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Hundreds of Parishioners Attend Orthodox Easter Vigil in Georgia

   TBILISI, GEORGIA - Hundreds of Christian parishioners went to churches
   in ex-Soviet Georgia to attend Orthodox Easter Vigil despite a state of
   emergency and calls from the government and doctors to stay home amid
   outbreak of the coronavirus.

   Dozens went to the South Caucasus country's main Sameba (Saint Trinity)
   cathedral in Tbilisi, where 87-year-old Catholicos-Patriarch Ilia II
   held the service.

   More attended services in big churches across the country, although
   some bishops in different regions called on their flocks to stay at
   home, encouraging them instead to tune in to Easter services streamed
   live on TV or Facebook.

   Crowds were unusually small everywhere compared with the tens of
   thousands who normally attend this service every year.

   The Catholicos-Patriarch said in his Easter address that the problem of
   the new virus had caused fear among many and their gaze had turned to
   God.

   "We should not be afraid of temptation, the Christian takes problems
   with gratitude and sees God's hand in everything ... and at the same
   time tries to find the right solution in the current situation," he
   said.

   Holy Fire

   Holy Fire had been brought to Georgia on Saturday night by a charter
   flight from Jerusalem, where the ceremony in the Church of the Holy
   Sepulchre, which symbolizes the resurrection of Jesus after his death
   on the cross, was attended only by Christian clergymen for the first
   time in centuries.

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