AMMAN: The traditional Holy Fire ceremony in Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulcher took place on Saturday without the thousands of worshippers who normally celebrate it every year.

Holy Fire Saturday is described by Orthodox Christians as a miracle at the church on the Saturday preceding Orthodox Easter Sunday.

This year’s ceremony was attended by patriarchs from the Greek Orthodox and Armenian Orthodox churches, along with four assistants, as well as Coptic and Syrian archbishops. Two Israeli police officers were also present.

Issa Kassisieh, the Palestinian ambassador to the Vatican and a member of the Presidential Higher Council on Church Affairs, said every effort had been made to ensure that the church ceremony went ahead smoothly despite the difficult conditions brought on by the coronavirus lockdown.

“We in the Higher Council wanted to ensure that the protocols and traditions are respected and that while all church events have to take place without the faithful, we were happy that all had a chance to see the ceremonies that were broadcast live on Palestine TV and other media outlets,” he told Arab News.  

“It is very sad to see the cobbled streets of the old city of Jerusalem empty of people, and the doors are closed as people have respected the orders to stay at home due to the pandemic.”

The ceremony involves clerics entering a chamber built on the site where Christians believe Jesus was buried and rose from the dead after being crucified. They come out with candles lit by a fire that the faithful view as a divine message. The fire is used to light candles or lanterns that are then passed onto believers around the world.

Father Atallah Hanna, archbishop of Sebastia, said it was sad that just a small group of clerics had attended the ceremony. “It is an unhappy scene to see the church empty on this holy day,” he told Arab News. “For Christians, Easter is the greater holiday but this year the great celebrations are taking place with mixed feelings of sadness due to the absence of the believers, but happiness in the celebration of the resurrection.”

The holy fire was brought out of the church at about 2 p.m. and taken by a priest to Ben Gurion Airport in a police convoy.

Passenger-free planes landed at Ben Gurion Airport on Saturday in anticipation of receiving the flame and flying it to 10 countries.

Orthodox Patriarchal Deputy in Jordan Bishop Christophoros Attallah said he would personally collect the holy fire.  

“I am on my way to King Hussein Bridge, where I will meet one of our priests coming from Jerusalem with the holy fire,” he told Arab News. He said he had been approached by the faithful in Syria and Lebanon to help pass the holy fire to them, but that the difficulty in movement due to Jordan’s curfew made it impossible. “They have decided to pick up the holy fire via Cyprus,” he added.

Kassisieh said that members of the Orthodox Club’s boy scouts had been asked to help pass the light to churches in Ramallah and Bethlehem.