By Gretchen Webster

WESTPORT — This is a holy week for three of the world’s major religions, a time marked with sacred observances by local Christians, Jews and Muslims.

Easter season observances for Christians began on Palm Sunday last weekend, proceeding to somber Good Friday rituals and joyous Easter services on Sunday.

Passover began Wednesday evening and will be observed by those of the Jewish faith through the evening of Thursday, April 13. 

And Ramadan, a month of fasting, prayer and reflection for Muslims, began the evening of March 22 this year and concludes Thursday, April 20.

“It is powerful to realize that this week is held sacred by all three Abrahamic faiths: Christianity, Judaism and Islam,” said the Rev. Alison Patton, pastor of Saugatuck Congregational Church and a member of the Westport Weston Interfaith Council.

“In the midst of human frailty and struggle, all three faiths offer the promise that new life is possible.”

In matters of religious faith, she said, Westport is an ecumenical community, and clergy of all denominations meet regularly and plan services and events both with other congregations of the same faith, as well as programs that embrace several religions.

For instance, the first day of Passover was marked this year on Thursday by Temple Israel and The Conservative Synagogue of Westport with a joint festival morning service at the latter congregation.

And an Easter sunrise service will again be held this year on Compo Beach at 6:15 a.m. Sunday by Saugatuck Congregational Church, Greens Farms Church, the Methodist Church of Westport and Weston, and Norfield Congregational Church of Weston. Services at the beach also are held every Sunday throughout the summer, organized by five Westport churches, beginning the first Sunday of July.

Although the closest mosque for Westport Muslims is in Norwalk, several local Muslim religious leaders live in town, Patton said.

“It’s one of the things I really appreciate — a close relationship with the other clergy. We have a strong Interfaith Clergy Council and a connection” among the town’s churches and synagogues, she said.

On Friday morning, members of Saugatuck, Christ and Holy Trinity, and United Methodist churches co-hosted a “Climate Justice Stations of the Cross,” an intergenerational walk through downtown to mark Good Friday.

Based on the last days of Christ’s life, Stations of the Cross traditionally is a devotional exercise at a church where worshipers pray in front of stations (often religious artwork) representing various events leading to the crucifixion of Jesus.

The Good Friday procession in Westport each year is based on a social justice theme. Structural racism was the theme a few years ago, and this year it is “climate justice,” according to Patton.

“It’s about our relationship with the environment and human communities within.”

A large wooden cross was carried along the Stations of the Cross route, often by youngsters, with a group of about 50 people following. The walk encompassed six stations starting at Christ and Holy Trinity Church, leading down to Main Street and winding along the Saugatuck River. It included stops at the Saugatuck River bridge, the Westport Library and the Levitt Pavilion, ending on Jesup Green. 

At each stop, a leader read scriptural passages, followed by a prayer pertaining to the day’s environmental theme. Some of the walkers carried bags to pick up trash along the way.

The Rev. Heather Sinclair, of the United Methodist Church of Westport and Weston, said the gathering by people from different churches, walking through the center of town, showed not only the ecumenical spirit of Westport, but was also a “community witness” to the important topic of environmental justice and the significance of Good Friday. 

 “It’s a nice way to remind people of the purpose of day,” she said.

Freelance writer Gretchen Webster, a Fairfield County journalist and journalism teacher for many years, was editor of the Fairfield Minuteman newspaper for 10 years and teaches journalism at Southern Connecticut State University.