Litchfield Area Ministerial Association will offer its traditional Good Friday ecumenical service again this year.
But the tradition will change a little this year.
Rather than in-person worship at Ecumen's chapel, LAMA pastors will gather at Zion Lutheran Church to conduct the service without a congregation. The service will be broadcast live at 6:30 p.m. Friday on KLFD-1410 AM/95.9 FM, and a recording will be televised at 8 p.m. on the Litchfield cable access channel.
The ecumenical service has been conducted for at least three decades and has brought together worshippers from throughout the community, regardless of denomination. But because of the COVID-19 threat, this year's service will only be available via one of the broadcasts.
The service will include meditations or short sermons by Gordy Pennertz, lay pastor at First Presbyterian Church in Litchfield, and Keith Carlson, chaplain at Ecumen. The rest of the service will be a telling of the Passion, from the Gospel of John, with other ministers reading parts.
The service will include music, as well, although "we haven't figured that out for sure year. The pastors will sing, and everybody will be invited to sing along, even though we won't hear them," Pennertz said.
