Anglican churches across Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia have marked the great festivals of Easter 2026 in diverse and colourful ways as each community highlighted the holy days of salvation according to a wide variety of liturgies and traditions.
While most Mihinare and Anglican churches centred their Easter celebrations on Easter Sunday, many also observed creative liturgies of lament on the days of Holy Week, while others observed the full Easter Triduum
As holy week opened on Palm Sunday Anglican church communities headed out in procession to wave palm fronds on the streets or fields of their rohe celebrating Jesus' triumphant entry into Jerusalem. Around Aotearoa New Zealand many Anglicans focused their Palm Sunday observance on making folded harakeke crosses to bless and share at the Sunday service for people to take home with them.
Maundy Thursday saw many Anglican churches gather in the evening to celebrate the first Eucharist, commemorating the night before Jesus died when he called his disciples to the last supper. Many parishes marked the day with clergy demonstrating their role as servants by washing the feet of parishioners, followed in some churches with a candlelit vigil until midnight at an altar of repose.
Good Friday was marked by a street processions, ecumenical ways of the cross, Tenebrae services, and choral or dramatic performances of Christ's Passion. Some Anglican churches in the catholic tradition venerated the cross on Good Friday and observed the tradition of sharing in the Eucharist consecrated on the previous day.
Holy Saturday evening saw Anglican churches holding Easter Vigils, while others joined in their local ecumenical Sunrise service at dawn on Easter Sunday morning.
Easter Day saw Anglicans in town and country celebrating Christ's resurrection in festive white, gold and floral splendour followed by chocolate and kai in abundance in churches around the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia.
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