Blos­soms on a tree branch dur­ing Holy Week, the most sacred week in the litur­gi­cal years of many Chris­t­ian faith tra­di­tions (Andrew Villeneuve/NPI)

If you are observ­ing the East­er hol­i­day today, please accept best wish­es from all of us at the North­west Pro­gres­sive Institute.

East­er is the most sig­nif­i­cant holy day for Christianity’s many denom­i­na­tions, although not all of them are cel­e­brat­ing it today. Pas­sages like the fol­low­ing excerpt from the Gospel of John (20:1–9) are com­mon­ly read dur­ing East­er ser­vices and litur­gies as part of Chris­t­ian com­mu­ni­ties’ obser­vance of the hol­i­day, as they are con­sid­ered author­i­ta­tive accounts of the East­er sto­ry by Christians.

On the first day of the week,
Mary of Mag­dala came to the tomb ear­ly in the morning,
while it was still dark,
and saw the stone removed from the tomb.
So she ran and went to Simon Peter
and to the oth­er dis­ci­ple whom Jesus loved, and told them,
“They have tak­en the Lord from the tomb,
and we don’t know where they put him.”
So Peter and the oth­er dis­ci­ple went out and came to the tomb.
They both ran, but the oth­er dis­ci­ple ran faster than Peter
and arrived at the tomb first;
he bent down and saw the bur­ial cloths there, but did not go in.
When Simon Peter arrived after him,
he went into the tomb and saw the bur­ial cloths there,
and the cloth that had cov­ered his head,
not with the bur­ial cloths but rolled up in a sep­a­rate place.
Then the oth­er dis­ci­ple also went in,
the one who had arrived at the tomb first,
and he saw and believed.
For they did not yet under­stand the Scripture
that he had to rise from the dead.

Easter liturgical services from Seattle Christian churches

St. James (Catholic faith tradition)

St. Mark’s (Epis­co­pal faith tradition)

Geth­se­mane (Luther­an faith tradition)

First Free Methodist Church

Easter messages from elected leaders

Pres­i­dent Joe Biden’s com­ments to faith lead­ers on pro­mot­ing COVID-19 vaccines:

Pro­tect your broth­er and sis­ter. That’s what this is about. It’s about pro­tect­ing peo­ple. It’s a patri­ot­ic duty I think we have.

But they’re going to lis­ten to your words more than they are me as Pres­i­dent of the Unit­ed States. When they’re in your sanc­tu­ar­ies, you can talk to them about what we have to do, what’s avail­able, and not to be fear­ful — not to be fear­ful get­ting the vaccine.

And I’ve said, I think it’s — I guess I should say and I’ll con­clude by say­ing: I think it’s more than a patri­ot­ic duty; I think it’s a moral duty. Put an end to the dark years behind us — a dark year — and do our part to spread the light in the spir­it of all hol­i­days of this spring season.

I want to thank you all for what you’re doing. I look for­ward to being able to get back into hous­es of wor­ship and vis­it like I have in the past and will hope to do again.

But, in the mean­time, God bless you all.

Thank you for look­ing out for your — our brethren.  And I think we can get this done. But thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Biden’s video East­er mes­sage is avail­able here.

(Unlike his pre­de­ces­sor, Joe Biden is a prac­tic­ing Chris­t­ian who attends church ser­vices every week and strives to live by the teach­ings of Jesus.)

Pre­mier John Horgan:

East­er is being cel­e­brat­ed by Chris­tians in British Colum­bia and around the world this weekend.

Dur­ing these chal­leng­ing times, we are remind­ed of the pow­er of love, humil­i­ty and self-sac­ri­fice as exem­pli­fied by the cru­ci­fix­ion and res­ur­rec­tion of Jesus Christ.

East­er is a time of joy and hope for Chris­tians — and there is much to be hope­ful for this spring. The fin­ish line is in sight, but we need to keep work­ing hard to pro­tect our loved ones and communities.

Many peo­ple will still be spend­ing this hol­i­day away from their fam­i­ly and friends, and I want to thank you for the sac­ri­fices you’ve made to help keep com­mu­ni­ties safe over the last year. The COVID-19 pan­dem­ic has been incred­i­bly dif­fi­cult, but we can look for­ward to bet­ter days soon. To every­one cel­e­brat­ing East­er this week­end, I wish you a safe, blessed and joy­ful holiday.

Easter reads

• The world’s sec­ond East­er under pan­dem­ic brings more restric­tions and a few bright spots
• Pope urges faster vac­cine dis­tri­b­u­tion, slams fight­ing dur­ing pan­dem­ic in East­er message
• In anoth­er locked down, dis­rupt­ed East­er, a tired Italy can’t escape the virus
• How does this East­er com­pare to the last ten? How is East­er’s date determined?
• What­ev­er your East­er tra­di­tions, may the day be filled with joy and loved ones
• East­er dish­es from around the world

Again, Hap­py Easter!