Members of Egypt’s Christian minority flocked to traditional services this Easter weekend in sombre mood following attacks last Sunday that killed 45 people, and security was especially tight at the two churches hit by the bombers.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attacks on Palm Sunday targeting Egypt’s nearly 2,000-year-old Coptic Christian community and has warned of more attacks to come. The militants are waging an insurgency against security forces in Egypt’s Sinai peninsula.

In the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria, worshippers passed through a metal detector at the entrance to Saint Mark’s Cathedral, historic seat of the Coptic Pope and one of the two sites attacked last Sunday.

Rafiq Bishry, head of the church’s organisational committee, said he was surprised that so many people had come to the services that mark the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ despite the increased security risks.

“This is a clear message to the whole world that we are not afraid,” he told Reuters Television.

Coptic Pope Tawadros had been leading the mass at the cathedral at the time of the explosion but was not injured.

On Saturday, a soldier with a heavy machine gun watched from the top of an armoured vehicle near the cathedral.

At the other bombed church, St. George’s, in the Nile Delta city of Tanta, north of Cairo, masked soldiers with body armour and rifles stood by as worshippers were searched and also made to pass through metal detectors.

Islamic State has stepped up assaults on Egyptian Christians and now claims to have killed 80 people in three church bombings since December, including the Palm Sunday attacks.

Maha Ragaay, a Coptic Christian teacher who lives in Cairo, said she had avoided watching television on Palm Sunday, afraid of seeing the bloody images broadcast after the bombings.

“I do not want (these attacks) to happen again, but I don’t feel that we’re doing anything to stop this,” she said, lighting a candle in front of a small statue of the crucified Christ as she celebrated Easter with family and friends at home.

Ragaay said she would be marking Easter in a state of mourning for those who had lost their lives.

Following the attacks, the government introduced a three-month state of emergency which gives it sweeping powers to act against what it calls enemies of the state.

Copts make up about 10 percent of the 92-million population of mostly Muslim Egypt and are the region’s largest Christian denomination.

Pope Francis, leading the world’s Roman Catholics into Easter, urged them on Saturday not to ignore the plight of immigrants, the poor and other vulnerable people.

In his homily at an Easter Vigil Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica, Francis recounted the Biblical account of Jesus Christ’s mother Mary and Mary Magdalene, filled with grief, as they went to visit his tomb following the crucifixion.

Their grief, he said during the solemn ceremony, could be seen in the faces of many women today.

“In their faces we can see reflected all those who, walking the streets of our cities, feel the pain of dire poverty, the sorrow born of exploitation and human trafficking,” he said.

“We can also see the faces of those who are greeted with contempt because they are immigrants, deprived of country, house and family. We see faces whose eyes bespeak loneliness and abandonment, because their hands are creased with wrinkles.”

Francis has used the period leading up to Easter to stress his vision of service to the neediest. On Good Friday, he lamented that many people had become inured to daily scenes of bombed cities and drowning migrants.

During Saturday’s service, he baptised 11 people, most of them adult converts to Catholicism, from Italy, Spain, the Czech Republic, the United States, Albania, Malta, Malaysia and China.

On Easter Sunday, the most important day in the Christian liturgical calendar, he will read his twice-annual “Urbi et Orbi” (“To the City and the World”) message in St. Peter’s Square.

Security has been tight for all of the pope’s Holy Week activities following recent truck attacks against pedestrians in London and Stockholm.

Thousands of Christian worshippers celebrated Easter’s Holy Fire Ceremony on Saturday (April 30) at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.

They packed into the ancient church, believed to be built on the site of Jesus Christ’s crucifixion, burial and resurrection.

The Holy Fire is considered a miracle occurring every year on Holy Saturday, the day preceding Orthodox Easter Sunday.

At exactly 2 p.m. local time every year, a sunbeam is believed to shine through the window in the ceiling of the church and light a lamp placed in the tomb. Church lights are switched off and a silence of anticipation descends on the church.

The Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, Theophilos III, then lights a few candles with the holy fire, and passes them on to worshippers inside the church.

Seconds after the Orthodox patriarch reveals the Holy Fire, it spreads throughout the church as worshippers light each other’s candles. The fire is then passed on to the worshippers waiting outside.

In past centuries, worshippers were expected to bring the flame back to their villages around Russia and Eastern Europe.

Traditionally, an olive lamp lit by the “Holy Fire” is transferred soon after the ceremony to the West Bank town of Bethlehem, revered as the birthplace of Jesus Christ.

It was a sight that hasn’t been seen in this suburb of Damascus in five years-Orthodox Christians celebrating Palm Sunday.

The day is part of a series of observances that culminate in the celebration of the Christian holiday of Easter.

Christians make up 11 nearly percent of Syria’s population.

The largest Christian denomination in Syria is the Greek Orthodox Church, which uses a different religious calendar than the Roman Catholic church.

Because of the war few worshipers have been able to celebrate religious moments like Palm Sunday.

But a temporary truce introduced over a month ago has greatly reduced violence.

Worshippers in some areas took advantage of the lull to gather in churches and celebrate.

The war has killed more than 250,000 people, created the world’s worst refugee crisis and allowed for the rise of the Islamic State group.

But on this day, these Christians in the Damascus suburb of Jobar gathered to light candles and pray, and hope that next year, the area will be peaceful enough that they’ll be able to do it again.