Utah Church Offers Free Korans in Easter Gesture
REUTERS: A Utah church is giving away free copies of the Koran in an Easter season ecumenical riposte to the recent burning of the Islamic holy book by a controversial Florida pastor.

The Wasatch Presbyterian Church has ordered 50 copies of the Koran to be distributed at a local bookstore starting on Monday.

"We're not promoting Islam, we're not saying the Koran is the Bible," said Scott Dalgarno, the church's pastor. "We're just saying that if people are curious, if they want their consciences informed on this issue ... then let them pick up a copy on us and read it and decide for themselves what to think."

Dalgarno says each Koran, which the world's nearly 1.6 billion Muslims believe is God's final testament, will have a bookmark insert that reads: "This book was donated by the leaders of Wasatch Presbyterian Church who are not afraid of truth wherever it can be found."

He said the giveaway was a response to Terry Jones, the leader of a fringe, fundamentalist church in Gainesville, Florida. » | James Nelson | SALT LAKE CITY | Friday, April 22, 2011

EXAMINER.COM: SLC Presbyterians provide free copies of Islam’s holy book: SALT LAKE CITY - The Wasatch Presbyterian Church is buying dozens of copies of the Quran and giving them away in the hope of bridging the gap created by extremists last March. » | Alison Peek, Salt Lake City Political Buzz Examiner | Sunday, April 24, 2011

Happy Easter! Joyeuses Pâques! Frohe Ostern! Buona Pasqua! ¡Felices Pascuas! Pasg Hapus!
With every good wish to you all. May your Easter be filled with joy and happiness. To those in the middle of their celebration of the Passover, I wish you all Joyous Pesach!
Easter (Pâques) 1968 – Marc Chagall (1887 – 1985). Image: Google Images

Die blutigen Osterrituale der Katholiken

Easter Cancelled in Syria
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Good Friday and other Easter processions and festivals have been cancelled across Syria as street unrest boils over into violence.

The country's Christian population has been forced to abandon its usually colourful and exuberant commemorations because of the number of "martyrs" who have died and the "bad situation", a senior church official told The Daily Telegraph.

The whole country is braced for a wave of protests on Friday, despite an announcement that President Bashir al-Assad had signed a decree lifting the 48-year state of emergency, a key demand.

Government promises of reform combined with violence by armed plain-clothes security forces have only served to bolster the opposition, who are planning more demonstrations after regular Muslim Friday prayers.

But today these will clash with Good Friday services, which would normally see processions and public gatherings by Syria's Christian minority, estimated at between 1-2 million, or around five per cent of the population.

"We are not receiving official congratulations," Bishop Philoxenos Mattias, Assistant to the Syriac Orthodox Church Patriarchate in Damascus, the country's biggest Christian denomination, said.

"All of the Syrian churches have decided this together because of the bad situation and because of the martyrs who have died in recent days, out of respect for them." » | Richard Spencer, Middle East Correspondent | Thursday, April 21, 2011

A Subdued Easter in Syria
TERRASANTA: (Milan) – This year there will be no processions or public events of Christian festivities and identity. The very tense situation in Syria has compelled the Christian (Orthodox and Catholic) Patriarchs to forgo the exuberance and joy that have always accompanied Easter celebrations in Damascus, Aleppo and the other cities where the Christian minorities live. The decision has been taken due to “the present circumstances in the country” and to “honour the souls of the martyrs and innocent victims of the recent sad events.”. » | Lucia Balestrieri | Thursday, April 21, 2011

New Zealand Churches Upset Over Hot Cross Buns 'Like Jesus'
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: A pizza company has caused outrage in New Zealand with billboards advertising hot cross buns accompanied by the slogan: "For a limited time. A bit like Jesus."

Instead of the traditional Christian cross, the buns bear an inverted pentagram, a design symbolic of Satanism.

The giant billboards, placed by the Hell Pizza company, have been plastered around Auckland, the country's largest city.

Lloyd Ashton, a spokesman for New Zealand's Anglican Church, condemned the advertising campaign as disgraceful.

"It's disrespectful to what a lot of people hold very dear," he said.

"They've dared here to take a clumsy poke at something that numbers of people hold sacred." » | Paul Chapman in Wellington | Thursday, April 07, 2011

Meaning of Easter Symbols 'Confused' to Most
BBC: There is growing concern over the commercialisation of Easter and widespread confusion over the meaning of the symbols used to mark the holiday, a survey has found.

Research from Durham University also showed less than 60% of people could name more than three of the Ten Commandments, with most admitting their knowledge of the Bible comes from films.

