Christians celebrate joy, hope during local Easter services
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EGGERTSVILLE, N.Y. (WIVB) -- Many Western New Yorkers gathered at local churches to celebrate joy and hope during Sunday's Easter church services.
"This is the day. This is what it's all about. It's what we set our calendar around," said Pastor Steve Biegner from St. Paul's Lutheran Church. "Western New York has been sacrificing doing different things, eating fish fries for 40-plus days. It all comes down to this day."
For Christians, Easter Sunday represents the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It's a day filled with joy, promise and hope.
"It's about reminding ourselves that in the midst of a fairly crazy uncertain world sometimes, there's one certain thing we can be assured about and that's how much God loves us," Biegner said.
St. Paul's was packed with people dressed in their Sunday best to celebrate.
"Everybody's got a little more joy in their step, unless you went to a sunrise service, then it's a little harder to get up for," Biegner said.
Hundreds of Catholics woke up before the sunrise to attend a special service at the Newman Center at the University at Buffalo.
"It reminds us in one of the gospels where it says, 'Early in the morning the women came to the tomb to anoint the body of Jesus,' " said Rev. Roy Herberger. "We say no matter how early it may be, we really want to have that sense (of) being the first to celebrate the joy of Easter."
Sarah Minkewicz is an Emmy-nominated reporter and Buffalo native who has been a part of the News 4 team since 2019. Follow Sarah on Twitter @SarahMinkewicz and click here to see more of her work.