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Posts Tagged ‘Easter’

The Resurrection

by Bunk Five Hawks X ( 370 Comments › )
Filed under Uncategorized at April 17th, 2022 - 2:14 pm

Church of the Light

“And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent; / And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, / And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.”

Happy Easter

by Phantom Ace ( 226 Comments › )
Filed under Christianity, Open thread, Religion at April 20th, 2014 - 1:05 pm

easterlilycross

Happy Easter everyone for Jesus is risen!

This is an open thread to discuss any subject even disability collecting washed up Jazz Guitarists.

On an Easter related note, Pope Francis Addressed the ongoing Ukraine crisis, the Syrian War and the attacks on Christians in Nigeria.

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Marking Christianity’s most hopeful day, Pope Francis made an Easter Sunday plea for peace and dialogue in Ukraine and Syria, for an end to terrorist attacks against Christians in Nigeria and for more attention to the hungry and neediest close to home.

Well over 150,000 tourists — Romans and pilgrims, young and old — turned out for the Mass that Francis celebrated at an altar set up under a canopy on the steps of St. Peter’s Basilica.

So great were their numbers that they overflowed from sprawling St. Peter’s Square, which was bedecked with row after row of potted daffodils, sprays of blue hyacinths and bunches of white roses. Waving flags from the pope’s native Argentina as well as from Brazil, Mexico, Britain, Poland and many other countries, they also filled the broad boulevard leading from the square to the Tiber River.

Easter is the culmination of Holy Week and marks Christian belief that Jesus rose from the dead after his crucifixion.

Francis noted that this year the Catholic church’s celebration of Easter coincided with that of Orthodox churches, which have many followers in Ukraine.

Francis prayed that God would “enlighten and inspire the initiatives that promote peace in Ukraine, so that all those involved, with the support of the international community, will make every effort to prevent violence.”

In eastern Ukraine, the holiday was marred by a deadly shooting Sunday fueled by tensions between pro-Russian supporters in the east and those loyal to an interim government in Kiev. The clash appeared to defy an international agreement reached last week in hopes of ending months of unrest.

Francis also prayed that all sides in Syria will be moved to “boldly negotiate the peace long awaited and long overdue.” Syria has been wracked by a three-year civil war that has cost 150,000 lives and forced millions to flee the country.

Christians make up about 5 percent of Syria’s population. In comments to mark Easter there, the Greek Orthodox patriarch vowed that Christians there “will not submit” to extremists who attack “our people and holy places.”

Francis makes a pilgrimage to Jordan, the Palestinian territories and Israel next month, so on Easter he prayed that hopes sparked by the resumption of Mideast peace negotiations will be sustained.

Thousands of pilgrims from around the world flocked to the celebrate Easter in the Holy Land, where Christian communities, as well as elsewhere in the Middle East, have been declining as the faithful flee regional turmoil.

Enjoy your Easter Sunday!

Muslims Attack Unbelievers On Our Holy Days

by 1389AD ( 64 Comments › )
Filed under Africa, Christianity, India, Iran, Islamic Terrorism, Jihad, Pakistan, Somalia, Syria at April 11th, 2012 - 8:30 am

These attacks took place on or around the date of Easter celebrated by Western Christians. Orthodox Pascha will be celebrated on April 15, 2012.

50 people killed in Easter Sunday bombings

Easter car bombing in Nigeria 2012

Abuja: At least 50 people were killed when explosives concealed in two cars went off near a church during Easter Sunday services in the northern Nigerian city of Kaduna, eye-witnesses said.

Shehu Sani, the President of Civil Rights Congress based in Kaduna, said two explosions took place at the Assemblies of God’s Church near the centre of the city with a large Christian population and known as a major cultural and economic centre in Nigeria’s north.

“There were two explosions and the casualty figure may go up because some injuries were really critical,” he said on phone.

Another resident of the city, Miss Blessing Audu said that the explosion has caused panic among Christians celebrating Easter.

