Easter at All Souls

Sam really wanted to celebrate Easter morning in a quasi traditional manner so we explored DC's offerings. The short list was a sunrise service at the Lincoln Memorial, a regular Easter morning service at a Unitarian church, or the big service at National Cathedral. We eliminated National Cathedral as apparently everyone else has the same idea and you need to get tickets which were already handed out. We opted for the sunrise service which would force us to wake up at 5am to get there in time at 6:30 but at 2am when we went to sleep, we changed our mind to go with Plan B.

This worked out for the best as we were really in no shape to drag ourselves to a sunrise service and would not have enjoyed it. All Souls is the Unitarian Universalist at the intersection of Mt Pleasant, Columbia Heights and Adam's Morgan neighborhoods. It won out over the Universalist church closer by in Dupont Circle because that one had no special Easter service times posted on its web site. There is not really a great direct public transit way to get there (45 minutes) so we drove instead (10 minutes) and were lucky to find a space. There are several "headquarter" cathedrals on the same corner so Easter morning served a brisk business, even for the early 9:30 service.

The church was very nice, not overwhelming with architectural or artistic features, white walls inside. The sermon was really appealing, promoting the idea of resurrection as about how remembering the deceased keeps them alive. It did not feel contrived. Some very cool singing and dancing from a large excellent choir including some African rhythms and Caribean dancing.