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Hundreds of South Africans tie the knot in Easter mass wedding

Hundreds of South Africans tie the knot in Easter mass wedding

CARIEN DU PLESSIS and SIYABONGA SISHI MORE than 800 couples walked down the aisle on Easter Sunday in one of the biggest mass wedding ceremonies in South Africa since the COVID-19 pandemic. The International Pentecost Holiness Church blesses polygamous unions, which are common in some African communities, and the church says are authorised by the Bible. Its mass nuptials take place three times a year – at Easter, in December, and also during the celebrations in September of the church's founding in 1962. Lebogile Mamatela, 38, a government employee who became the second wife to the father of her child…
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Seek post-COVID renewal, Holy Land archbishop urges on Easter Sunday

Seek post-COVID renewal, Holy Land archbishop urges on Easter Sunday

DAN WILLIAMS  WITH Jerusalem emerging from COVID-19 curbs and the faithful flocking there again, Easter Sunday brought a message of renewal from the traditional site of Jesus' death and resurrection. Deserted a year ago after the pandemic hit, the Church of the Holy Sephulchre was attended by dozens of clergymen and worshippers, a turnout enabled by an Israeli vaccination campaign - the fastest in the world - that has driven down infections. Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, voiced hope in his homily for a post-coronavirus world of greater substance and spirituality. "(We are) tempted to run backward,…
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Why parts of Good Friday worship have been controversial

Why parts of Good Friday worship have been controversial

CHURCHES around the world will be holding services for their three most important days during this Holy Week: Holy Thursday, sometimes called Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday. JOANNE M. PIERCE, Professor of Religious Studies, College of the Holy Cross Easter commemorates Christ’s resurrection from the dead, the fundamental belief of Christianity. It is the earliest and most central of all Christian holidays, more ancient than Christmas. As a scholar in medieval Christian liturgy, I know that historically the most controversial of these three holy days has been the worship service for Good Friday, which focuses on the crucifixion…
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