Orthodoxy in the World
Thousands Flock to Celebrate Easter Sunday in Jerusalem’s Old City - The National Herald April 13, 2007
By AP Writer Steve Weizman
Apr 16, 2007, 11:41

JERUSALEM (AP) – Thousands of Christian pilgrims from around the world sang hymns and lit candles as curious onlookers posed for photos during Easter Sunday celebrations at the church built on the reputed site of Jesus Christ's Resurrection.

In previous years, foreign visitors had stayed away from Easter celebrations in Jerusalem, fearing the surge in Israeli-Palestinian violence. But with tensions calming, many had returned. The crowds inside the Church of the Holy Sepulcher were also bolstered by the alignment of the calendars of the Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant churches.

Nuns, priests and other worshippers gathered for Easter services early last Sunday, April 8, in chapels inside the church – a dimly lit, maze-like complex of underground caves, niches, crucifixes, lanterns and smoky candles.

Many Christians believe the church sits on the actual site of the Crucifixion and Resurrection.
Before the Catholic Mass began, Arab Catholic scouts with drums and bagpipes marched down a narrow alleyway in two lines near the church. A procession of black, cream and pinked-dressed clerics marched nearby, heading to Mass. They were followed by other worshippers, including young women dressed in tight black clothing – and lace delicately draped over their hair for modesty.

Ronald Lopez, a 35-year-old Filipino who works in Tel Aviv as a caregiver for the elderly, missed those sights – turning up late to Jerusalem after working through last Saturday night.

"It was a bit sad," Lopez said, as his son hung onto his arm.

Lopez had not had a Sunday holiday off for Easter since arriving to Israel four years ago. His usual day off is Saturday, the Jewish day of rest, but managed to get Sunday off this year, because of the coinciding Jewish celebration of Passover.

Lopez consoled himself and his wife by walking around the cobble-stoned alleyways, bazaars selling olivewood crosses, falafel stands and clothing shops of Jerusalem's Old City.

Esther Barkai, a 57-year-old Israeli Jew, did manage to make the Mass, saying it was "interesting," a nice way of spending her weekend. "It's sort of peaceful," she said.

Earlier, Pope Benedict XVI celebrated Easter Mass on the steps of Saint Peter's Basilica under hazy sunshine.
The voices of choirboys rang across the square. Wearing gold-colored vestments, the Pope gripped a slender, silver crucifix as clerics sprinkled incense across the steps. The altar area was ablaze with color – red tulips, orange tiger lilies and yellow broom plants were among the flowers delivered from the Netherlands – and at the end of the service the Pope thanked the Dutch for the gift.

In an unusual touch for the Vatican's Easter Mass, black-robed clerics intoned a long chant from the Byzantine liturgy. This year, Eastern and Western celebrations coincided. The two rites often celebrate Easter on different dates because of different church calendars.

Benedict ended his appearance by giving Easter greetings in dozens of languages, including Arabic and Hebrew, and giving the crowd his apostolic blessing.

Advocates pressing for a worldwide moratorium on the death penalty marched peacefully through Rome, ending their rally in Saint Peter's Square near the end of the Pope's Mass. Mayor of Rome Walter Veltroni said he was marching because "it happens many times that an innocent life is taken" by capital punishment.

Orthodox faithful in the Balkans, Russia, Greece and other places celebrated Easter with long, traditional ceremonies. Russia made an exception to its cutoff of transport links with Georgia to allow three charter flights of Georgians to come to Moscow for the Easter period.

THE HOLY FIRE

In Jerusalem, Christian worshippers filled their most revered church on Holy Saturday, lighting row upon row of candles, pouring hot wax onto their faces and dancing in celebration of the Greek Orthodox ritual of the Holy Fire.

But with tens of thousands of pilgrims packed into the walled Old City for Easter, many said they had been unable to get past police barriers to reach the ceremony at the Holy Sepulcher.

The ancient church was filled with the smoke of blazing candles seconds after Orthodox religious leaders descended into an underground chamber and emerged with a flaming torch.

Israeli police helped worshippers light candles from the flame, many of the faithful stretching their arms across barricades erected to keep the surging crowd back from the shrine marking the traditional site of Christ's Crucifixion.

One Italian visitor, who identified herself only as Barbara, said she had obtained a pass to attend the ritual, but was barred anyway.

"The police didn't let me in because I'm a Catholic," she said. "Many people talk about the holy fire, so I wanted to see for myself."

