Orthodox Christians to celebrate Easter event

About 1,000 Midlands-area residents to break fast, honor Pascha

By CAROLYN CLICK - cclick@thestate.com

Eastern Orthodox Christians will gather tonight in solemn candlelit processionals as they prepare for the celebration of Pascha, the Easter celebration that is the culmination of the liturgical year.

Orthodox Christians — who number about 1,000 congregants in four Midlands congregations — base their holy calendar on the Julian calendar rather than the Gregorian calendar.

At midnight, they will break a 40-day Lenten fast from meat and dairy products, and prepare for Easter Sunday and the glorious celebration of the resurrection of Christ.

“That anticipation of celebration, of breaking the fast is dramatic,” said the Rev. Gregory Rogers, pastor of St. Barnabas Orthodox Church in Lexington, an Antiochian congregation.

The congregation plans to gather at 10:30 p.m. for the procession around the church.

“We light candles and go around the church three times representing the three days that Christ was in the tomb,” he said.

On the third circuit, Rogers said, he will knock at the church door and seek entry, saying this passage from Psalm 24: “Lift up your heads, O you gates; and be lifted up, you everlasting doors, that the king of glory may come in!”

Then somebody inside the church will reply: “Who is the king of glory?”

Then Rogers said he will answer: “The lord of hosts. He is the king of glory!”

The divine liturgy will be repeated at other Midlands orthodox congregations, including Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church, Holy Apostles Orthodox Christian Church in West Columbia, and St. Elizabeth the New Martyr Russian Orthodox Church in Cayce.

Red eggs, representing the blood of Christ and the rebirth, serve as rich symbols of Orthodox Easter and the Paschal celebration.

They will be handed out at midnight and some congregants will also share Easter baskets.

“The spiritual aspect gets focused on a little more instead of the Easter Bunny,” said Lillian Mackay, a member of St. Barnabas. “People will bring their baskets and have them blessed.”

Although her sons are grown, she recalled filling baskets for them with foods that had been off-limits during Lent.

Services Sunday will culminate a series of Holy Week services. Then, Orthodox Christians will begin the seven-day celebration of Bright Week, when they revel in the joyfulness of the resurrection of Christ.

Reach Click at (803) 771-8386.

SOURCE: