On Sunday, April 20, the clergy, numerous parishioners and guests of the Synodal Cathedral of the Sign in New York City celebrated the "Feast of feasts and the Festival of festivals" – the Glorious Resurrection of Christ.

Metropolitan Nicholas of Eastern America & New York officiated the festal services. Serving alongside the First Hierarch of the Russian Church Abroad were the clergy of the cathedral: dean Archpriest Andrei Sommer, Archpriest Seraphim Chemodakov, Hieromonk Theognost (Kogan), and Protodeacons Nicolas Mokhoff and Serge Arlievsky.

The Synodal choir sang solemnly under the direction of director Vadim S. Gan.

The services were held under the aegis of the wonderworking Kursk Root Icon of the Mother of God, which traditionally spends this great feast at her Home in New York City.

Great Lent, which since ancient times precedes the coming of Pascha, is now past. The last hours of Great Saturday are underway – the Saturday of rest, on which the Lord Jesus Christ rested in the tomb, having accomplished the greatest work of redemption of the human race. Of note is that the word "Saturday," in Hebrew shabbat, means "rest."

This year, the Russian Orthodox Church, together with other Local Orthodox, as well as non-Orthodox Churches, celebrates the Resurrection of Christ on the night of April 19-20. Such a coincidence of the Eastern and Western Paschalia according to the principle of calculating Easter happens quite rarely. More often, it happens that Catholics and Protestants, as well as believers of other non-Orthodox Christian churches, celebrate Easter earlier than the Orthodox Pascha.

The celebration of Pascha, or the Passover, was established in the times of the Old Testament in memory of the deliverance of the Jewish people from Egyptian slavery. In Christianity, Pascha is the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, a feast of the victory of life over death and sin. Orthodox Pascha is celebrated on the first Sunday after the spring full moon, which falls on or after the vernal (spring) equinox.

At the end of the midnight service, while singing "Do not lament Me, O Mother," the clergy carried the shroud to the altar. There the shroud will remain for 40 days until the Leavetaking of Holy Pascha in memory of the fact that the Lord remained on earth for 40 days after His Resurrection.

The entire Pascha service is permeated with the light that shone from the life-giving Tomb of the Lord on that mysterious night in the Holy City of Jerusalem. The service itself helps believers to be participants in those events that not only changed the further course of world history, but also gave each person the opportunity to become an heir to the victory of the Risen Christ over death and sin – a partaker of eternal life.

After Midnight Office, the clergy and believers, bearing lighted candles, singing "Thy Resurrection, O Christ Savior." and with the icon of the Resurrection of Christ, went in procession around the courtyard of the Synodal Headquarters. Metropolitan Nicholas greeted everyone with the ever-living words: "Christ is Risen!" In the altar, the clergy alternately change their white vestments to green, blue, and red and also greet those gathered in the cathedral.

After Paschal Matins, Metropolitan Nicholas read the Catechetical Sermon of St. John Chrysostom, after which he celebrated Divine Liturgy. Almost all of the parishioners and guests of the cathedral received Christ’s Holy Mysteries. The Feast of Christ’s Glorious Resurrection occupies a central place among all Christian holidays. The word Pascha in Hebrew is Pesach, and means "passing over" or "deliverance." In Old Testament times, Pesach was the name given to the holiday established in memory of the Jewish people’s exodus from Egypt and their liberation from Egyptian slavery, and Pascha in the New Testament Church – in memory of the fact that the Son of God Himself liberated us from the slavery of death, from slavery to sin and the devil. The Risen Lord brought the souls of the righteous out of hades and granted eternal life to those who believe in Him.

The entire service of Holy Pascha is especially solemn and imbued with joy about the Risen Lord.

At the end of the service, His Eminence blessed the Artos, which will be distributed to the faithful after the Liturgy on Bright Saturday.

The cathedral sisterhood invited everyone to a delicious Pascha meal, during which the clergy and the faithful continued to their interaction.