My Dearest Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Хрїстóсъ воскрéсе! Воистину воскресе! (Old Slavonic)
Christos voskrese! Voistinu voskrese (Transliteration)

Христос воскрес! Воістину воскрес! (Ukrainian)
Chrystos voskres! Voistynu voskres! (Transliteration)

Χριστός ἀνέστη! Ἀληθῶς ανέστη! (Greek)
Khristós Anésti! Alithós Anésti! (Transliteration)

Christus resurrexit! Resurrexit vere! (Latin)

المسيح قام! بالحقيقة قام! ; المسيح قام! حقا قام! (Arabic)
al-Masīḥ qām! Belḥāqiqāti qām! (Transliteration)

As we celebrate this glorious feast of Pascha, I would again exhort you to believe in what is revealed through this great mystery, namely that human life is eternal. This is revealed to us through the resurrection of Jesus, the man. God raised Him from the dead as a way of revealing to us that life is truly ETERNAL. This means, in simple terms, that there is life after death although we are not sure of how that will be. We know this much, however, that it will not be sitting on a cloud and playing a harp. That is not the way of God.

Needless to say, however, there is life after death! Since life is eternal, you and I are involved in an eternal journey to becoming ever more closely and deeply united with our God. Out of His great love, He has preordained that we can, if we desire to do so, enter into a deeper union with Him – become ever more like His first only-begotten child, Jesus Christ.

It is my earnest prayer that all who read my Bulletin or worship with me will come to believe, as I do, that our God loves us beyond all measure. He has designed life to present us with the necessary opportunities to help us spiritually grow. We must REMEMBER, however, that He will never force us to return His love because He has given us FREE WILL. He only desires our free-will response of love. What will be your response? Let us desire to be more united to Him!

Father Wayne