Holy fire in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, April 7, 2018
Benoit Soubeyran / Flickr
In Jerusalem will not abandon the conduct and the live broadcast of the annual ceremony of the Holy fire because of the pandemic coronavirus, but this time it will be without the pilgrims and with a limited number of participants. The ceremony will take place on Holy Saturday, April 18, at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, with the participation of about ten people, RIA “Novosti” and TASS the head of the Department of Diaspora Affairs and world religions Ministry of foreign Affairs of Israel Akiva tor.
the ceremony will be attended by representatives of the Church, the Orthodox churches, the Armenian Church, the Syrian Orthodox Church, the Copts, as well as photographers and cameramen. After the descent of the Holy fire, the representatives of the Greek Orthodox Church will take him to the Jaffa gate of the Old city of Jerusalem and give diplomatic delegations, including from Russia.
Akiva tor explained that representatives of the Orthodox countries, which will arrive at the fire, allowed to land at the airport Ben-Gurion, but they will not be able to get off the plane because of the quarantine. “They will open doors, will receive the Holy fire and bring it home,” – said the diplomat.
Typically, the ceremony of the Holy fire, simvoliziruet the miraculous light of the Resurrection, attracts tens of thousands of pilgrims, the preparation for it is conducted early in the morning. According to tradition, the first Edicule (chapel above the Holy Sepulchre) inspect and seal the police, at noon on the Patriarchate of Jerusalem begins the procession to the Holy Sepulchre.
the cave makes a great lamp, whichlien kindle the fire chief and 33 candles (on number of years of Christ’s earthly life). The Patriarch of Jerusalem enters the Edicule in one plain cassock, thus showing that in it there are no matches or other means of making fire. The entrance to the Edicule seal.
waiting, which may last from several minutes to several hours, the Patriarch and thousands of believers pray for the descent of the Holy fire. After the fire in the Shrine there’s a light in the temple heard the bell ringing, the Patriarch distributes the flame to pilgrims. The faithful believe the flame appears in a miraculous way.
a Special value of the sacrament give the Orthodox Christians in Greece, Russia, Ukraine and other Eastern European countries. According to the Armenian priest Samuel Aghoyan, the Holy fire – the handiwork of man: bundles of candles lit from the oil of the lamps, and nothing mystical in this. The ROC is considered unnecessary public revelation of the priest, but not allowed to believe in the miraculous origin of the Holy fire.
the Ceremony in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre precedes the Orthodox Easter, this year it falls on April 19. In the ROC believe that the pandemic coronavirus does not hurt to celebrate it. “When my colleagues-the journalists ask: “What is Easter?” – I always answer: “Easter is!” The Easter was celebrated during the plague, wars and other disasters, to celebrate it now,” he said last week, Chairman of the Synodal Department of the Moscow Patriarchate on relations of the Church with society and mass-media Vladimir Legoyda.
