so intertwined with the preservation and promotion of the region, makes leading the annual Easter Sunrise Service so much more than just another job responsibility, she said.
“The Easter celebration is such a rich tradition, but the big part of what carries the morning is the sunrise itself,” she said. “I’ve been cogitating for several weeks on the words I’ll offer, but I’m not in competition with God’s creativity or the reason we come together on Easter morning to celebrate. My piece of that is to find a word for this specific community and this specific time.”
Joining Webster at the Easter Sunrise Service will be Jessica Kitchens Lewis ’07, director of the Maryville Adventures in Studying Theology (MAST) program, who will read John 20:1-18. Music will be provided by Jordan ’18 and Maddie Carpenter McCullough ’18, along with Chapel Fellows Elizabeth Brenneise ’23, Gavin Lester ’24 and Dana Patterson ’26.