Sunday morning as the sun rises above the horizon people of all faiths will gather upon a hill in the Vicksburg National Military Park to celebrate Easter as one faith community.

The Vicksburg YMCA will be hosting the 69th annual Sunrise Easter Service atop Fort Hill in the military park Sunday at 7 a.m. Parking is available at the Cairo Museum within the park and church buses will be on hand to take worshipers to the site of the service.

“At its heart, the Y is really about bringing people together,” YMCA executive director Phillip Doiron said. “Back when they started it, they had a symbol and in the middle of the symbol was a quote from the book of John and it said ‘That they may all be one.’ The Y has always been about bringing people together so that is why they wanted it to be a nondenominational service.”

Doiron said typically about 175 people come to the service.

This year Rev. Tom Atkins of Crawford Street United Methodist Church and Rev. P.J. Curley, the retired pastor of St. Michael Catholic Church, will lead the nondenominational service. Music will be provided by longtime YMCA volunteer Nathaniel Williams from the Mighty Train of Gospel.

“It is a neat way to see people come together. That is what I like about it and that is why the Y does it,” Doiron said. “You will get people who are running in the park, literally running, and they plan their run to stop around there. You have people who are dressed up in their Easter finest and people all in-between. They just come out, enjoy a beautiful morning, reflect and think about the sacrifices Jesus made for us.”

Doiron said buses from the Cairo to Fort Hill will start running at 6 a.m. and as long as worshipers arrive by 6:45 a.m. they should be able to make it to the service site in time for it to begin.