Each year during Easter Sunday service, the congregation at Penguin Uniting Church, Tasmania, constructs a flower-laden cross which is later displayed outside the church.
Visiting the cross has become part of the local community’s Easter ritual but, this year, the restrictions imposed on in-church worship meant it would most likely be missing.
But Lynn Templar, church council chairperson, was determined to ensure that didn’t happen so she took it upon herself to make the cross, using flowers donated by four women in the congregation.
“I wasn’t sure if I would be allowed to do it, but I went ahead anyway,” she says.
“I had about 10 laundry baskets full of flowers and started at 6am. It took me about three-and-a-half-hours to complete, but I did it.”
Lynn says the reception she received made the exercise worthwhile.
“I had passers-by saying ‘that’s wonderful’ and people on bikes yelling out ‘thank you’,” she says.
“I wanted to surprise the community, but I was the one who was blessed. It was wonderful to see people get some hope from it.
“Flowers are a sign of the future, of hope. To garden is to believe in the future.”
Lynn believes it was important to display the cross because “we need to celebrate that Jesus has risen”.
“It doesn’t matter if church is on, Jesus has still risen,” she says.
“We have reason for hope.”
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