Paschal Vigil, Christ Church, Dublin, Easter 2010

Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, Holy Saturday, 2010.

he Great Vigil of Easter, is a service held in many Christian churches as the first official celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus. Historically, it is during this service that people are baptized and that adult catechumens are received into full communion with the Church. It is held in the hours of darkness between sunset on Holy Saturday and sunrise on Easter Day—most commonly in the evening of Holy Saturday—but is considered to be the first celebration of Easter Day, since the Christian tradition considers feasts and other days of observance where Masses are celebrated to begin at sunset of the previous day.

Although the Easter Vigil is not universal in the Anglican Communion, its use has become far more common in recent decades. Formerly it was only common in parishes in the Anglo-Catholic tradition, having been abandoned at the Reformation and recovered by the 19th-century Tractarian movement.

The service, as provided for example in the current version of the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America (TEC), the Book of Alternative Services of the Anglican Church of Canada and the Times and Seasons volume of the Church of England's Common Worship, follows more or less the same form as the Roman Catholic service described above, with some variations in texts and ritual.[6] The four-part structure of the Vigil is retained, though in the TEC rite the service of baptism follows immediately after the readings from the Old Testament.

The service normally consists of four parts: 1. The Service of Light.
2. The Service of Lessons.
3. Christian Initiation, or the Renewal of Baptismal Vows.
4. The Holy Eucharist with the administration of Easter Communion.

Some of the other particular differences from the Roman Catholic observance include: 1. The Gloria may be said after the Baptism or Renewal of Baptismal Vows. The Te Deum Laudamus or the Pascha Nostrum may be used instead.
2. The number and particular passages in the Service of Lessons differs. There are up to nine (as opposed to seven), and all are from the Hebrew Bible.

Confirmations occur only when the bishop is present, because, in the Anglican tradition, only a bishop may administer confirmation.

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