LAKEPORT, Calif. – More than half a dozen local churches will gather on April 6 at St. Mary's Catholic Church to observe one of the holiest days of the church year, Good Friday.

Good Friday is the day that Christian commemorate the death of Jesus and the purpose of this 22nd annual service hosted by the LMA Ministerial Association (LMA) is to help participants experience the emotional aspects of the passion story: the betrayal, abandonment, and agony of Jesus.

Throughout history churches, congregations and individual Christians have sought to enhance their understanding of the events that happened on that first Good Friday in a variety of ways.

They have sought to remember the story by reading from missives, reading the Gospel narratives, recalling the last seven sentences Jesus spoke from the cross, and for a privileged few, by traveling to the Holy Land itself and seeking to follow in the footsteps of Jesus as near as one can guess the path based on the Gospel texts.

In the Middle Ages the Franciscans developed a version of the Stations of the Cross for those that could not travel to the Holy Land to walk where Christ walked.

In this practice there are 14 stations, nine of which are taken directly from the gospels and five of which are from the earliest traditions of the church.

Each seeks to share a portion of the Passion Narrative so that we might draw closer to Jesus in this time approaching the remembrance of his death.

The LMA service this year will not represent the traditional Stations of the Cross but will offer 10 meditations in the same spirit of devotion that has caused millions of Christians to seek to follow where Jesus trod this earthen sod.

Following each meditation by one of the pastors, a “soldier” from the time of Christ will share a first hand account of what it might have been like to witness the events as they unfolded that day.

Last year's LMA Good Friday service was limited to standing room only and was an amazing show of unity in our community by people from eight different religious traditions.

The community is invited to join them at noon on Friday, April 6, at St. Mary's, located at 801 N. Main St. in Lakeport.