BRAINTREE -- Archbishop Richard G. Henning attended the Easter Vigil at the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Cathedral of New England in Boston on April 11, spending the holiest night in the Orthodox calendar with Metropolitan Methodios of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis in Boston.

Metropolitan Methodios welcomed Archbishop Henning as his "brother in Christ," and said that Christ's light shines in the archbishop's heart and in Boston's Catholic Church.

"Welcome to our cathedral," he said, "and may God continue to bless your ministry here, a ministry that has brought life to the Catholic community, a ministry which shines the light of God's grace among us all."

Archbishop Henning said he was humbled by Metropolitan Methodios's greeting.

"Thank you for that lifetime of praying and teaching and living in the name of Jesus Christ," he told the metropolitan. "I thank all gathered here for that witness that you have so rightly said they will bring to their homes and throughout the region. May God bless us all in the light of Christ."

It has been a longstanding tradition for the heads of Boston's Catholic and Orthodox Churches to exchange visits during Holy Week. For over 40 years, Metropolitan Methodios has attended the Chrism Mass at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, which is held on the Tuesday of Holy Week. The Archbishop of Boston then traditionally attends the Orthodox Easter Vigil.

Most years, the Orthodox Church celebrates Easter the week after the Catholic Church due to the difference between the Western Gregorian Calendar and the Eastern Julian Calendar. According to Vito Nicastro, associate director of the Archdiocese of Boston's Office for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, Boston is the only city he knows of where the two Churches celebrate each other's Easters with such closeness.

He called this year's Orthodox Easter Vigil "an extraordinary moment."

"I think it's a statement to the city of our faith, of the unity that comes in Christ, and of the importance of the Resurrection," he said.

The Orthodox Easter Vigil began with a series of prayers called the Orthros, and continued past midnight into the small hours of the morning.

"It was incredible," Nicastro said. "The event was exquisitely beautiful because the Greek Orthodox liturgy is very majestic. The people who go to this in the middle of the night are, of course, very devout, and they're filled with the joy of Easter."

He saw the reverence that the Orthodox Church has for "the mystery of Easter, which is, of course, the central mystery of our faith, too."

"There's an exceptional feeling of connection across space and time because you're participating in a liturgy that dates from earlier than the seventh century," he said.