Orthodox Christians Celebrate Easter

ISTANBUL, Turkey - Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, the spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians, led worshippers in a candlelight procession early Sunday to celebrate Easter.

A dimmed Cathedral of St. George slowly became brighter as Bartholomew lit the candles of worshippers to represent the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

"Christ is risen," Bartholomew said, with bells ringing in celebration.

In his annual Easter message, Bartholomew said the resurrection offered humanity hope for peace in a world beset by bloodshed and hatred.

"May the Risen Lord heal all brokenness of contemporary humanity and grant peace and life to all human beings, removing all hatred and bloodshed, and exchanging them with peaceful cooperation for the good of all," Bartholomew said in Greek.

Bartholomew also warned those in power against seeking to dominate others. The patriarch had repeatedly spoken out in favor of a peaceful solution to the standoff in Iraq (news - web sites).

"There have been many who destroyed prosperous empires in their desire to make them greater, many who became self-destructive in setting before them aims of conceited pride ... many who destroyed others in their desire to lord and dominate over them," he said.

More than 1,000 people, including many from neighboring Greece, packed into the church.

Bartholomew, a Turkish citizen, directly controls several Greek Orthodox churches around the world, including the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. He is also considered the spiritual leader of 14 autonomous Orthodox churches, including those of Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, Russia and Serbia.

Turkey only recognizes him as head of its dwindling Greek Orthodox community.

"Here is the heart of the Orthodox Church," said Chris Zorbas, a 30-year-old graphic-designer from Athens.

The patriarchate has had its seat in Constantinople, today's Istanbul, since the time of the Greek Orthodox Byzantine Empire.

On Friday — Good Friday according to the Orthodox Church — Bartholomew participated in two services at the icon-adorned Cathedral of St. George, symbolically first taking Jesus from the cross and, later, marking his funeral.

Most Catholics and Protestants follow a different liturgical calendar and celebrated Easter on April 20.

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, the spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians, holds candles as he conducts the Easter Resurrection Service at the Patriarchal Cathedral of St. George in Istanbul, Turkey, late Saturday April 26, 2003. Patriarch Bartholomew I said that Easter's message of the resurrection of Jesus Christ offered humanity hope for peace in a world characterized by bloodshed and hatred.

Orthodox worshippers hold candles as they pray during the Easter Resurrection Service at the Patriarchal Cathedral of St. George in the Ecumenical Orthodox Patriarchate in Istanbul, Turkey, early Sunday

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, the spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians, center, conducts the Easter Resurrection Service at the Patriarchal Cathedral of St. George in Istanbul, Turkey, early Sunday April 27, 2003.

Greek Cypriots attend Orthodox Easter mass in the monastery of Apostolos Andreas in the Turkish occupied area of Cyprus Saturday, April 26, 2003. The mass, which was the first Easter one there since 1974, was held in the afternoon as the worshipers had to be back in the Greek-Cypriot controlled area before midnight. WOW! Why ain't it destroyed? The inept Turks musta overlooked it..

A Greek Cypriot attends Orthodox Easter mass in the monastery of Apostolos Andreas in the Turkish occupied area of Cyprus Saturday, April 26, 2003.

An Orthodox Christian worshipper scuffles with police as he prevented from entering the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem's Old City, April 26, 2003, which Christians believe is built on the site of Jesus' last resting place after his body was removed from the cross. Israeli police tightened up security around the church in fear of violence between rival Greek Orthodox and Armenian clergy over who would conduct the ceremony.

An Orthodox Christian worshipper cries as she is prevented from entering the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem's Old City, which Christians believe is built on the site of Jesus' last resting place after his body was removed from the cross, April 26, 2003

With Rituals and Feasts, Queens Comes Alive During Orthodox Easter
By COREY KILGANNON

Most Christians packed away their baskets, bonnets and bunnies a week ago. But today Eastern Orthodox Christians celebrate Easter, a date determined by the Julian calendar and the first full moon after the spring equinox. Astoria, Queens, with its large population of Greek-Americans, has become the site of one of the world's largest celebrations of this Orthodox holiday known as Pascha, the culmination of 40 days of fasting and a solemn week that includes an elaborate reenactment of the last days of Christ's life.

Congregants gathered for midnight services last night at the community's four large Eastern Orthodox churches — St. Irene, St. Demetrios, St. Catherine and St. George, and St. Markella. Afterward there were all-night feasts and parties, followed today by traditional family meals with baby lambs roasting on outdoor rotisseries.

