With great splendor, reverence, and in accordance with the centuries-old ecclesiastical tradition and order, the Feast of the Resurrection of the Lord was celebrated at the center of Orthodoxy.
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew presided at midnight on Holy Saturday over the Resurrection service in the courtyard of the Patriarchate, surrounded by Metropolitans Joseph of Proikonnesos, Meliton of Philadelphia, Eirinaios of Myriophyton and Peristasis, Chrysostomos of Myra, and the clergy of the Patriarchal Court.
In his message, immediately following the Resurrection service, the Ecumenical Patriarch addressed the faithful, stating among other things:
“We do not entertain the illusion that, on this Paschal night, the sufferings of the world will vanish as if by magic. The day that dawns will once again confront us with our familiar trials: war, poverty, and injustice that afflict humanity.
The essential difference is that we are no longer the same. Tonight, our way of perceiving reality is transformed, and with it, our understanding of our mission in the world.”
The Ecumenical Patriarch emphasized that only in the light of the Resurrection can a person find true inner peace and strive “for the peace of the whole world,” while elsewhere in his address he noted: “In a world wounded by conflicts and wars, where countless of our fellow human beings—including many children—lose their lives or are uprooted from their homes, the peace-bearing message of Christ’s Resurrection remains timeless and salvific. It calls each person to accept God’s invitation and to become a peacemaker—a person of love, solidarity, and reconciliation.”
Among those present at the Resurrection service were Ambassador Konstantinos Koutras, Consul General of Greece in Constantinople; Consul Anna Tishenko, representing the Consul General of Ukraine; Dionysia–Theodora Avgerinopoulou, Member of the Hellenic Parliament; as well as faithful from Constantinople and hundreds of pilgrims from Greece and other countries.
Following this, the Ecumenical Patriarch presided over the Paschal Divine Liturgy, concelebrated by the hierarchs.
