Mayhem at Orthodox Easter Celebrations

What was supposed to be one of the holiest days on the calendar of the Eastern Orthodox churches took a chaotic turn when some 10,000 local and Palestinian Christians, along with pilgrims from Russia, Greece and Armenia, faced off with hundreds of Israeli soldiers and police on Holy Saturday. Police set up barriers in and around Jerusalem’s Old City and at all entrances to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the traditional place of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection.
 
Holy Saturday, or the Sabbath of Light, is a major observance of the Orthodox Easter, which took place a month later than the Western Easter this year. Beginning at sunrise, pilgrims waited at police barriers for a chance to get into the church. But many never made it to the church plaza.
 
The large police presence was intended for crowd control and to prevent expected brawls between the 14 denominations in the church where relations are tumultuous. A week earlier, Greeks and Armenians scuffled over rights to the tomb.
 
All the denominations came prepared—several laymen dressed as priests so they could have access to the church and defend their denominational territory. The Assyrian Orthodox contingent came to blows with police inside the church.
 
In stark contrast to the respect of Evangelical supporters of Israel who pilgrim to the Holy Land throughout the year, traditional Christians see access to the church as their right and resent Israeli interference. 
 
“My father and mother told me that 60 years ago there were no Israelis, no Jews, no police and people came from around the world and there was no problem,” Nicola Pavlov, a Greek Orthodox resident of Jerusalem, told Israel Today. “The Jews, the Israeli police, have no right to stop us from going to our church.”
 
Father Joseph Marquis, who led a group from his Sacred Heart Byzantine Catholic Church in Livonia, Michigan, lambasted police for drinking water while pilgrims passed out from the heat. “We were treated like criminals,” he said.
 
Police privately expressed their distaste with the behavior of Christians on this day. “It’s insane,” said one policewoman. “But it’s their holiday.”
 
Today about 14 denominations claim some degree of rights in the Holy Sepulcher and six are allowed to hold daily services including the Armenian Orthodox, Coptic, Ethiopian, Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Syrian Orthodox. The troubled relations between the denominations have created the ironic situation in which a Moslem family holds the keys to the holiest place in Christendom.