Gerry Jackson reports. BBC video >>> | Easter Sunday, April 04, 2010

Queen Attends Easter Service at Windsor
BBC: The Queen, Prince Philip, and members of the Royal Family have attended the traditional Easter Sunday service at Windsor Castle.

Afterwards the monarch was handed flowers by young well wishers [sic]. BBC video >>> | Easter Sunday, April 04, 2010

Happy Easter! Joyeuses Pâques! Frohe Ostern! Buona Pasqua! ¡Felices Pascuas!
Photograph: Times Online
I should like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very BLESSED and HAPPY EASTER.
THE TELEGRAPH PICTURE GALLERY: Easter celebrations around the world >>>

Joyous Pesach! Happy Passover! פסח שמח
Photo: Google Images
To all our Jewish visitors, I wish you a very BLESSED and JOYOUS PASSOVER. Pesach Sameach. פסח שמח

Pilger tragen Kreuze durch die Gassen Jerusalems. Bild: NZZ Online
Feierlichkeiten in einem schwierigen Umfeld: Christen in aller Welt gedenken der Leiden Jesu
NZZ ONLINE: Christen in aller Welt haben am Karfreitag der Leiden Jesu gedacht. Die Feierlichkeiten sind überschattet von den Missbrauchsvorfällen innerhalb der katholischen Kirche. In Jerusalem konnten die Pilgerzüge ohne grössere Zwischenfälle abgehalten werden.

Tausende von Christen in aller Welt haben am Karfreitag der Leiden Jesu Christi gedacht. Papst Benedikt XVI. rief während den Feierlichkeiten im Petersdom in Rom die Priester auf, «in der Gemeinschaft mit Jesus Christus Menschen des Friedens zu sein, der Gewalt entgegenzustehen und der grösseren Macht der Liebe zu vertrauen». Papst übernimmt Kreuz am Schluss >>> sda/dpa/afp | Karfreitag, 02. April 2010

Des fidèles finissent sur la croix
20MINUTES.ch: Des dizaines de personnes se sont flagellées, tandis que d'autres ont été «crucifiées» lors des traditionnelles cérémonies du vendredi saint aux Philippines.

Selon des responsables locaux, 30'000 touristes Philippins et étrangers sont attendus dans la ville pour les fêtes pascales.

«C'est la chose la plus douloureuse que j'ai jamais endurée, mais c'est pour le Seigneur et c'est ma pénitence», a déclaré Rommel David qui a entamé les «cérémonies» en se fouettant le dos en compagnie d'une dizaine de camarades dans la ville de San Fernando, au nord de Manille.

Une dizaine de personnes ont été attachées et clouées pendant quelques minutes à des croix à San Juan, près de San Fernando.

Les éphémères «Christ» sont ensuite emmenés dans une tente où des soins leur sont dispensés. >>> ats/afp | Vendredi 02 Avril 2010

Pâques : Le chemin de croix de Benoît XVI
Benoît XVI lors des cérémonies du Jeudi saint, hier à Rome. Photo : Le Temps
LE TEMPS: Les chrétiens célèbrent Pâques, et le pape va présider vendredi soir à Rome le chemin de croix, du Colisée au Palatin, qui rappelle le calvaire du Christ, alors que l’Eglise catholique traverse une crise inédite en se débattant dans les affaires de pédophilie

Depuis 2008, Benoît XVI, qui aura 83 ans le 16 avril, ne participe plus au parcours, qui commémore le martyre et la mort du Christ, ne prenant qu’à la toute fin la croix en bois. Vendredi soir, après la messe de la Passion du Christ à Saint-Pierre, il présidera la cérémonie depuis la terrasse du Mont Palatin, face au Colisée.

Cette année, le chemin de croix a une résonance particulière alors qu’une cascade d’affaires d’abus sexuels sur des mineurs de la part de prêtres et religieux, souvent couverts par leur hiérarchie, secoue l’Europe, notamment l’Allemagne, pays natal du pape, et les Etats-Unis. >>> AFP | Vendredi 02 Avril 2010

Britain’s Most Senior Catholic Admits 'Evil' Clergy Abuse Has Led to 'Great Public Humiliation' of Church
THE TELEGRAPH: Child abuse committed by priests has led to “a great public humiliation” of the church, according to the most senior Roman Catholic in Britain.

Cardinal Keith O'Brien insists that the faithful must not turn away from the church. Photo: The Telegraph
Cardinal Keith O’Brien, the Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh, will also tell worshippers on Easter Sunday that the cover-up of “evil” paedophilia by senior clergy “brings shame on us all”.

However he insisted that the faithful must not turn away from the church, just as voters disillusioned by the state of politics should still cast their ballots.

