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Show NATURE'S CHURCH . . . Towering, vivid-red limestone rocks silhouetted sil-houetted against a glorious sunrise sky of red, blue and gold create an awe-inspiring setting for the annual Easter sunrise service in Colorado's Colo-rado's Garden of the Gods. 'NOW . . . THERE WAS A GARDEN' Easter Sunrise Service Set In Church Carved by Nature WNU Features. COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. Just as on the sunrise of the first Eastern morn when a magnificent hope, confidence and faith dawned upon a discouraged group of men and women, wom-en, so will some 30,000 worshipers gain renewed hope and courage from the 28th annual presentation of the Easter sunrise sun-rise service in a church fashioned a million or more years ago by nature the inspiring Garden of the Gods near Colorado Colo-rado SDrinps. JL O Here, in a setting of immeasur- able beauty, amidst the towering limestone shafts of the catl jdral spires looming to fantastic angles of more than 300 feet, with the brilliant bril-liant red of the rocks bathed in a golden light of an early Colorado sunrise, and with majestic, snowcapped snow-capped Pikes Peak serving as backdrop, back-drop, the Rev. Thomas Dick Jr. will give the annual Easter message. "The constellation of ideas gathered around the Easter faith is almost overpowering over-powering in its daring. . . . Truth is stronger than falsehood; good conquers con-quers evil; love is stronger than hatred; human beings are of worth and dignity; dig-nity; God is an unfailing source of security; se-curity; life is victor over death." These thoughts constitute the theme of Mr. Dick's sermon. Acoustically, and to the eye, the church which nature carved out in the Garden of the Gods is more magnificent than any since erected by mortal man. The spectacle of 30,000 people, massed together in this natural, awe-inspiring setting, is a colorful, incredible sight, lending lend-ing true religious significance to S- In 1921, the Rev. A. W. Luce of the First Christian church (now retired) re-tired) was walking through the Gar. den of the Gods, his Bible in hand, trying to get an inspiration for his Easter sermon. Opening his Bible to the Book of John he read: "Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, there they laid Jesus." While reading this his eyes fell on three gigantic shafts of rock which closely resembled cathedral spires. The inspiration came to him that here in the beauty, splendor splen-dor and solitude of the Garden of the Gods was the ideal place to gather for worship and to observe ob-serve the day in which Christ was resurrected. This inspiration became a reality and the first Easter service was held with some 700 . worshipers attending. at-tending. The audience has been growing ever since, now estimated to be more than 30,000. In addition to the thousands who receive in- this Easter sunrise service deep' in the heart of the Rocky mountains. Founded 28 Years Ago. The Colorado Springs Ministerial alliance, founder of the Garden of the Gods Easter service 28 years ago, again will sponsor the rites. The service will be carried to radio worshipers coast to coast over the Columbia network from 6:30 to 7 a. m., Mountain Standard Time, originating from Station KVOR of Colorado Springs. As in previous years, the Garden of the Gods service will be predominantly predomi-nantly musical. The Colorado Springs 300-voice a cappella choir will be featured. The choir, under direction of Frank Gilles, is nationally nation-ally famous, having won first place in the National Choral society contest con-test several 'times. spiration from actually attending the service, countless others are able to benefit spiritually from this Easter message by dialing the service serv-ice on their radio. The noted Dr. S. Parkes Cadman once stated that unless a person were to go to Jerusalem Jeru-salem where the first Easter actually actu-ally occurred, he could find no mora appropriate setting than the Garden of the Gods, with thousands of people peo-ple massed together in the natural valley surrounded by towering peaks. The Garden of the Gods was a part of public domain until 1879 when it was bought by Charles E. Perkins, an eastern railroad tycoon. He intended to build a home there, but, on mole leisurely inspection, decided that no vork of man should spoil the beauty of this natural garden. Traditional with the service for many years is tenor Bernard Ves-sey, Ves-sey, who has been singing on the Easter sunrise services for more than a quarter century. Vessey came to Colorado Springs from the East for his health. His solo, "Open the Gates of the Temple" which he sings every year, is a favorite of thousands of music lovers. Mrs. Verda Lawrie, Colorado Springs, is organist. The Garden of the Gods, spacious spa-cious garden of overturned limestone lime-stone rocks, was revered by Ute Indians as a holy place for their god Manitou long before the coming of the white man. The big rocks, according to the Indians, In-dians, are barbaric hosts of giants gi-ants which in prehistoric times threatened their domain. The Utes prayed to their god Manitou Mani-tou who lived at the top of Holy Mount (Pikes Peak) and who answered their prayers by causing caus-ing the giants and the monstrous mon-strous beasts accompanying them to turn to stone. Geologically, the explanation is much simpler. In prehistoric times, the same earth-shaking movements that formed the Rocky mountains caused an upthrust of limestone which extends underground from Canada to Mexico. However, it is only in the Colorado Springs Garden Gar-den of the Gods that this limestone segment upthrust shows predominantly predomi-nantly above ground. |