My Faith - Orthodox Christian

Written by Eugene Daniel, Thursday 24th April 2003

Local contributor, Eugene Daniel, tells us about his faith and the holy festival Pascha/Easter day on Sunday 27th April 2003.

... In Palestine there are numerous shrines, and many of these are protected by the Orthodox. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is the tomb where Christ's body was taken to lay when he was crucified, and three days later he was resurrected.

Every year the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem enters this cave, having been searched by Israeli paramilitary to see if he has any lighting equipment. He comes out with a bunch of either 12 or 33 candles fully alight, and the flames then spread to all the pilgrims in the crowd at exactly midnight on Great and Holy Saturday.

An Orthodox Christian is able to touch this Holy Fire which has come from Heaven without feeling any pain, and they can even wash their face in it!

This miracle has been attempted by the Archbishops of other denominations such as the Armenian Apostolic Patriarch, or the Roman Catholics, but they are unable to perform the miracle on either their own Easter or on Pascha.

In Birmingham many people will be attending the Orthodox churches on Holy Week and on Pascha. On Holy Friday there is the procession round the church 3 times with a big 'epitafios' which literally means coffin to symbolise Christ in Hell for 3 days.

Cited: BBC - Birmingham Faith