His forthright comments on one of the most important days in the Christian calendar highlight the concern felt at the highest levels of the church about the effect of clergy sex abuse scandals unfolding around the world. >>> Martin Beckford, Religious Affairs Correspondent | Good Friday, April 02, 2010

The Church Must Stop Trivialising Easter
He is risen! He is risen indeed! Hallelujah!
THE TELEGRAPH: Christians must keep their nerve: the Resurrection isn’t a metaphor, it’s a physical fact

Private Eye ran a cartoon some years ago of St Peter standing in front of Jesus's Cross and saying to the other Disciples: “It's time to put this behind us now and move on.” It was a satire not on Christian belief, but on politicians and counsellors, and their trivialising mantras. It depended on Jesus's death being not just an odd, forgettable event - and that it was His Resurrection, rather than a shoulder- shrugging desire to “move on”, that got the early Christians going.

Easter was the pilot project. What God did for Jesus that explosive morning is what He intends to do for the whole creation. We who live in the interval between Jesus's Resurrection and the final rescue and transformation of the whole world are called to be new-creation people here and now. That is the hidden meaning of the greatest festival Christians have.

This true meaning has remained hidden because the Church has trivialised it and the world has rubbished it. The Church has turned Jesus's Resurrection into a “happy ending” after the dark and messy story of Good Friday, often scaling it down so that “resurrection” becomes a fancy way of saying “He went to Heaven”. Easter then means: “There really is life after death”. The world shrugs its shoulders. We may or may not believe in life after death, but we reach that conclusion independently of Jesus, of odd stories about risen bodies and empty tombs.

But “resurrection” to 1st-century Jews wasn't about “going to Heaven”: it was about the physically dead being physically alive again. Some Jews (not all) believed that God would do this for all people in the end. Nobody, including Jesus's followers, was expecting one person to be bodily raised from the dead in the middle of history. The stories of the Resurrection are certainly not “wish-fulfilments” or the result of what dodgy social science calls “cognitive dissonance”. First-century Jews who followed would-be messiahs knew that if your leader got killed by the authorities, it meant you had backed the wrong man. You then had a choice: give up the revolution or get yourself a new leader. Going around saying that he'd been raised from the dead wasn't an option.

Unless he had been. Jesus of Nazareth was certainly dead by the Friday evening; Roman soldiers were professional killers and wouldn't have allowed a not-quite-dead rebel leader to stay that way for long. When the first Christians told the story of what happened next, they were not saying: “I think he's still with us in a spiritual sense” or “I think he's gone to heaven”. All these have been suggested by people who have lost their historical and theological nerve. >>> The Right Rev Dr Tom Wright, Bishop of Durham | Saturday, April 11, 2009

Church Leader Wants Christians to Celebrate Easter on Same Day
ECUMENICAL NEWS INTERNATIONAL (ENI): Rome – Lebanon-based Armenian Orthodox leader Aram I has at a Vatican meeting with Pope Benedict XVI proposed that the world's churches set a common date for Easter, when Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. 



"There are no special doctrinal problems to achieve this goal, but only problems of the calendar," Aram, who heads the Catholicosate of Cilicia of the Armenian Apostolic Church, told journalists in Rome at the end of his 23-27 November visit to Rome. 



In most years, Christians celebrate Easter on two different dates. One is marked by most Protestants and Roman Catholics, and the other by most Orthodox churches. 



Catholicos Aram said he believed an ecumenical initiative to celebrate Easter on the same day would help give visible expression to Christian unity. >>> Luigi Sandri | December 3, 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback – Italy)

A Happy and Blessed Easter to One and All!
”Easter chicks” courtesy of SpiegelOnline International
Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)

HAPPY EASTER! HAPPY PASSOVER!
He is not here: for He is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. - Matthew 28, 6

Image courtesy of THE TIMES

I should like to wish all my Christian visitors a VERY HAPPY and BLESSED EASTER. Further, I'd like to wish all those who will be celebrating Passover, a HAPPY and BLESSED PASSOVER. Peace and joy to one and all!

BBC: Pope decries slaughter in Iraq in his Easter message

Papst feiert Ostermesse in Rom: «Der Friede und die Freude des auferstandenen Herrn sei mit Euch!»

WELTONLINE: An seinem 80. Geburtstag, dem übernächsten Montag, veröffentlicht Papst Benedikt XVI. sein neues Buch: "Jesus von Nazareth. Von der Taufe im Jordan bis zur Verklärung". Es ist eine zärtliche Liebeserklärung an den Sohn Gottes und zugleich ein Mahnung an die Versöhnbarkeit von Glaube und Vernunft. Das neue Buch des Papstes: Zärtliche Worte für Jesus

Mark Alexander