Christ is Risen! Allelujah!
Christ is Risen! He is Risen indeed. Alleluia! We greet each other with these words in our churches on Easter Sunday, a glorious day on which we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.
The early church saw Jesus' resurrection as the central witness to a new act of God in history and the victory of God in vindicating him as the Messiah. This momentous event marks the central faith confession of the early church and was the focal point for Christian worship, observed on the first day of each week from the first century (Sunday was officially proclaimed the day of Christian worship in AD 321).
Easter as an annual celebration of the resurrection that lies at the center of the liturgical year has been observed at least since the fourth century. Even in churches that traditionally do not observe the other historic seasons of the church year, Easter has occupied a central place as the high point of Christian worship.
Click here to read Bishop Harold's Easter message.