By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
JERUSALEM/GAZA KYIV/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Millions of Orthodox and Greek Catholic Christians marked Easter, many holding vigils and attending midnight Masses amid armed conflicts and persecution.
Gaza’s Orthodox Christians observed a subdued Easter Sunday as the Hamas-provoked war with Israel in Gaza continued.
About 100 families sheltering in Gaza City’s Greek Orthodox Church of Saint Porphyrius held prayer services on Sunday morning, but no other festivities were planned to mark the occasion.
“Sadness hangs over the church. There is no room for joy and celebration, in light of the massive destruction, continuous bombing, and casualties,” Imad Al Sayegh, chairman of the board of directors of the Union of Churches Association in Gaza, said in published remarks.
Al Sayegh, who fled to the church amid air strikes elsewhere in Gaza City, said there was “no sign of joy” this Easter as clashes between Hamas fighters and Israeli forces continued.
Yet Gaza’s Christians also clarified that their Easter prayers, while marred by grief, are also filled with hope.
Gaza was home to an already tiny Christian community of about 1,000 people before the war began.
EIGHTEEN KILLED
Eighteen people were killed in a strike on Saint Porphyrius, one of the world’s oldest churches, in October, when Israel said it targeted a Hamas control center.
Israel’s military has denied deliberately targeting churches but has accused Hamas of using civilians as human shields.
Israel’s government says it was forced into the war against Hamas after “the terror group massacred” some 1,200 people in Israel on October 7 while taking hundreds hostage.
In Jerusalem, the “Holy Fire” appeared in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem on May 4, an annual ceremony revered by Orthodox Christians as a critical part of Easter celebrations.
Orthodox Christians believe that the “Holy Fire” appears at Easter in the church as a result of Divine intervention and regard the event as miraculous, but other Bible-believing Christians and churches have rejected that.
As Israel’s war against Hamas continued, a limited number of roughly 4,200 people could attend the “Holy Fire” ritual after consultations with Israeli police, officials said.
In Eastern Europe, The Bulgarian Orthodox Church, citing security concerns, reportedly decided not to send its customary delegation to fetch the flame.
BULGARIAN DELEGATION
Instead, a Bulgarian Orthodox Church delegation received the flame from Romanian Orthodox Church representatives to take it to Bulgaria’s city of Rousse on the Danube, Bulgarian media said.
In Eastern Orthodox Christian tradition, the flame is distributed from churches at about midnight, with the public then taking it to their homes.
In wartorn Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called on Ukrainians to unite in prayer at a time when invading Russian forces are advancing in the east of the country.
“And our former neighbor, who was always trying to be our brother, is now forever distant from us,” he said, referring to Russia. “He broke all the commandments, demanded our home, and came to kill us. The world sees it.”
Prayers for peace were said in several churches across Ukraine, including in Kyiv’s main cathedral.
Millions of believers from Ukraine’s Greek Catholic Church — another smaller denomination in the country — were also marking the Easter holiday on May 5.
Orthodox and Greek Catholic Christians follow the Julian rather than the Gregorian calendar and celebrate Easter this weekend, while most Western churches, including Ukrainian Roman Catholics, observe the holiday on March 31.
PUTIN AT CHURCH
In Moscow, President Vladimir Putin joined worshippers early Sunday at the Russian capital’s main church, the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, to attend services led by the head of Russia’s Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill.
At the service, Kirill, a staunch supporter of Putin and the war on Ukraine, prayed for the protection of the “sacred borders” of Russia, expressing hope that God would stop the “internecine strife” between Russia and Ukraine.
Under Kirill, Russia has been clamping down on internal dissent, with one priest facing expulsion for refusing to pray to God to guide Russia to victory over Ukraine, Worthy News learned.
Another priest was suspended for presiding over memorial services at the grave of Aleksei Navalny, the opposition leader who died in an Arctic prison in February, several sources said.
In the former Soviet republic of Georgia, which has been rocked by street protests over controversial media legislation, observant Georgians held their candlelight vigils. They attended Mass in the capital, Tbilisi, and elsewhere.
Thousands gathered outside of parliament on Tbilisi’s Rustaveli Avenue, the focus of protests and clashes with riot police, to pray and sing liturgy late on May 4.
Unlike at mass rallies earlier in the week, which met with heavy police response, the atmosphere was peaceful, witnesses said. Unarmed police officers stationed sparsely at the vigil’s sidelines were given holiday food along with the protesters.
It was seen as a small sign of hope in an otherwise turbulent world.
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