Several dozen of the devout participated in today’s (April 14) Good Friday processional down Festus Main Street to Crystal City’s Bailey Road, organized by the Twin City Area Ministerial Alliance.
For the first time in the event’s 19-year history, at least to the best of participants’ memory, marchers did not carry a large, wooden cross.
Organizers said the pastor who stores the cross was ill and wasn’t able to bring it to the procession.
Starting at about noon, about 50 people set off on foot from First United Methodist Church, 113 Grand Ave., in Festus and walked to Grace Presbyterian Church, 105 Bailey Road, Crystal City, where a Tenebrae service was held.
Participants said they look forward to the annual event that marks the beginning of Easter weekend.
“I pretty much make it to this every year,” said Lillian Manning, 68, of Crystal City. “We identify with Jesus’ steps he took.”
Manning attends Grace Presbyterian Church in Crystal City.
Shirley Perry, 75, of Herculaneum also said she is a regular at the event.
“We’re trying to honor our Lord on Good Friday, walk in his footsteps,” said Perry, a member of Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Crystal City. “I try to do this every year.”
Deacon Jerry Stoverink, a Festus resident who also is a member of Sacred Heart, said the procession “is a good way for the community to remember this day.”
Butch Dean, 57, Festus, said he was attending his first Good Friday processional.
“It reminds us of the Passion of Jesus Christ with the different stations,” Dean said. He is a member of Grace Presbyterian.
Walkers stopped at various points along the way for pastors to read Bible passages from the Easter story.
Candles were lit in the Tenebrae service and extinguished one by one, until there was complete darkness.