Gallery: Community at the cross

On top of one of the highest hills in Alto Pass, one man celebrated his first Easter Sunday since being released from prison as he, along with nearly 1,000 others, watched the sun rise.

Dave Newberry spent the previous nine years in prison and turns 48 Monday. He and his sister Shelly, 40, both of Alto Pass, said they came to the 78th-annual early morning ceremony at Bald Knob Cross of Peace simply to rejoice.

“We came to start a new life – a new rebirth,” Dave said. “It’s a whole new life. I look at things a lot different. You don’t take each day for granted.”

Imprisoned for federal conspiracy, Dave said he was released last month from the United States Penitentiary in Marion.

Pastor Ralph Brandon, 69, of the Christian Covenant Fellowship Church in Carterville and president of the Bald Knob Cross of Peace board, said he was glad many people joined the celebration.

“I think all these people come because they don’t have to wear a suit and tie. They can just come as they are,” he said. “Secondly, they come because of the nature and they’re close to God and seeing the sunrise and standing up here and seeing the vastness of this whole area.”

The 111-foot tall cross sits on a hill overlooking the Shawnee National Forest.

Victoria Olsen, 60, of Portland, Ore., said she is glad the service is outside, as a building should not define church.

“I’m not within walls,” she said. “My church is out in the forest, in the woods, on the water. Nature is my church.”

Brandon said he has been going to the event for some seven years.

According to the Bald Knob website’s history section, arguments arose among the cross’ board members in the early 2000s.

In 2008, all members of the board stepped down and the court then appointed seven members to a Transitional Board of Directors later the same year. Brandon said he was one of those pastors.

Priest Uriel Salamanca of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Cobden provided the service’s sermon this year, which focused on the resurrection of Christ.

Brandon said more people may have come because of the nice weather, as the last several years have been cold and rainy.

Norman McFarland, 63, of Palatine, said he has gone to the celebration since 1962 and has watched the cross change over time.

“At first it was just a rough shell, iron structure,” He said. “The first year they put a big red neon light all the way around it so that you could see across the valley – it was very cool.”

In 1963, the cross was officially completed, McFarland said. He said it was repaired in 2013 for its 50th anniversary.

“As I sit here I remember my parents,” McFarland said. “It’s a childhood memory thing as well as the Easter sunrise part of it too.”

The band at Sunday’s service was from the First United Methodist Church in Sparta.

Bagpiper Paul Thompson, 67, of Marion, played “Christ the Lord is Risen Today,” and “We’re Marching to Zion,” at the beginning of the event. He then played “Amazing Grace,” and concluded the service with several other tunes.

Luke Nozicka can be reached at [email protected], on Twitter @lukenozicka, or 536-3311 ext. 286.