The main outdoor festivities took place Friday night with ornate street processions, called epitaphios, which re-enact Christ's burial march. After a service at each church, the symbolic body of Christ, fashioned out of bundled sheets, was taken down from a cross and placed in a makeshift tomb the size of a compact car, which was draped with an ornate tapestry and adorned with thousands of flowers. The tomb was then carried from each church on the shoulders of a dozen men and paraded through the neighborhood before returning to the church for a closing ceremony.

"Supposedly the body of Jesus is inside," said Steven Stasinos, 57, standing on the curb next to a parking meter as the tomb from St. Irene went by. His wife, Georgia, made the sign of the cross. "Little girls build it with flowers all day, only little girls," Mrs. Stasinos said of the tomb.

As the procession passed, priests chanted in ancient Greek, brass bands played slow dirges, incense filled the air and congregants marched solemnly, holding tall candles.

Little girls in white satin robes grabbed handfuls of flower petals from their white Easter baskets and tossed them on the street. Images of the gilded icon portraits of the saints were everywhere, and gray-bearded bishops wearing robes of the Byzantine Empire marched under the elevated subway tracks, oblivious to the roar of the N train rumbling by.

The church processions were not far from Astoria's commercial hub, and hundreds of people gathered at Lefkos Pyrgos Café on 31st Avenue to buy sweet tsureki bread and watch the procession from St. Irene. A man with a large wreath hung around his neck with chicken wire came by, then a black-robed woman banging a piece of wood with a hammer, and then the elaborate tomb made of white carnations.

"This is the cross Christ was crucified on," said Theofanis Papantonis, a 23-year-old seminary student who carried a tall cross. "Not the original one, but symbolically. The writing up there. It's not the initials your cross has. It says `King of Glory,' basically meaning that his death was for us and that life will come out of death."

After the service, churchgoers walked home past a neighborhood fixture who calls himself "Cadillac Man," a homeless Vietnam veteran who sleeps under a nearby bridge and has been adopted by the local Greek community. He had figured out how to draw up a sign that bore the Greek words for Happy Easter, and he greeted churchgoers with the few Greek phrases he knows.

Many responded by handing him cash donations.

"These are beautiful people," said the man. "They feed me, they clothe me, they give me money."

On Ditmars Boulevard, brawny men carried the floral tomb to St. Markellas. One of them, Marinis Papaeliou, pointed at the tomb, which had a shroud inside that was woven by nuns in a convent in Greece. "That's the body in there," Mr. Papaeliou said. "It takes a lot of girls to make it and a lot of men to carry it."

It began to rain, and a man struggled to hold a small umbrella over Archbishop Pavlos Stratigeas, who was wearing a jeweled crown.

At the church gate, the men placed the tomb across the entrance. According to church tradition, the tomb is set barely five feet off the ground so most worshipers must duck under it to feel Christ's suffering.

The priests took the symbolic body and shroud from the tomb and carried them to the altar, to prepare for today's resurrection.

After the closing service, Archbishop Stratigeas removed his crown. "Pascha is the soul of the Greek people," he said. "It is about Christ victimizing death, vanquishing it through resurrection and about our own personal crucifixions."

Faithful celebrate Orthodox Easter
Culminates with liturgy tonight. End of 5-week Lenten period celebrated with rich meals of lamb, ham and breads

Saturday, April 26, 2003

CREDIT: RICHARD ARLESS JR, THE GAZETTE

Altar boys Theo Harry Sapouridis, 10, and Tom Condax, 13, ready themselves for the procession at St. Michael the Archangel Greek

Montreal's Eastern Orthodox Christian community - Greeks, Ukrainians, Russians, Serbians, and Romanians - are observing their Holy Week a week after western Christians do.

Marathon liturgies and candlelight processions yesterday marked Orthodox Good Friday, when the faithful believe Jesus carried a cross through the streets and was crucified.

The spiritual focus today is one of quiet mourning, solemn meditation and strict fasting, recalling Jesus's entombment.

Pascha, or Easter, will be celebrated at midnight tonight.

The two Christian communities - Orthodox and Western rite - observe Easter vigils on different days each year because they follow different calendars.

Orthodox churches rely on lunar cycles to fix the date for Easter. The rest of the Christian world accepts the Gregorian calendar introduced by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582.

Orthodox worship culminates in a three-hour midnight service tonight when believers celebrate the resurrection. Their faith teaches that Jesus rose from the dead three days after he was put to death.

Tonight's services mark the the end of five weeks of Lenten restrictions, and are usually followed by rich meals of lamb, ham, sausage and festive breads - including Greek trinity bread, Russian kulich bread and Ukrainian babka.

The breads are especially symbolic because they are made of wheat flour, an ancient symbol of the resurrection, and from eggs, a symbol of life.

There are 11 major Orthodox churches in Montreal, serving about 100,000 believers. The differences among them are ethnic or linguistic, not theological.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.