BOSTON – The majority of the naves in Boston and in New England in general were filled to capacity during the Resurrection service on Holy Saturday evening after two difficult years during the COVID pandemic.

His Eminence Metropolitan Methodios of Boston officiated at the Resurrection service at the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Cathedral of Boston assisted by the Cathedral’s presiding priest protopresbyter Athanasios Chininis as a well as protopresbyters Alkiviadis Calivas and Theodore Stylianopoulos, both of whom are professors emeritus of Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology.

Present at the services were the newly elected mayor of Boston Michel Wu, former governor of Massachusetts and past presidential candidate Michael Dukakis, and Consul General of Greece in Boston Stratos Ethimiou, as well as hundreds of faithful of all generations who filled the Cathedral.

Roman Catholic cardinal of Boston Sean O’Malley was not present as he was in previous years because he had traveled to Rome to meet with Pope Francis.

Metropolitan Methodios, in his Easter Midnight Message, said that “over the last few weeks, we have sadly witnessed from afar the barbaric military assault on Ukraine – a war fueled by corruption, by ignorance, by passion, by ideology, and pride. We have witnessed horrendous acts of cruelty, the slaughter of unarmed men, women, and especially children, all of whose bodies were abandoned in mass unmarked graves.

We are astounded at and mortified by the suffering and deaths. This Easter night countless refugees live a horrendous experience. Slaughter and death rain on them. Populations of defenseless men, women, and children live in despair, their dignity and lives sacrificed on the altar of political expediency.”

The Metropolitan also said that “we have also witnessed these last few weeks vicious acts of violence in our own nation, in Brooklyn, in South Carolina, and elsewhere – all sinful tragedies, results of our fallen world, of our refusal to accept the peace that the Risen Lord extends to us. Tonight, we draw near to the empty life-giving Tomb of our Savior. Darkness covers everything around us and in us. We aspire for a peace that will end oppression and domination. We aspire for a world free of ideologies which instill hatred, violence, and oppression, a world free of policies that sow havoc and drench the Earth with the blood and sorrow of the innocent. Tonight, we come to the empty life-giving tomb in fervent prayer that the glory, wisdom, power and strength of our Lord’s Resurrection may guide us as we witness to the triumphant victory of love over hatred.”

Methodios emphasized that “we come to the tomb of Christ as He rises from the darkness of Hades to set the world ablaze. May our hearts leap with joy as we receive the unwaning light of His Resurrection. We Christians are heirs of the hope of salvation bequeathed to us as a result of the Resurrection. It is to this anchor of hope that we cling during this devastating time. The darkness of inhumanity and barbarity, though oppressive, cannot overcome the unwaning light of the Resurrection. It cannot overcome the light of compassion and hope, the light of sensitivity and humanity that shines forth from the lifegiving tomb. The darkness of divisiveness and contention cannot overcome the light of unity and harmony that shine forth in the Risen Lord.”
Let us mystically accompany the myrrh bearing women and our Ukrainian brothers and sisters to the Tomb of our Savior to “receive light from the unwaning Light.”

The Metropolitan concluded: “Let our hearts and souls be set ablaze to radiate the love, forgiveness, peace and justice – the new life that emanates from the lifegiving tomb of the Risen Lord. May the glow of the resurrection permeate the darkness and transport it into the dawn of a day filled with the presence of our Resurrected Savior.”