Christ is Risen!

With all this talk of timings and people only going to the Vesperal Liturgy, I thought I should chime in my own parish experience this year.

This year, as in years past, my parish had the Vesperal Divine Liturgy of St. Basil Saturday afternoon/early evening (it lasted from about 4 to 7 pm). At it, a friend of mine from a local university was chrismated. A moderate amount of people turned out and participated in this liturgy.

However, despite the fact that we did serve it as a Vesperal Liturgy (in other words, in the evening), almost all the people who attended it came to the combined service of Pascha Matins/Divine Liturgy in the morning (except the catechumen's family, who were visiting, and a local Roman Catholic family). No one who came to it assumed that they were "exempt" from coming the next morning, or thought that it would have the same character of the Paschal Divine Liturgy celebrated the next morning.

On that note, I will also say that my priest made it clear that everyone should go to Pascha Matins.

I will also say that my parish has Vespers Saturday evening, and not a Vigil Divine Liturgy, which could also be another reason why people weren't expecting the Holy Saturday Liturgy to be like an "anticipated" Pascha Liturgy.

--Mark Therrien