No sponsor for Colorado Springs' Easter sunrise service

First Presbyterian Church's attempt to resurrect Easter sunrise services, a tradition in Colorado Springs for more than seven decades, appears over.

No Colorado Springs church or group has booked public land on Easter Sunday morning for the service, said Paul Butcher, director of the city's Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services.

For the past two years, First Presbyterian Church downtown sponsored public sunrise services in America the Beautiful Park, at 126 Cimino Drive. In 2006, 1,500 people gathered there.

Last year, the church had to cancel the event because of inclement weather.

Budget restraints, time constraints and the early arrival of Easter, raising the odds of more bad weather, were the reasons First Presbyterian passed on sponsoring this year's sunrise service, church communications director Charles Hickmott said.
"Whenever you do something like this, it is time-consuming," Hickmott said.

From the 1920s till 2002, the Easter sunrise service was held in the Garden of the Gods. But parking problems and the cost of renting stages, shuttling in worshippers and supplying portable toilets became too expensive for sponsors.

Though the park permit for a public Easter sunrise service is only $50, costs can add up because the city requires shuttle transportation and other amenities where thousands gather.
"It really takes a dedicated leader or core group to set it up," Butcher said.

The 2002 Garden of the Gods service drew 5,000 people and cost sponsors $21,000. First Presbyterian declined to reveal costs for its sunrise events.

Groups continue to meet informally in area parks on Easter morning. No city permit is required because their meetings aren't advertised to the general public.

Heidi Haskins, who attended Garden of the Gods sunrise services as a child, was shocked to hear that there will be no public Easter sunrise service.
"I find it upsetting that something that has been a tradition for so long is going away," Haskins, 46, said.

The Manitou Springs resident hopes the event will return next year with a new group of sponsors. "If we don't pull together as a community, what's going to happen?" she said.
Jason Buquet of Colorado Spring attended many of the Garden of the Gods sunrise services.
"I don't know how they can take this away from us," Buquet, 37, said.