Easter Sunday Services

The Easter Sunrise Services in the Garden of the Gods were begun by the Reverend Albert W. Luce in the early 1920's. The exact date of the first service remains unknown. An article in an old issue of the Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph fixed the date at 16 April 1922. A later article in the Colorado Springs Free Press said it was 1916. Common consensus, however, suggests 1920.

For the first four or five years only two churches were represented at the Easter Sunrise Services: the Pikes Peak Christian Church and the First Christian Church. But true to Luce's tolerant ecumenical bent, the services soon became an interdenominational event to which all faiths were invited. The actual operation of the services was turned over to the Colorado Ministerial Alliance, and later to the Greater Colorado Springs Association of Evangelicals.

The number of people in attendance at the Easter bearing a color picture of the services the year before. These were distributed to area residents to send to friends across the country. The services were broadcast to millions more over CBS Radio, the Voice of America, and the Armed Forces Radio Network.

The numbers in attendance began to slowly dwindle as the decades passed, and theSunrise Services in the Garden swelled from a few hundred people in the 1920's to as many as 25,000 by mid-century. For a time the Colorado Springs Chamber of Commerce issued thousands of postcards religious services were eventually discontinued in the early 21st century.

First Sunrise Service

A newspaper article detailing the Easter Sunrise Services in the Garden of the Gods appeared on 17 April 1922 in the Colorado Springs Gazette. It was titled "First Sunrise Service," although in actual fact it probably was the third:

"Snow and Easter are incompatible; but yesterday was Easter and it snowed with profusion equaled only by the storm of this time last year, when a spring blizzard tied up traffic.

"While the storm prevented the traditional appearance of worshippers in spring toggery, it failed to cut down attendance at the elaborate devotional services in the churches of the city.

"The storm started too late to prevent the sunrise services conducted by the Rev. A.W. Luce of the West Pikes Peak Christian church in the Garden of the Gods. The snow began falling just as the last hymn was being sung, an hour too late to spoil the initial Easter ceremony in the open.

"As the first rays of dawn tinged the Cathedral spires, 300 worshippers in the natural amphitheater at the base of the rocks, bowed their heads as O.P. Bottorff prayed for 'worldwide Easter hope and joy.' The services were impressive amid the natural surroundings of the Garden of the Gods, and received such praise from the congregation that the sunrise meeting will be repeated next year, when it is hoped that every church in the city will participate."

Natural Easter Cathedral

In the 4 April 1946 issue of The Cheyenne News, Edward Emerine wrote of how the Easter Services in the Garden of the Gods had changed in the quarter century since their inception:

"More than a quarter of a century ago. the Rev. A.W. Luce, pastor of the Central Christian church of Colorado Springs, was walking and meditating in the Garden of the Gods, his Bible in his hands. When he sat down he opened to the Book of John and read, 'Now in the place where he was crucified, there was a garden - there they laid Jesus.'

"The Reverend Luce looked about him, saw the picturesque Garden of the Gods in a new light, and an idea was born. He talked to other pastors, and they offered their cooperation. The first annual Easter sunrise service was held.

"This year, in a church fashioned more than a million years ago by nature, thousands of worshippers will gather for the 25th annual Easter sunrise service. As the first shafts of sunlight are reflected from snow-capped Pikes Peak, a choir of 250 will lift their voices in a song that reverberates from pinnacle to pinnacle among the red rocks and spires.

"There will be 20,000 or more people in the Garden of the Gods on Easter morning, but millions more will hear the services in their homes, for it is carried over a nationwide radio hookup.

"Near the monumental cathedral spires, three crosses have been erected. Here will stand the trumpeters who call the assembly to worship. A few hundred yards away, at the base of South Gateway rock, which is more than 300 feet high, the service will be held.

"The service again will be predominantly musical with the tones of an electric organ providing the background. A 250 voice a capella choir from Colorado Springs will feature the program. Traditional with the service is the well known tenor, Bernard Vessey, who will sing Knapp's 'Open the Gates of the Temple.'

"During the past 25 years, millions of people have attended the sunrise service. They have faced the giant rocks and listened to the choir in nature's great auditorium, acoustically one of the most perfect...."

Dr. Luce and his Idea

In 1957 a reporter for the Colorado Springs Free Press interviewed the Reverend Albert Luce about his role in starting the Easter Sunrise Services in the Garden of the Gods. The results were published in the Easter Sunday edition of 21 April 1957. Only the 1916 starting date seems to have been in error:

"It was dawn of Easter Sunday 1916 (1920), and the sun rose like a grand fire over the eastern Colorado plains.

"As the haze-softened sphere cast crimson shafts against Pikes Peak, the chorusing began in the Garden of the Gods.

"The voices signaled the beginning of an impressive new Christian rite in the Pikes Peak Region: the Easter Sunrise Services in the Garden of the Gods.

"The scene was one of spectacular beauty: blazing sun and sky to the east, sparkling snows crowning Pikes Peak to the west; the beauties of pine-studded mountains to the north and south...and the deep pure blue of the Colorado sky above.

