LAHORE: The Christian community celebrated the Easter festival amid prayers for the victims of the Youhanabad incident in all the churches across Lahore and other cities.

Prayers started as early as 4am on Saturday in all city churches amid tight security.

The main Easter ceremonies were held at Lahore Cathedral and Protestant churches at Regal Chowk, Lawrence Road, on The Mall near the High Court and two churches in Youhanabad where several people were killed in twin suicide blasts.

The Bishops addressed a large number of participants, including women and children, in their Easter sermons.

“Oh God please forgive them because they don’t know what they do,” Joseph Francis, a Christian rights’ activist told Dawn while quoting Bishops as reading a message of Jesus in their sermons to participants.

“The resurrection of Jesus that Easter celebrates is the basis of our religion’s faith and belief that gives a message of forgiveness, resolution and peace,” he quoted Bishops as having said in their speeches.

Mr Francis said since the Christian community had started worship in the churches from Saturday night, there were three phases of worship during the Easter service. “One held from 11am (Saturday night) to 2.30am (Sunday). Another started at 4am that lasted for two hours. And the last one, which was the main and longest one of Easter Sunday, was held from 9am to 2pm.

The entire Easter proceedings were observed in a simple way because of the Youhanabad’s tragedy. No-one distributed sweets or free food in any church as it was officially announced that the entire proceedings would remain simple, he said.

The activist said that Christians not only prayed for the Youhanabad victims but also for the safety and prosperity of Pakistan.

“The Youhanabad tragedy was also discussed during the Easter service. There was consensus that police should avoid picking up innocent people on the pretext of probe into the Youhanabad case or lynching of two men in reaction to the tragedy,” he said.

He appreciated the government for making foolproof security arrangements on the eve of Easter celebrations across the city.

Published in Dawn, April 6th, 2015

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