UPF International: A Paschal Greeting to Eastern Christians

Holy Pascha proclaims victory over darkness, as the Resurrection of Christ brings light, hope, and life where fear and death once seemed final.

The witness of Eastern Christian Paschal faith speaks to a wounded world through prayer, repentance, mercy, and spiritual renewal.

Pascha also offers a call to forgiveness and reconciliation, encouraging hearts, families, and nations to move beyond bitterness toward peace.

Introduction

On Holy Pascha, 12 April 2026, we send our love and heartfelt greetings to Eastern Christians whose Easter begins in the stillness of the night and bursts forth in light

On this Holy Pascha, the Universal Peace Federation (UPF) sends warm and heartfelt greetings to Orthodox and other Eastern Christians throughout the world.

The Beauty and Power of Pascha in Eastern Christianity

There is a special beauty in the way Pascha is kept in the East. The faithful come in the night. They stand in prayer. They wait in darkness. Then a flame is passed from hand to hand, the church begins to shine,

the procession moves, the doors are opened, and the cry rises with joy and tears together: Christ is risen. In that moment, faith is not explained. It is felt. The heart remembers that God has not forgotten His people, that love is stronger than fear, and that life is stronger than death.

The Resurrection as Victory over Darkness and Death

Eastern Christianity has guarded with great depth the sense that the Resurrection is not only a message of comfort. It is victory. It is Christ entering the deepest darkness and breaking it open from within. In the icon of Pascha, He is shown lifting Adam and Eve from the realm of death. This image says something the modern world desperately needs to hear: no night is endless, no tomb is sealed forever, and no human being is beyond the reach of divine mercy.

Why the Witness of Eastern Christians Matters Today

For this reason, the witness of Eastern Christians matters deeply in our time. The world has grown loud, anxious, and divided. Many hearts are exhausted. Many families are carrying silent burdens. Many societies speak of strength while forgetting tenderness, repentance, and compassion. Pascha reminds us that renewal begins more deeply. It begins where pride is softened, where the soul turns again toward God, where forgiveness becomes possible, and where even suffering is no longer allowed to define the final meaning of life.

Pascha as a Call to Reconciliation and Forgiveness

For the Universal Peace Federation, this holy feast also carries a quiet call toward reconciliation. One of the most moving lines in the Paschal tradition invites believers to call brothers even those who hate us, and to forgive all by the Resurrection. These are not easy words. They do not ask us to pretend evil is good or that wounds do not matter. They ask something more demanding and more beautiful: that the heart touched by the Risen Christ must not remain imprisoned by bitterness.

A Paschal Greeting to Eastern Christian Communities Worldwide

On this feast of feasts, we send our love and our prayers to Eastern Christian communities in the Holy Land, across the Middle East, throughout Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, Africa, Asia, and wherever the Paschal greeting is lifted with faith. May the Risen Christ comfort the sorrowing, strengthen the weary, bless families, protect the vulnerable, and fill many hearts with quiet courage and holy joy.

Christ is risen.

Indeed He is risen.

Dr. Tageldin Hamad

President, Universal Peace Federation