The Holy Light will come to Romania through a “special corridor”, announces the Patriarchate. What Easter will be like in Jerusalem: “The alert is raised to the maximum”
The envoy of the Romanian Patriarchate to the Holy Places, Ioan Meiu, announced that the Holy Light will reach the Orthodox countries this year through a corridor opened by the Israeli authorities, considering the war in the Middle East.
In an intervention on Antena 3, on Saturday, the representative of the Patriarchate stated that the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs decided, following discussions with the embassies of the Orthodox countries, to open “a special corridor” for the transport of the Holy Light on Holy Saturday.
“We also prepared this year, even if much more difficult than in other years, the coming of the Holy Light to Romania, through this special corridor through which it will fly on Holy Saturday from Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv”, stated Ioan Meiu.
Restrictions for Christians celebrating Easter in Jerusalem.
The emissary of the Patriarchate said that “the alert is raised throughout Israel to the maximum, that is 9 out of 9”, and preparations for Easter are being made under “special, alert and war” conditions.
Ioan Meiu specified that the Holy Week services “will be officiated in a special way this year, similar to the period of the pandemic, when only the official delegations, the patriarch of Jerusalem, accompanied by hierarchs and priests, entered the Holy Sepulcher to perform the holy services”.
“Services will be held normally and regularly in the Holy Sepulcher. All services and special services will be held and the bishops and Orthodox clergy will serve at the Holy Sepulcher. Only they will have permission to enter the Holy Sepulcher and on Golgotha, and in the other holy places, without entering Christians, believers. We do not have pilgrims at this time in the Holy Land, but the Christians who are in the area, Romanians, Greeks, Russians, Palestinians, will not have access to any of these services at the Tomb of the Lord, nor to the ceremony of lighting the Holy Light on Holy Saturday”, continued Ioan Meiu.
Instead, he said, there will be no processions.
“There will be no processions this year, neither for the Flowers, nor the famous foot washing procession on Maundy Thursday, nor the Stations of the Cross made by the Orthodox Christians on Good Friday, going through the Old Citadel of Jerusalem to Golgotha. These processions will not be in Jerusalem this year,” Ioan Meiu said.
