Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Lyon (Fides Service) - The leaders of different Christian Churches in Lyon, France have invited Christians of all denominations in the city to take part in an open air ecumenical dawn prayer meeting on Easter Sunday morning at 7am at the Fourvière Roman Amphitheatre. In fact once again this year Easter falls on the same day for the Churches of East and West. To mark this fact the leaders of the Christian communities in Lyon, Catholics, Orthodox, Anglicans, Armenians, Baptists, Lutherans and Reformed Churches planned this dawn liturgy taking inspiration from the Gospel of Mark: “Very early, at sun rise on the first day of the week they came to the tomb” (Mk16,2). The church leaders wished to resume a millennial tradition practised in the early Christian times by the desert Fathers in Egypt who took inspiration from Luke who says that Christ comes like “the rising sun, to visit us” (Lk 1,78). This prayer meeting is particularly significant at this moment when Europe, East and West are drawing closer and so is the Church in the East and the West. (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 7/4/2004; Righe 14; Parole 197)
