The Guide: Radio: Friday 13 May
WILL HODGKINSON
The Guardian – United Kingdom
May 07, 2005
The miracle of the Holy Fire has, it is claimed by Orthodox Christians,
been occurring in Jerusalem’s The Church Of The Resurrection on the
first Sunday after the Jewish Passover for the last 1,000 years. A
fire is said to emerge from the stone where Jesus rose from the dead,
but since the miracle occurs behind locked doors in front of only one
witness (an Orthodox patriarch) we’ll have to take his word for it. On
The Holy Fire ( 11am, R4 ) Stewart Henderson travels to Jerusalem
to talk to devout pilgrims, sceptics, and the Israeli police that
ensure the security of the ceremony, where tempers have been known to
fray. In 2002 a Greek Orthodox patriarch and an Armenian priest came
to blows over who should be overseeing the ritual. A shoe was lost.
