Sunday, may 24, in the Old city of Jerusalem for the first time after two months of closure to quarantine reopened one of the main Christian shrines – the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
“Life returns to normal. We have already opened the beaches and parks, you can stay at some hotels, to visit, was Wailing Wall, and finally, in the pouring rain in Sunny Israel is considered a blessing from God that opened the Church of the Holy Sepulchre — commented on the opening of the Christian shrines in Jerusalem, the Director of the Department of the Ministry of tourism of Israel in Russia and the CIS, Counsellor of the Embassy of Israel in Russia Vladimir Shklyar. Is a truly historic event: for the last time for a long time the temple was closed for more than 200 years ago, after the fire of 1808. We look forward to the day when we can again welcome tourists to the Holy Land, and are actively preparing for it.”
Also in the past the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was closed in 1349 during the plague outbreak in Jerusalem.
in 2018, in protest against the proposed raising taxes on the Church, the Church was closed for three days, but then was re-opened.
this year the Church was closed on March 25 quarantine in pandemic coronavirus COVID-19. Initially, it was expected that the closure will last only one week, but the authorities agreed that because of the ongoing pandemic a place of pilgrimage for believers from around the world must remain closed. And here two months later, the Shrine re-opens its doors.
In connection with the sanitary requirements, the opening day right to be in the temple, received by priests. The opening of the Shrine to the public is expected in the coming days.
in accordance with the strict rules of the Israeli Ministry of health, in the temple can simultaneously be no more than 50 people. Of course, being in the Church, they will have to cover the face mask to adhere to the social distance of two meters, and the rules of hygiene.
the heads of the three churches, the guardians of the Holy Sepulcher (and the fundamental rights of possession and use of the Holy things of the Church belong to the Greek Orthodox Jerusalem Patriarchate, the Jerusalem Patriarchate of the Armenian Apostolic Church and the Catholic order of the Franciscans) addressed the faithful with a request to refrain from touching located in the temple stones, icons and other objects (and especially from kissing).
Pilgrims and tourists were also asked to refrain from visiting the Holy places the appearance of the slightest symptoms of the disease.
given the fact that we can hardly expect the appearance in the Temple foreign pilgrims, most likely, with large concentrations of believers of the Holy places will not.
Recall that one of the first karanvir��with the Holy Land could bring South Korean Christian pilgrims, who visited in first half of February in Israel. In particular, on 15 February they visited in Jerusalem the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. After the team returns to South Korea, it became known that nine of her was infected with the coronavirus. After that, the Israeli Ministry of health published the daily schedule for the stay of pilgrims urged citizens to contact with members of the Korean group of tourists, to immediately put themselves to isolate themselves in home quarantine.
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