She said some parts of the church were damaged even as the vibration caused by the explosives were heard in several parts of the city.

An emergency worker on condition of anonymity explained that the bombs were planted in two cars near the church.

At least 50 people were killed amid fears that the casualties may rise from the blasts.

He said his agency has been able to recover 20 bodies from the site.

Police spokesman Aminu Lawal confirmed the incident but sought more time before making a formal statement.

Ahead of Easter celebrations, the US and the UK had warned of possible bomb attacks, advising its citizens against travelling to certain parts of the country.

No one has yet claimed responsibility for the bombings, but the BBC reported that Boko Haram recently said it would carry out attacks in the area over the Easter holiday.

The radical group has carried out a series of attacks on churches and other locations on Christmas Day, including outside the church in capital Abuja, where 44 people died.

It is waging a bloody war against the government to seek the enforcement of strict Shariah law and the release of all its detained members.

The group has bombed churches and attacked mosques in the 150-million nation that has both Muslim and Christian population, with Muslims predominant in the north while Christians mostly living in the South.

Coordinated multiple bombings and gun attacks in the northern city of Kano by Boko Haram cadres killed 185 people, including an Indian from Gujarat on January 20. A suicide bomb attack by the group at the United Nations headquarters in Abuja in July last year killed 26 persons.

PTI

Sheik has the story on many more Easter attacks:

Un-Islamic Easter Bombs (2012)

Follow his links to news stories from Somalia, Nigeria, Tunisia, Yemen, Sudan, Iran, Syria, and the Philippines.

Attacking unbelievers on their holy days is a cherished Mohammedan tradition. Nothing to do with Islam, as always…

Not only Christians were attacked:

Hindu Muslim riot in Hyderabad. Desecration of Hanuman Temple with alleged Beef throwing created communal tension.

Bhagyanagar (Hyderabad) | 9th April, 2012: An indefinite curfew was today imposed in the sensitive Madannapet and Saidabad areas of the walled city. A Hanuman temple at Kurmaguda, (in Saidabad) was found desecrated on the Sunday morning which was followed by incidents of stabbing and heavy stone-pelting, hence curfew has been imposed, police said.

A day after the Hanuman Jayanti (6th April, 20-12), in the early hours of Sunday, 8th April 2012, the devotees of the Hanuman temple at Kurmaguda, in Saidabad, were in for a shock to find green colour had been splashed on the walls of the temple and pieces of cow meat were thrown inside the temple from the grills.

The naturally agitated Hindu youth protested against this sacrilegious act. The Muslims who are a majority in that area launched an offensive on the Hindus and both sides engaged in a duel of stone fight. Sensing trouble, the police indulged in lathi charge and also fired tear gas hurting many of the protesters. At the same time, the Muslims grouped themselves into a larger group and more or less occupied the main road of Saidabad armed with stones and swords, eye witnesses told NewsBharati…

Much more here.

Sword-wielding Muslim mobs? This is 2012!

Here’s another instance of that, in Egypt.

Nearly fourteen centuries ago, mobs of jihadis armed with primitive weapons took advantage of the weakness of their more civilized foes and brought about the Dark Ages. Why are we letting that happen all over again?

Hinglaj Hindu Temple committee chairman kidnapped in Balochistan by suspected Islamists in the eve of Yearly Pilgrimage.

Islamabad, Apr 9,2012, (PTI)

The chairman of the committee that manages the famous Hinglaj Mata temple in Balochistan province of southwest Pakistan has been kidnapped just two days before the beginning of the shrine’s annual pilgrimage, according to a media report today.

Maharaj Ganga Ram Motiyani was abducted at Lasbela in Balochistan by two men in police uniform.
His followers organised a protest outside the Karachi Press Club yesterday and demanded that the government take steps for his recovery.

“Motiyani’s kidnapping appears to be a conspiracy against Hindus since he was kidnapped two days before the gathering.

