World's Christians Celebrate Easter

(AP)  From Moscow to Sofia, Rome to Jerusalem, Christians of the Orthodox and Western faiths celebrated Easter Sunday, prayed for a better future and relished ancient rituals on the same day this year as their religious calendars coincided.

The alignment of the Easter calendars, based on equinox and moon phases, occurs every few years, and this year's overlap made the narrow streets in the Holy Land especially crowded.

At the Vatican, the Eastern Christian celebrations of Easter resounded across the steps of St. Peter's Basilica when black-robed clerics intoned a long chant from the Byzantine liturgy during Pope Benedict XVI's outdoor Mass for tens of thousands of faithful. St. Peter's Square was ablaze with color from tulips, tiger lilies, hyacinths and azaleas from the Netherlands.

Benedict, head of the world's 1.1 billion Catholics, tempered his message about Easter joy with a litany of suffering in the world today, including what he decried as "continual slaughter" in Iraq and bloodshed in parts of Africa and Asia.

In Britain, the Archbishop of York John Sentamu, the second-highest ranking cleric in the Church of England, conducted a series of public open-air baptisms, welcoming a total of 20 people into the Christian faith by immersing them in a large water tank. The celebration in St Sampson's Square of York, northern England, was attended by leaders of different Christian denominations.

Easter brought a little good will to strained Russian-Georgian relations when Moscow made an exception and allowed a few Georgian charter flights to arrive for holiday celebrations.

Tense international relations echoed, too, in Orthodox celebrations in Bulgaria. There, worshippers clutched candles and prayed for five Bulgarian nurses facing the death penalty in Libya. Libya has accused the nurses of infecting about 400 Libyan children with the HIV virus. The nurses have proclaimed their innocence. The European Union, which Bulgaria joined this year, has urged Libyan authorities to release the nurses.

In Ukraine's capital, several hundred supporters of the premier marked Easter in tents as they protested the president's order to dissolve parliament. The dispute is a reflection of long-running struggle between Western-leaning and pro-Russian politicians.

In previous years, many foreign visitors had stayed away from Easter celebrations in Jerusalem, afraid of the surge in Israeli-Palestinian violence. But with tensions calming, many returned this year, further enlarging the crowds of Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant faithful brought to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher together because of the alignment of the religious calendars.

Many Christians believe the church is built on the site of Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection.

After weeks of Lenten sacrifice and fasting in preparation for Easter, many Christians in Eastern Europe enjoyed holiday meals including brightly colored hard-boiled eggs and various sweet breads. Roast lamb was featured on many tables in the Balkans as well as in Italy.

Cries of "Christ is risen!" went up in Macedonia after midnight, when priests symbolically announced Jesus' victory over death. Archbishop Stefan, head of the Macedonian Orthodox Church, called for peace "in our homeland and among all the people in the world."

While Christians are a tiny minority in Turkey, for historical reasons the Orthodox patriarchate has its home in Istanbul, ancient Constantinople, and the spiritual leader of the world's 200 million Orthodox, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, is based there. Most of the worshippers packing the Church of St. George at a Saturday night Easter vigil service were visitors from Greece.

In Romania, there were calls for Christian unity from Patriarch Teoctist, who heads the influential Romanian Orthodox Church, and from the Eastern Rite Catholics, who follow Orthodox ritual but are loyal to Rome.

"May God's will be fulfilled who wished from the beginning of the world to be one flock and one shepherd. It depends on us that the joy of unity should be in people's hearts not just the calendar," said Ioan Marc, an Orthodox priest in the northwestern city of Cluj.

Pope Benedict has been pushing for greater unity among Christians, especially between Rome and the Orthodox world. Tensions between Orthodox, especially in Russia, and the Vatican kept the late Pope John Paul II from realizing his desire to visit Moscow. Disputes over property in Ukraine and Russia following the demise of Soviet-bloc Communism are among the reasons the pilgrimage was never made.

In the Pacific's predominantly Christian Solomon Islands, struggling with earthquake and tsunami losses, frightened villagers descended from the hills to celebrate Easter.

"Maybe it's a punishment from God," said one worshipper, Furner Smith Arebonato. "Before, there were few people in church. Now, after (the) earthquake, the church is filled with people, some of them never went to church before," she said.

Benedict mentioned the Solomon Islands' tragedy in his message, as he lamented: "How much suffering there is in the world."

[grazinggoat]

How's about knocking it off with the insults....
...
By the way grazin, you are in a vast minority of people who don't think Jesus Christ is Lord. Most of Americans believe in the crucifixion and resurrection as does the majority of people in the world since Christianity still remains the world's most dominant religion.

So I guess the majority of our country is little "trolls" according to your hateful philosophy.


- I never insulted anyone for his belief. I insulted you, just you, because everyone here is tired of reading your hateful comments toward the Muslim faith, without any real representation from them to respond to your fault accusations and generalization... Not only that, but born-Christians who don't believe in Christianity anymore, (because they opened their eyes and refused the fairy tales they were told), are condemned, damnned by you and your similars (The Church).

-Real logical theories are always rejected by the money-collecting Church and the little right-winger managers, because they compete with the absurd speech that is told the 'believers' and make them lose the income so dearly necessary for the abject domination they have on them.

- The freedom land United States of America's constitution is clearly stating the Separation of the State from Church, and vice versa. Freedom of speech has not been granted by the Church, but rather by the constitution that garantees the freedom of belief, all beliefs... including Christianity.

