Lausanne Cathedral Easter 2025
Monday, April 21, 2025, will remain engraved as a powerful moment of communion and hope for Christians in the canton of Vaud and elsewhere. Around 600 people responded to the call of the Community of Christian Churches in the Canton of Vaud (CECCV) to come together at Lausanne Cathedral for a celebration on Easter Monday.
Christians from the 20 member churches of the CECCV gathered together in this assembly. Many also came “without a label,” but all had a common focus: the Risen Christ. The diversity of cultures and traditions gave the celebration a special dimension. It was not uniformity, but unity in faith and the joy of the Resurrection. As one participant pointed out, “Everyone prayed in their own language, according to their own sensibility, but all vibrated with the same hope.”
The sermon illustrated this complementarity. Pastor Laurence Bohnenblust, a member of the Synodal Council of the Evangelical Reformed Church of Vaud, recalled how vital it is to “walk part of the way together, without fearing differences and speaking truthfully.” Abbot Jean-Claude Dunand, Vicar General of the Diocese of Lausanne-Geneva-Fribourg, continued by challenging the assembly with the story of the disciples of Emmaus. “Christ wants to awaken in them and in us the capacity to believe. Are we here without really believing, or do we choose to make a strong act of faith?”
Unity Strengthened by the Nicene Creed
The joint proclamation of the Nicene Creed was another highlight. This founding text, adopted 1,700 years ago, remains strikingly relevant today. It recalls the essentials of the Christian faith and continues to unite beyond differences. The celebration also invited us to look ahead towards 2033, the symbolic date of the 2000th anniversary of Christ's resurrection, presented as “the Jubilee of Jubilees.”
This perspective, shared by the JC2033 movement, represented by Olivier Fleury, was at the heart of the last part of the celebration. He invited us to “stop and look back, learning from the past, before starting again and looking forward.” According to him, the current generation will experience one of the most significant Christian events of this century, a global celebration of the Resurrection, which could be followed by the largest number of people in history.
On the Way to 2033
Olivier Fleury
In his stirring appeal, O. Fleury broadened the horizon, "The 2000th anniversary of the Resurrection is in seven years and a few months. What kind of Church will we be then? What will our gift to Jesus be, as individuals, as Churches, as countries?"
He invited everyone to reflect on this Jubilee as a unique opportunity to bear witness to the Risen Christ to the world, to offer new hope to a humanity in search of meaning, and to live in visible unity among Christians, in joy and celebration.
When the doors of the cathedral closed at 7 p.m., the songs still echoed in people's hearts. The building, witness to centuries of prayer, had just experienced a moment of God, the gathering of diverse churches, united around the same Lord.
On this Easter Monday, we had a foretaste of what the Church could be in 2033, a united people, joyful, praying and acting together, carried by a single hope: “Christ is Risen. He is truly Risen!”
