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  • Jerusalem: Fire Ceremony brings groups to boiling point

    Ha'aretz, Israel
    May 1 2005

    Fire Ceremony brings groups to boiling point

    By Amiram Barkat and Jonathan Lis

    Yesterday at 2 P.M., fire emerged from the darkened structure where
    according to Christian tradition Jesus was buried. This was the
    climax of the Ceremony of Holy Fire, held at the Church of the Holy
    Sepulchre in the Old City of Jerusalem on the Saturday before
    Orthodox Easter. According to church belief, fire descends from
    heaven to the tomb.

    Moments before the fire appeared to the roar of the crowd gathered in
    the church, the ceremony was on the verge of a blow-up. As the Greek
    Orthodox Patriarch Irineos Iand the Armenian Archbishop Pakrad
    Bourjekian made their way toward the tomb, fights broke out between
    the priests of the two communities - with police attempting to
    separate them. The two senior church leaders, who had entered the
    tomb alone, faced off inside.


    There has been strict adherance to maintaining the rights of the
    various Christian sects since 1852, when the Ottoman Turks instituted
    the status quo.

    The present dispute dates from 2002, the year Irineos became
    patriarch. During the ceremony, Irineos extinguished the taper of the
    Armenian prelate who went in with him to the inner tomb chamber
    (rather than waiting in the outer room), and a brawl broke out
    involving hundreds of the faithful. The Greeks claimed the Armenians
    were trying to change the status quo, but the Armenians said that
    since the ceremony started in the ninth century, the Armenian
    representative has gone into the inner room with the Greek patriarch
    to light his taper directly from the holy fire.

    In 2003, the Armenians petitioned the High Court of Justice to
    require the police to enforce the status quo as they saw it. The High
    Court referred the matter to arbitration by Minister Without
    Portfolio Nathan Sharansky, but the attempt failed.

    More than a thousand police were on hand for the ceremony yesterday
    as thousands of worshipers crowded the church and many more remained
    outside, watching the ceremony on giant video screens. Irineos
    appeared, a gold crown on his head, and circumnavigated the tomb
    three times before entering, followed by Archbishop Bourjekian.
    During the argument between the two, Irineos opened the tomb doors
    and asked for the assistance of police Commander Yoram Halevy, who
    refused to intervene.

    Irineos emerged from the structure first with his taper lit, but on
    his way out he tripped and dropped the taper, which went out.
    Bourjekian reached out and put his candle through a window in the
    structure and lit the candles of the Armenians, as Irineos hurried
    back into the tomb to relight his candle. He was then borne out of
    the rotunda on the shoulders of his flock, as was Bourjekian, with
    both being viewed as the hero of the day.

    A few days before the ceremony Greek Orthodox Palestinians had called
    for Irineos to be deposed for allegedly selling major church
    properties to Jews. Four Palestinians were arrested outside the
    church before the ceremony as they shouted insults at Irineos.
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