I would have liked to post Easter greetings this morning, but our night-time service was followed by several hours of feasting and good conversation in and around the fellowship hall and I got home about 4 a.m. and fell peacefully asleep. I highly recommend a great festal potluck after Easter services, no matter your denomination. It seems especially festive after the long Lenten season, if your community observes Lent.
Our small church was bursting at the seams; we had the nave and narthex doors open so people could stand all the way to the entrance. It was our largest gathering ever. I hear that church attendance across denominations is increasing. The Baptist church around the corner recently added on to their building and Catholics on YouTube are talking about all the new enquirers. I hope all of your congregations are growing and thriving as well.
And now, after more than 40 days of fasting, we begin 40 days of celebration. Christ is risen!
10 comments:
"If I am to love a man, I must love him as he is; yet if I am to love him as I love myself, then I may fight with him to the degree that I would fight myself. I may even kill him, if there are things I would rather kill myself than be guilty of having done."
Well, brothers fight sometimes.
Happy Easter.
Indeed. I thought that was very well reasoned the first time I read it here. You may, of course, kill a brother for the same reasons you may kill an enemy.
But this celebration is for God choosing to die to save all of us, and so it is good to remember that the Christian's ultimate mission is bringing everyone to salvation, even our enemies, if we can.
Leaving aside these things, I hope you and all Christians have a joyous celebration. Joy is a command, you know.
"Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!" -- Philippians 4:4, which echoes Psalms 40:16 and 70:4 (in the Hebrew counting), and which is echoed in 1 Thessalonians 5:16. There are many more passages about having or expressing joy in the Lord.
So let us obey the Lord and "Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus."
Giving thanks in all circumstances may be harder than loving our enemies, come to think of it.
Have a most blessed Pascha!
- Tom (the ever-forgetful of his sign-in status)
Adeverat a inviat
Romanian, yes? It's not quite Latin.
:-)
Further reports on growth:
If any of you follow the blogger Laughing Wolf, I recently discovered that he is also an Eastern Orthodox Christian. He, too, reports growth in his parish, with 27 baptisms at Pascha.
https://www.laughingwolf.net/2026/04/12/christ-is-risen/
And my mother's small Protestant church has also been growing this past year.
I have no special insights into why or what the meaning of this growth is, but it seems a good thing. No doubt, as the parable goes, some will decide it's not for them, some will join and then fall away in a year or two when the new wears off, but probably some of this is real growth.
Oh, I know Laughing Wolf. He was part of the old BLACKFIVE crew too. We’ve met several times in person, though not recently.
The church where I sing welcomed 8 confirmands, the most in several years. Attendance by younger families is growing, and the congregation is now gaining as many as it loses to age and illness. That is a major change in the long-term pattern. The congregation is Protestant, and uses a very traditional liturgy.
LittleRed1
Praise God! I would think this is related to a search for more traditional forms, but the Baptists aren't liturgical and their ranks are swelling as well.
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