A local Greek Orthodox woman, Reem Carmi, 27, said she and two friends gained access by shouldering their way through police lines and into the crush of candle-waving celebrants.

"This is a beautiful occasion for me," she said. "Christianity is based on light and Resurrection, but I was afraid my hair would burn."

Although police could not give an exact figure, the number of Easter pilgrims in Jerusalem last Saturday was swollen this year as the calendars of five major Christian faiths coincided with one another, bringing Eastern and Western Christians to worship in and around the cramped Old City at the same time. This happens once every 3-4 years.

The holy fire is passed among worshippers outside the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and is taken aboard special flights to Athens and other cities – connecting many of the 200 million Orthodox worldwide to their spiritual roots.

As worshippers in the church Saturday quickly lit their candles – many of them carrying bunches of long tapers tied up with string and decorated with pictures of Jerusalem – Arab Christian women ululated, and others beat out drum rhythms. One youth bounced up and down on another's shoulders, waving a candle.

Other celebrants dripped candle wax onto their faces.

Among those unable, or unwilling, to brave the crush, 70-year-old Athena Kiragouzio of Thessaloniki sat with friends watching live coverage of the ritual on a television set placed on a chair in one of the Old City's cobbled lanes.

In addition to a crucifix around her neck she also wore several religious icons and a blue eye pendant to ward off misfortune.

"I wanted to go to the church, but it was difficult," she said, speaking through an interpreter. "There were many people, and I'm sick. I wanted to see but I can't."

The ceremony started when Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem Theofilos III entered the church dressed in his robes and a large yellow-and-white cowl, and carrying a large staff.

During the annual ritual, the Patriarch descends into the church's underground tomb to bring out the flame. When he emerges, church bells peal and flames are passed around to the thousands of faithful, filling the church with light and smoke. The event dates back at least 1,200 years. The flame's source is a closely guarded secret, but some believe it appears spontaneously from Christ's tomb as a message from Jesus on the eve of the Orthodox Easter that he has not forgotten his followers.

Police spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby estimated that tens of thousands of worshippers were in the Old City for the ceremony. He said there were no reports of disturbances, but after unrest last year, security was tight. Several thousand police officers were deployed, alleys around the church were blocked off, and police barred traffic from the area.

During last year's holy fire ritual, tempers flared as thousands of people waited to pass through security barricades into the Old City. Some priests and pilgrims shoved and punched police, and there were scuffles inside the church.

On April 6, Christians around the world – some in agony, others in ecstasy – marked Good Friday with prayer, processions and pleas for peace.

Thousands of pilgrims, some carrying large wooden crosses and others holding candles, wound their way through the narrow lanes of Jerusalem's Old City, retracing the route the Bible says Christ took on the way to His Crucifixion.

In Rome, Pope Benedict XVI carried the cross at the beginning of the traditional Way of the Cross procession at the Colosseum. He described the procession as "a journey into pain, solitude and cruelty, into evil and death… but it will also be a path trod in faith, hope and love, because the tomb which is the final stop on our way will not remain sealed forever."

In Mexico City, more than 500,000 people turned out for the annual Passion play in the capital's working class Iztapalapa neighborhood. Thousands participated in the procession, many lugging heavy crosses through the streets.

On Jerusalem's Via Dolorosa – or Way of Sorrows – visitors from the United States, India, South Korea, the Philippines, Russia and many other countries followed the traditional route of Christ's final walk, stopping at 14 stations, each marking an event which befell Christ on the way to His Crucifixion.

The final five stations are inside the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, where tradition says Christ was stripped, crucified and finally laid to rest before being rising from the dead on Easter Sunday.

In his traditional Good Friday message, Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah, head of the Roman Catholic Church in the Holy Land, appealed to politicians of all faiths to bring an end to the region's ongoing violence.

"What's happening now, in our Holy Land here, is believers in God killing each other in the name of God; Jews, Muslims and Christians," he said. "We hope, we wish, for political leaders who will have the courage to go and find the right ways for peace."

The various groups, which have feuded in the past, put aside their rivalries, and the ceremonies passed smoothly. At one point, Catholic and Greek Orthodox worshippers quietly held simultaneous prayers in different parts of the church. In accordance with tradition, the church's doors were unlocked by a member of a Muslim family which has held the key for centuries.

Slavko Stojic, an electrical engineer from Serbia, walked with three large crosses on his shoulders, which he wanted to have blessed before taking them back home. The pilgrimage transformed him, he said: "I am now a full man."

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