“He has not been kidnapped for ransom because he is a poor man,” Ramesh Kumar Vankwani, patron of the Pakistan Hindu Council and a former member of the Sindh Assembly, was quoted as saying by The Express Tribune daily.

Thousands of Hindus, including yatris from India, travel to the cave temple of Hinglaj Mata for a pilgrimage in April…

More here.


The Pascha Celebration in Greece

by 1389AD Comments Off on The Pascha Celebration in Greece
Filed under Christianity, Headlines, Orthodox Christianity at April 28th, 2011 - 11:16 pm

Athens News: An exuberant celebration

(Link provided by Sparta)

by Damian Mac Con Uladh
25 Apr 2011

Holy Friday celebration in Greece
Orthodox Christians carry the Good Friday epitaphios in the Aegean Sea next to a burning cross on an islet off the coast of the island of Tinos

INSTEAD OF concentrating on his military duties, Hugh Wybrew spent most of his two years’ national service in the Royal Air Force back in the 1950s learning Russian, a move that brought the London native into lasting contact with Orthodoxy.

“Half our teachers were Russian emigres and at Easter they wanted to go to church. So I went from Cambridge, where I was at the time, to London for the Easter service.”

This was Canon Wybrew’s first encounter with Eastern Christianity. His subsequent career and postings – a year’s scholarship at the Russian Orthodox Theological Institute in Paris (1958-59) and a two-year posting as Anglican chaplain to Romania, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia (1971-73) – resulted in his “becoming soaked in Orthodoxy”.
[…]
Wybrew, who was ordained into the Anglican Church in 1960, believes Western Christians have much to learn from how the Orthodox celebrate Easter.

Easter paramount

For one, Easter retains its place as the most important religious event and popular feast in Orthodox Christianity, whereas in the West it has been eclipsed by Christmas, a phenomenon that he dates back to the Middle Ages.

He also singles out the “sense of quite exuberant joyfulness” that the Orthodox express at the proclamation of the resurrection by the priest, amid great excitement, as the faithful press forward to light their candle, announcing to each other that Christ has risen.

“The Western Easter is much lower-key,” says Wybrew, now retired and living in Oxford. “There is silence between the three proclamations of the Resurrection by the priest. The candle is lit from the new fire and then it’s all very ordinary.”

Wybrew also admires the way the Orthodox, “who don’t separate the death and resurrection of Jesus, derive a great sense of victory from the cross on Good Friday”.

“The East has that view of the cross that comes out strongly in John’s Gospel,” explains Wybrew, “which says that the moment of Jesus’ death is the moment of his glory.”

He observed that this joyous anticipation is also reflected in the generous decoration of Orthodox churches with flowers on Good Friday, in a colourful and marked contrast to the more sombre mood prevailing in Western churches on the same day.

“The Western ceremony is less exuberant than in the East and this reflects very much the difference between the Latin-Roman mentality and the more Eastern mentality,” observes Wybrew, who added that in the parishes where he has ministered he has used Orthodox hymns “in an attempt to inject something of that sense of the victory of the cross on Good Friday”.

In Wybrew’s view, the Orthodox liturgical practice “is more wholehearted in its following” of the celebration of Holy Week, as it first developed in Jerusalem in the 4th century.

Thanks to the account written in 385 by one pilgrim, a Spanish nun called Egeria, much is known about how Jerusalem observed Great Week, as it was then called. The Jerusalem pattern was subsequently popularised throughout Christendom.

“To a greater or lesser extent, Christians elsewhere copied it,” says Wybrew. “They had to adapt it, of course, because only Jerusalem had the places connected with the suffering and death of Jesus.”

But he pointed out that many aspects now central to Orthodox devotional practice at Easter are, in fact, of more recent origin, citing the procession of the epitaphios – Christ’s funeral bier – on Good Friday as an example.

Read the rest.