"Amid the services site itself loomed the strange and striking pink rocks of the ancient Indian worshipping ground - nature's temple of all Gods.

"'Yes, it was an inspiring site,' recalls the Rev. Albert W. Luce, the spry, 78-year-old Colorado Springs churchman who originated the services.

"I was just starting the services as a project for my own church,' said Dr. Luce, who was pastor at the time of the Central Church on the West Side.

"'We held the services in the exact spot where they're now held,' he said. 'And we had about 750 persons at the first services. They represented just two churches - the Pikes Peak Christian and the First Christian Church. These were the only two churches represented during the first four or five years.'

"Dr. Luce chuckled as he thought back to the pre-Easter days of 1916.

"'Some of my people didn't feel very warmly about my first Sunrise Services project,' he said. They figured why go out to the Garden of the Gods in the cold of dawn when they could be sitting in a nice warm church.'

"Dr. Luce said he mentioned to another pastor that he didn't want any battle, 'but my people think I'm crazy.'

"From whence came the idea of the Sunrise Services?

"Dr. Luce said it came from the 19th chapter of St. John's Gospel.

"Although he owned a Model T Ford back in the old days, Dr. Luce frequently left it home due to the price of gasoline: 13 cents a gallon.

"'I often rode my bicycle to the Garden of the God where I would sit and ponder Easter,' he said. It was during one such period of meditation that he thought of a particular passage in the Gospel. It stated: 'Now in the place where He was crucified there was a Garden. There they lay Jesus.'

"Unable to forget the passage, Dr. Luce asked himself: 'Since the first Easter took place in a garden, would not he Garden of the Gods be a fitting site for the Easter Sunrise ceremonies?'

"His idea was born...and he set to work pushing it to fruition. City officials agreed to set up three crosses at what is now the present services site.

"Preparations for the services became so burdensome for Dr. Luce by 1921 that he persuaded his church to invite the El Paso County Ministerial Alliance to help support the Easter project.

"The Alliance has been the guiding force behind the services ever since, said Dr. Luce, 'and occasionally they invite me to appear on the program.'

"(Dr. Luce was slated to deliver the closing prayer at the services this morning).

"The Sunrise Services have been of inestimable publicity value to the Pikes Peak Region, Dr. Luce believes.

"He cited the coast to coast radio broadcasts on CBS, the postcards and literature disseminated by the Chamber of Commerce, plus films he himself has shown in 47 of the 48 states and Canada.

"'I've shown films of the service in every state except Wisconsin,' he said, 'And I still intend to go there....'

"This energetic churchman was born in a small town in upstate New York 78 years ago.

"When only one year old, his family took him to Detroit where he attended the public schools, including the Cass grade school where Charles Augustus Lindberg was later to study.

"His steps along the ministerial study path took him to Hiram, Ohio, just south of Cleveland, and later to Friends University, Wichita, Kan. Following his graduation, he studied at the Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Kan.

"He served as minister in several Missouri churches before coming to Colorado in 1904. He taught school in Golden, later served as a minister in Windsor, between Greeley and Fort Collins.

"Dr. Luce came to Colorado Springs in 1916 and promptly took over duties at the Central Christian Church at 15th Street and Pikes Peak Ave. However, after fire destroyed the structure, the church was moved to the old Longfellow School...

"He is now a member of the First Christian Church...."

8,500 Greet Easter

By the early 1990's attendance at the Easter Sunrise Services had dwindled considerably. Ecological concerns had also mandated that the services be moved from the central Garden area to the former site of the Chuckwagon Dinners between North Gateway and White Rocks. Three temporary crosses were erected behind White Rock. The organizers hoped that the change in location would signal a new life for the Sunrise Services, and indeed 8,500 people showed up on Easter Sunday, 1991. The story was told in the following day's issue of the Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph:

"Under high clouds, against the red rocks and in a crisp morning chill, about 8,500 people gathered Sunday for the Garden of the Gods Easter sunrise service.

"This year's service attracted twice as many people as last year's, organizers said.

"Jim Powell, president of the Colorado Springs-based International Bible Society, told the crowd that, despite Christ's resurrection, spiritual battles still must be waged, both within the hearts of believers and within society...

"Five boys who arrived at the park shortly after 4 A.M. fought their own small battle - against the cold.

"Huddled together against a rock for warmth were Aaron Mesa,8; John Bowlby,12; Bryan Moore,11; Andy Mesa,10 and Sean Moore,13.

"All spoke enthusiastically about the breakfast they would cook at their church after the service and an Easter egg hunt after that.

"The boys' fathers were members of the choir of Central Christian Church that sang for the service.

"'Actually our church started it,' Bryan said."Seventy-one years ago, a guy from our church started it.'

"The Garden of the Gods Easter sunrise service is the oldest continuous outdoor service in the country.

"Once a community event that drew 25,000 worshipers and nationwide television coverage, the service's attendance dwindled in the mid-1980's.

"Bob Taylor, chairman of the organizing committee, said the committee hopes attendance will reach 25,000 by 1995...."