The Holy Easter was celebrated in the Cathedral of St. John the Forerunner
On April 12 of 2015, the Orthodox Church celebrated «The Feast of Feasts» – Holy Easter, the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Festive service was celebrated in St. John Cathedral of Brooklyn.
The traditional holy procession was at 11:30 PM; adjoining streets were secured by Police forces in order to make the procession comfortable for clergy and believers.
At midnight the procession came to the doors of the Cathedral. There were a lot of people, so festive mood and delight of the people were intensified by first Easter singings. After Paschal opening verses the believers entered into the Cathedral and deacon pronounced a Great Ektenia.
The Holy Sunday service was headed by Rector of St. John Cathedral and Dean of First Deanery of New York, Archpriest Alexander Belya, together with Priest Constantine Gavrilkin and Deacon Petr Utkin.
The Easter Orthron and Divine Liturgy brought a great spiritual joyfulness, and the Cathedral was full of people.
At the end of Orthron father Alexander read the Paschal homily of St. John Chrysostom, and father Constantine read the Paschal epistle of First Hierarch of Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, Metropolitan of East America and New York Hilarion.
According to tradition, during the Divine Liturgy the passage of Holy Gospel was read on different languages as a symbol of proclamation of the word of God around the world. So this time the Gospel was read in five languages: Rector of the Cathedral, Archpriest Alexander Belya read in Church Slavonic, Priest Constantine Gavrilkin – in Greek, Professor Subdeacon George Giro – in English, Reader Ivan Belya – in Ukrainian, Evgenii Grygoriak – in French.
At the end of service father Alexander greeted everyone with the Holy Easter and wished goodness, peace and love for many years from our Raised Savior.
Paschal offering were consecrated after Divine Liturgy.