[grazinggoat]

you'll also have to explain the hundreds of people who've witnessed Jesus appear before them after his death - what happens in the book of Acts...
Posted by yo_marc at 01:23 PM : Apr 09, 2007

- I said he never died matter of fact, so your question is inappropraite. He still can appear before them since he never died, as before, so what's so miraculous?

What could be miraculous is his capacity of having survived the bad treatments he lived through that day of crucifixion. Actually in all the books, it's never been mentioned, somebody has checked for the vital signs of Jesus, to conclude to his death, after crucifixion.

-Many research on the subject say that the fact Jesus has been hanging on the cross for a little period, didn't really last long enough to deteriorate his vital signs and die. Since the Shabbat came in pretty soon, at sunset on that Good FRIDAY, the relatives were allowed to unload him from his position on the cross, covered with a shroud and left him in the cave in order to be buried on Sunday, the first Judaic day of the week, the next day being Shabbat, burial was not allowed.

-For the miracles, well you can't believe how The Creator who conceived the Humans by his glorious Evolution theory, can make miraculous achievement. Miracles can be performed by Humans ON THEIR OWN, because every Human is a miracle of existance, by himself (herself) without the intermediary of a personage that existed 2000 years ago...

[yo_marc]

grazinggoat,

If you're going with that thought -- you'll also have to explain the hundreds of people who've witnessed Jesus appear before them after his death - what happens in the book of Acts (The Holy Spirit descending, after Jesus tells the disciples after his death, to stay and wait where they are) - the miracles worked in His name after that (and still to this day) - and then to all of the people of the world currently alive today who are truly Christians; Who turns the switch in their hearts to give them the desire to repent of every conceivable sin and immorality, and turn to God? Who is it that's answering prayers?

[grumpas]

singinrick: I might get sick and throw up over your self-righteous blurbs! All you are doing is regurgitating what some funadamentalist preacher has spouted week after week! You Christian's are such a naseating group of people! So filled with love and charity! To bad it has never translates into something other than so much hot air designed to suck the innocent into your sick world! You missed your calling as a Fundamentalist Charlatan!

[grazinggoat]

-Last time I checked george2221 you still enjoy the many freedoms in this country that you can wake up to every day and you don't have to worry about a suicide bomber patrolling the streets of your neighborhood.

There is nothing fake about Jesus Christ.
Posted by singinrick at 10:32 PM : Apr 08, 2007

-what an idiot! Again!
Had I you as a son, I'd be ashamed. Grow-up little troll, grow-up. Stop believing in Santa-Clause and Fairy Tales.

[grazinggoat]

Curiously the OLD TESTAMENT is shared by Jews, Muslims & Christians - this particular lunar calendar made it so THAT EACH JEW, MUSLIM, AND CHRISTIAN GOT TO CELEBRATE ACCORDING TO THEIR OWN BELIEFS - Now, if we COULD ALL SHARE THE IDEA OF "DO UNTO OTHERS AS YOU WOULD HAVE THEM DO TO YOU" -- hopefully PEACE WOULD REIGN ANEW!
Posted by joanpz at 10:51 PM : Apr 08, 2007

-Joan
Amen!

Kick those little kids/men from politics. They are either sick or lunatic. They need to go resting for a while. We, females, need to take over a bit, this huge load they have on their shoulders. Too weak to govern, those weak guys... must be exhausted. Let the soft and balm touch of Pelosi be generously mixed with the wisdom of a mother to heal this country that is so much in big need. And let the wisdom and youth of Obama another ingredient to this potential formidable administration team to be.

[joanpz]

Curiously the OLD TESTAMENT is shared by Jews, Muslims & Christians - this particular lunar calendar made it so THAT EACH JEW, MUSLIM, AND CHRISTIAN GOT TO CELEBRATE ACCORDING TO THEIR OWN BELIEFS - Now, if we COULD ALL SHARE THE IDEA OF "DO UNTO OTHERS AS YOU WOULD HAVE THEM DO TO YOU" -- hopefully PEACE WOULD REIGN ANEW!

[grazinggoat]

Happy Easter everyone!

Remember the TRUE MEANING: The Glorious resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!
Posted by singinrick at 08:28 PM : Apr 08, 2007

What if Jeasus just fainted when put on the cross. What if he lost a lot of blood, due to his wounds, and his blood pressure lowered so much to the point of being too low to maintain a status of consciousness, hence falling into unconsciousness, NOT DIED. Since they were on Friday and Shabbat starts on Friday evening, the Jews (his relatives) unloaded him from the Cross fainting, but STILL ALIVE. He's been covered with a shrewd and put to rest into a cave, behind a rock closing it's aperture, not buried in the ground, like Jews traditionally do.

He rested there for two days; long enough to heal from his wounds and and come back into livelyhood. So please there stop saying he's died and came back from among the deads. He came back from the 'fainted'. Amen! God please guide those lost souls who are telling untrue things about Yeshoua.

[dallison7]

singinrick,

I am certain there are many true christian believers in the world, I personally know many.

You are not one of them.

I have read hundreds of your thoughts on thsese sites and you believe that goodness should only come to those who follow the neocon doctrine.

You, like George W. Bush, are the worst sort of hypocrite!!

[zootallures2]

End the wars, feed and shelter the starving, and behave right, and then you'll be honoring Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad.

Until then... BEEEEEEEEEEEEEE ESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS