On sunday March 31st hundreds of millions of worshippers in the Christian West, including the new leaders of the Catholic and Anglican churches, will contemplate their founder's empty tomb: a mystery so great that according to one Gospel account, it left the women who came to anoint their Master's body dumbstruck with fear. Orthodox Christians, whose Paschal cycle falls much later this year, gathered on March 24th for an early Lent service that rejoices in the reinstatement, in 843AD, of icons as an instrument of worship after a century of conflict.
展开▼
