Alternative Easter Ideas
Posted on: April 12, 2014
Easter — Celebrating the Resurrection
Sunday, 4/20/14
- Passover
- Passover Seder (meal)
- Easter Seder (meal)
- Palm/Passion Sunday, April 13
- Holy Week, April 13-19–Symbols at the Family Table Add Meaning to Holy Week
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What’s NOW with SLW!
- Check out a few of these thought-provoking, timely resources that might meet your personal, family or congregational/group needs. They’re all FREE.
- Treasury of Celebrations*: Create Celebrations That Reflect Your Values and Don’t Cost the Earth Earth – Jan.-April | LENT | EASTER
- Worship Alternatives: Lent/HolyWeek/Easter | Pentecost/Ordinary Time
- Spirit of Simplicity: Lent/Easter ART | QUOTES
- Lent sermon series
- 10 Tips for Simpler, More Meaningful Easter | Celebrations | SPANISH: 10 puntas
- Alternatives’ Seasonal/Thematic Index | Lent/Easter
- For Lent/Easter SEASONAL HELPS, including links to AV and Text resources, see SLW! Podcast episode 13.
- In the current SLW! Podcast, I interview Peter Sawtell of of Eco-Justice Ministries discussing a new initiative –Not Ordinary Times. This challenging call to “be the church” in this time of environmental crisis is backed up with a comprehensive set of resources and background materials that will guide churches through a six-month season of worship and preaching that takes seriously the devastation of the global environment.
- In the second half of the current SLW! podcast, I overview the resources from Worship Alternatives for Pentecost and Ordinary Time (the non-festival half of the church year that runs from Pentecost to Advent, June-Nov. Some of us like to plan ahead. By the way, Worship Alternatives has little to do with the rites and practices of the pentecostal denominations.) You may want to read my earlier blog Ready for Pentecost?
- A new addition to our Featured Writers page, Pastoral Economic Struggles: Facing Together Global Capitalism’s Domination in Daily Life by Lee Van Ham. This faith-based essay focuses on changes that can be thanks to the Holy Spirit. It is an inspiring piece for any believer, though written primarily for pastoral leaders. Pentecost is a time to think about and work toward change. The Holy Spirit is a force for change, an agent for transformation.
- In my conversation with Brian Czech of the secular Center for the Advancement of the Steady-State Economy (CASSE), he explains not only why our growth-oriented capitalist economic system is destroying the Earth but also how a steady-state economy could bring our relation with the Earth back in balance. Creating a Strong Economy That Does Not Grow: TheCommonGoodPodcast.com, episode 46.
- Since we’re starting Holy Week, you may have something to contribute to our on-going collection Who’s Risen from the Dead, Anyway? for Lent/HolyWeek/Easter and to our most widely-read annual resource, Whose Birthday Is It, Anyway? for Advent/Christmas/Epiphany. Though it’s no longer printed on paper, “WHOSE Birthday?” is published online since 2012. Some editions also come in AUDIO formats. ART | PERSONAL EXPERIENCES | FAMILY ACTIVITIES | Submission Guidelines | All past editions are available on the SLW! site. Thanks to Creative Commons licensing, individuals and congregations can reprint articles without further permission. The articles are carefully indexed — ADVENT/CHRISTMAS | LENT/EASTER.
- Simpler Living Alternative Daily Calendar – April
What’s Coming
- Social Media Post #4 – web site
- Overview: Summer Festivals + Simply Delicious: Quantity Cooking for Churches + Hunger resources – April 15 Podcast – Preview Episode 19 NOW
- Tony & Shane Uncut – the complete Tony Campolo / Shane Claiborne dialog – May-Aug. Podcast – Preview Episodes 20-27 NOW
What’s Happened
- In stark contrast to the misuse of farmland to produce biofuels presented in a recent episode of TheCommonGoodPodcast, Vicki Robin presents a vision of locally produced food and strong community in Blessing the Hands That Feed Us: What Eating Closer to Home Can Teach Us About Food, Community, and Our Place on Earth. Hear my interview with Vicki on the recent Simple Living Works! Podcast.With Joe Dominguez, Vicki wrote one of the most enduring, influential books to have come from the sustainable living movement, Your Money or Your Life.
What Others Are Doing
- Lenten resources from Mustard Seed Associates/GodSpace: Music | Kids | Adults
- Overflow Project 50-Day Challenge: Simplify+Give+Change=Water
- Interviews, Book Groups, etc. — Spreading the Conversation about the OneEarth Project and the book, Blinded by Progress: Breaking Out of the Illusion That Holds Us, by Lee Van Ham. | TheCommonGoodPodcast.com, episode 42
- Faith and Money Radio – Making the Connection
Podcast Reminder
You can access all SLW! podcast audio and the show notes either at SimpleLiving.startlogic.com/SLW-PODCAST or at SimpleLivingWorks.org (then click window #3). Listen through your computer, iPod, iPad, iPhone (or equivalent).
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Episode Index: #1-3: Getting Acquainted | #4-5: Beyond a Consumer Lifestyle | #6-11: Whose Birthday Is It, Anyway? | #12: Living More with Less UPDATED | #13: Let’s Get Ready for a Simpler Lent & Easter | #14: Simple Living 101 + Social Media BONUS | #15: author Cecile Andrews, Champion of Simplicity Circles and Community Conversation | #16: Rites of Passage, including Wedding Alternatives | #17: Vicki Robin, co-author of the best-seller Your Money or Your Life | #18: Not Ordinary Time: Eco-Justice Ministries | PREVIEW: #19: Simply Delicious: Quantity Cooking for Churches | Hunger | Alternative Summer Festivals | #20-27: Tony and Shane Uncut
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Welcome Word of Encouragement
AWESOME…..AWESOME. …..really like the new ‘social media’ approach to your powerful message. Fruitful Blessings!!
Marilyn Lines, Office of Family Ministry Coordinator, Christ the Redeemer, Lake Orion, Michigan
Peace, Gerald “Jerry” Iversen, Chief SLW! Activist
GRAPHIC: Spirit of Simplicity ART #3-A551-1
We do not solicit or accept donations, nor do we sell anything. All our resources and services are free of charge. We’re an all-volunteer organization. Instead, we urge Alternative Giving. Give away 25% of what you spent last year on all celebrations – Christmas, birthdays, etc. — to local, national and international causes.
Copyright: Creative Commons non-commercial attribution share-alike license.
*Treasury of Celebrations: published by Northstone, a division of Wood Lake Publications, BC, Canada, best known for its Seasons of the Spirit curriculum.
Through social media, we extend the mission and resources of the non-profit organization Alternatives, 1973-2011. Simple Living Works! web site home page | Theme/Seasons Index To learn more about SLW! – our MISSION, for example — please listen to our getting-acquainted episodes, especially #1 and 2. We produce a half-hour podcast twice a month, hopefully educational and inspiring for you, your family and your congregation or group. We blog several times a week.
Simple Living Works! 
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