The delegation of the Fund of St. Andrew the First-Called on May 1 arrived in Moscow with the Holy Fire.
At the airport, the flight was awaited by the ministers of the capital’s temples and representatives of the regions to which the shrine will be taken. The blessed fire was handed out to them by the head of the Russian delegation, chairman of the board of trustees of the Andrew the First-Called Foundation, Vladimir Yakunin.
The Holy Fire will be brought to the Easter service at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior and will be distributed to everyone in 15 churches in Moscow.
Earlier on the same day, the Holy Fire in the Chapel of Kuvuklia in the center of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. There is a slab revered by Christians, under which the burial place of Jesus Christ was located.
Patriarch Theophilos III of Jerusalem distributed a particle of the shrine to those present. At the church it was received by the Russian ambassador to Israel Anatoly Viktorov, who handed the lamp with fire to Yakunin.
Last year, due to sanitary restrictions related to the spread of the coronavirus, the Holy Fire consecration ceremony was held behind closed doors. This time, no more than 2.5 thousand people were allowed inside the temple.
For a piece of the Holy Fire, delegations from 11 states flew in.