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.