Great and Holy Pascha in Ukraine: Details matter when war crashes into holiest day of the year – GetReligion

Once a copy-desk fanatic, always a copy-desk fanatic. If you ever get caught up in obscure debates about items in the Associated Press Stylebook, then youre trapped. You see picky style issues all over the place.

This is certainly true on the religion beat. Readers may recall that the AP team recently updated and expanding some of the style bibles references to religious terms, history, etc. See this recent post and podcast: Can the AP Stylebook team slow down the creation of new Godbeat 'F-bombs'?

This brings me to the most important holy day on the Eastern Orthodox Christian calendar its called Pascha and you may have heard that the ancient churches of the East celebrate it according to the older Julian calendar. Its complicated, but there are times when East is East and West is West.

Pascha is certainly one of those times. OrthodoxWiki notes:

Pascha is a transliteration of the Greek word, which is itself a transliteration of the Aramaic pascha, from the Hebrew pesach meaning Passover. A minority of English-speaking Orthodox prefer the English word "Pasch."

Here is the note that Id like the AP style pros to think about. It is also accurate to say that this holy day is, in the West, called Easter. Thus, we frequently see the term Orthodox Easter in the mainstream press. In fact, that is pretty much the only language that we see in news reports about this holy day.

Here me say this: As a journalist who is an Orthodox Christian (and a former copy-desk guy). I get it. I know that Orthodox Easter is a quick way to save some ink that journalists would have to use to offer an explanation of, well, Pascha.

But the word Pascha is real and its ancient and it has great meaning to the second largest Christian communion on the Planet Earth. If you are writing about Orthodox believers at this time of the year, why not use both terms in the story? Why avoid THE WORD. (Oh, and the name of our eucharistic rite is the Divine Liturgy, not Mass.)

This is an important issue, at the moment, because you have a war going on (whatever Vladimir Putin wants to call it) in the season of Pascha between Russia and Ukraine two lands with centuries of shared history rooted in Orthodox Christianity. How would this affect Pascha for believers on both sides, especially since Ukraine has two Orthodox bodies one old, linked to Moscow, and one new, created by the Ecumenical Patriarch (who is not a pope) in Istanbul? Both churches strongly oppose the Russian invasion.

Thus, you had an AP story with this headline: Ukraine marks Orthodox Easter with prayers for those trapped. Here is the overture:

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) The sun came out as Ukrainians marked Orthodox Easter in the capital, Kyiv, on Sunday with prayers for those fighting on the front lines and others trapped beyond them in places like Mariupol.

St. Volodymyrs Cathedral in Kyiv was ringed by hundreds of worshippers with baskets to be blessed. Inside, a woman clutched the arm of a soldier, turning briefly to kiss his elbow. Other soldiers prayed, holding handfuls of candles, then crossed themselves. An older woman slowly made her way through the crowd and stands of flickering candles. One young woman held daffodils.

Outside the cathedral, a soldier who gave only his first name, Mykhailo, used his helmet as an Easter basket. He said he didnt have another.

The word Pascha does not appear in the story and Orthodox Easter is treated as, well, gospel. The story also failed to note that the ownership of St. Volodymyr's Cathedral is disputed and the subject of long, long debates between the new Ukrainian Orthodox Church( Kyiv Patriarchate) and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate).

Just asking: Wouldnt it be interesting to know what Pascha was like for Ukrainians in the older body with ecclesiastical ties to Moscow? What did Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and All Ukraine, a native of Western Ukraine, have to say on Pascha? Readers may want to click here: The Doors of Paradise Now Open from Without. Here is how his epistle to his people opened:

The Lord has visited us with a special trial and sorrow this year. The forces of evil have gathered over us. But we neither murmur nor despair, because Christ the Savior has overcome evil by His Resurrection.

The Most Glorious Resurrection of Christ is a celebration of the triumph of good over evil, truth over falsehood, light over darkness. The Resurrection of Christ is the eternal Pascha, in which Christ our Savior and Lord translated us from death to life, from hell to Paradise.

The AP report did note the existence of this body that is linked to Moscow, but continues to defend Ukrainian sovereignty. There was this, which I will salute for its use of holy day instead of simply holiday:

With theOrthodox church split by the tensionsbetween Russia and Ukraine, some worshippers hoped the holy day could inspire gestures of peacemaking. The church can help, said one man who gave only his first name, Serhii, as he came to a church in Kyiv under the Moscow Patriarchate.

He and others brought baskets to be blessed by priests for Easter, with flicks of a brush sprinkling holy water over offerings of home-dyed eggs, lighted candles and even bottles of Jack Daniels.

The non-Pascha Orthodox Easter report was pretty much the same over at Reuters: Convulsed by war, tearful Ukrainians mark Orthodox Easter. Here are two samples from that, with some important details about the threat of Russian missiles on Pascha.

KYIV/KRAMATORSK, April 24 (Reuters) President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday that light would defeat darkness and Kyiv would triumph over Russia as Ukrainians marked a bitterly emotional Orthodox Easter overshadowed by the grinding two-month-old war.

Ukrainians flocked to churches on Sunday morning to mark what they call the Great Day after their centuries-old tradition of midnight Easter services was abandoned the night before over fears of Russian shelling and a nationwide curfew.

Ill ask: What happened to the midnight processions around the churches? Did anyone risk observing this essential part of the Pascha rites?

Below Kyiv's skyline of golden onion domes, hundreds of churchgoers gathered at Volodymyr Cathedral. Some shed tears and prayed for an end to the war. They said the holiday had taken on greater emotional significance because of the national hardship.

While churches used to be full for overnight and morning Easter services, this year churches have been asked not to gather many people, with concerns they could be targets for missiles.