The Holy Week and Easter services took place this year in every church of the Metropolis of Austria and the Exarchate of the Ecumenical Throne in Hungary.
Due to the COVID-19 restrictive measures, the number of Easter services has increased so that most of the faithful can participate in them.
Due to the preventive measures, the procession of the Epitaph was symbolically limited to a small procession from the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity to the Church of St. George and then to the Chapel of St. John Chrysostom.
On the night of Holy Saturday, the Resurrection of the Lord was celebrated solemnly around midnight, while shortly before the noon of Easter Sunday, the Great Vespers of Love was solemnly celebrated and the Holy Gospel was read in various languages and dialects to spread the message of Ressurection hope all over the world.
Finally, on Bright Monday, the Feast of Saint George the Trophy-bearer was held in the Church of St. George in Vienna.
In his Easter message, the Metropolitan Arsenios of Austria urged everyone to follow the call of the Risen Lord, that is, to live with Him eternally, to be with Him in the eternal and endless Easter, the true passover from the perishable to the imperishable world.
Especially in the difficult conditions of our times, he emphasized, we are called to witness and spread the message of the Resurrection, telling to this frightened world that there is a way out and hope of joy; the gift of the Resurrection of Christ.
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew invited us to become partakers of the Resurrection in his own message, emphasizing that Easter is the point where everything derives its vividness, through which everything is interpreted, and in which everything acquires its true meaning.
Through the Resurrection, life in Christ is revealed as liberation and freedom. Freedom meaning the sacrificial love for fellow human beings and frees us from our introversion, offering us at the same time the hope of eternity.