AMMAN — Jerusalem churches have rejected
the “heavy-handed” restrictions imposed by the Israeli forces during the Holy
Light ceremony at the Holy Sepulchre Church in Jerusalem’s Old City, according
to the Palestinian news agency, Wafa.
اضافة اعلان
The Status Quo Committee of the Greek
Orthodox Patriarchate, the Custody of the Holy Land, and the Armenian
Patriarchate have issued a joint statement in which they described the
restrictions as "unreasonable".
“Police are unfairly and inappropriately
placing the burden on the churches to issue invitations while tying the
churches' hands with unreasonable restrictions that will prevent worshippers
from attending particularly our local community. This makes difficult our
coordination with the police,” said the statement.
LimitationIsraeli forces are insisting on limiting
the number of worshipers in the church to 1,800 (1,000 Orthodox, 600 Armenians,
and 200 police) while normally thousands attend the Holy Light ceremony as they
wait for the light to come out from the tomb of Jesus Christ.
The ceremony is part of the orthodox
churches Easter celebrations this week according to the Julian calendar.
Holy Light ceremony to proceed according to
two millennia of traditionThe Holy Light ceremony has been taking
place for nearly 2,000 years and attracts Christians from around the world.
The churches stressed that “we shall
continue to uphold the status quo customs, and the ceremony will be held as
customary for two millennia and all who wish to worship with us are invited to
attend.”
With that made clear, we will leave the
authorities to act as they will. The churches will freely worship and do so in
peace.”
Last year, the Israeli forces placed
barriers throughout the Old City, preventing local Christian communities from
attending the ceremony.
This impeded on worshippers’ “freedom to
worship and witness the miracle of the resurrection,” said the statement,
despite the churches coordinating with the Israeli authorities to ensure this
ceremony can take place without an incident.
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