At the Lincoln Memorial, thousands celebrate Easter Sunday at sunrise. (Olivia George, WaP, April 20, 2024)

From The Washington Post: 

At the Lincoln Memorial, thousands celebrate Easter Sunday at sunrise

The tradition began in 1979 and has since ballooned. “It gives you a chance to pray for the country,” said one attendee.

April 20, 2025 at 2:56 p.m. EDT49 minutes ago

4 min

A crowd spanning ages, and racial and ethnic identities gathered for the 45th annual Easter sunrise service at the Lincoln Memorial. (Photos by Matt McClain/The Washington Post)

By Olivia George

The retreating night clung gray-blue as the crowd began to trickle, then pour, onto the marble steps. The faithful and the curious, the young and the old, gathered in the predawn darkness for a D.C. Easter Sunday tradition dating back more than four decades.

They brought picnic blankets and cups of coffee, lawn chairs and pushchairs. One man brought an urn. And as the rising sun, cloaked in clouds, shed soft silver light upon the stirring city, thousands raised their voices to meet it. Cheers, claps and hallelujahs rang out at the annual service hosted by the National Community Church at the Lincoln Memorial, its stone inhabitant watching on.

“Gracious God,” began Jimeka Jones Setzer, among the pastors who delivered a prayer from a temporary stage.

“We thank you that we have differences and diversity and yet we are made in your image,” she said, eyes closed and microphone in hand. Her goal was to leave people with hope, she later explained.

Behind her, the Washington Monument punctured the gray sky, pointing heavenward.

People gather for the sunrise service on Sunday. 

People have long flocked to Lincoln’s hallowed home to learn and protest, to snap selfies and share a kiss, to mourn America’s greatest sin and remember its greatest ideals.

irginia Pastor Amos Dodge of Capital Church, a Pentecostal congregation in Vienna, founded the Easter Sunday tradition in 1979. He felt a whisper from heaven: “Have a sunrise service at the Lincoln Memorial.”

And so, 127 gathered by the Reflecting Pool to celebrate the resurrection.

Ever since, save for the pandemic’s disruption, crowds have flocked to the capital’s most popular monument for service. Thousands more watch online.

“I’m not religious but I am spiritual,” said Marie-Elise Diamond, a first-time attendee and an advisory neighborhood commissioner in Adams Morgan. “I may not believe in Jesus, but I believe in humanity and love.”

Watching the service, she said, was both a way of celebrating her city and its history, and of taking a small step toward a less fractured world.

“We can’t stay in our silos,” said Diamond, 62. “We have to reach across the aisle; that will save our country.”

I’m not religious but I am spiritual,” said Marie-Elise Diamond, a first-time attendee and an advisory neighborhood commissioner in Adams Morgan. “I may not believe in Jesus, but I believe in humanity and love.”

Watching the service, she said, was both a way of celebrating her city and its history, and of taking a small step toward a less fractured world.

“We can’t stay in our silos,” said Diamond, 62. “We have to reach across the aisle; that will save our country.”

The day before, in small towns and big cities nationwide, people had gathered to denounce President Donald Trump. Outside the White House, protesters repeatedly shouted one word: “Shame!”

At the Sunday service, the choir sent calls of praise into the early-morning breeze. Their voices flowed undisturbed, save for the morning songbirds and the occasional roar from an overhead plane.

The faithful and the curious, the young and the old, gathered near the Lincoln Memorial. 

The crowd spanned ages, and racial and ethnic identities. Children scribbled in coloring books sprawled on the stone steps not yet warmed by the sun.

“I think people, regardless of political party, need something like this to bond over a common interest,” said Kenny Burns, a proud 74-year-old native Washingtonian and local tour guide.

“This was on my bucket list,” he said, donning glasses and cycling gear, sitting atop a stone wall, his bicycle resting below.

Nearby, a Maryland couple leaned back in their folding chairs.

“It’s nice to gather with fellow brothers and sisters in Christ,” said Sarah Schutz, 67.

“It also gives you a chance to pray for the country,” said Peter Schutz, 67. “For peace, patience, wisdom for our leaders.”

Musicians were part of the sunrise service. 

“Christ is risen,” said Pastor Mark Batterson of National Community Church. 

Soon after, Mark Batterson, lead pastor at National Community Church, was onstage addressing the clapping crowd.

“We represent hundred of churches, but it’s not about the name on the church door. It’s about the name above all names,” he said, pointing to the sky.

Across the plaza, Hanna Koerner was listening with her husband, two young children and parents. It was perhaps her eighth sunrise service, and the sweeping views of the nation’s capital still moved her. “So special,” she said.

Soon they’d return home for a celebratory brunch of blueberry muffins, yogurt parfaits and scrambled eggs.

“Of course, the Easter Bunny will make an appearance, too” she said.

Before long, the service was over. The sun was climbing higher. The crowd of tourists trudging up the stairs to the Lincoln Memorial was growing. A new day was underway.

The sunrise service tradition at the Lincoln Memorial dates back more than four decades.