For the first time in the history of Christianity, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is closed indefinitely

For the first time in the history of Christianity, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is closed indefinitely. The closure was ordered by the Israeli authorities.

Holy Week and Easter services in the Church are forbidden, and Sunday masses and divine services have been cancelled.

In the coming weeks the church was due to fill with hundreds of thousands of people for the greatest of Christian feasts. The Israeli authorities state that the Church will be closed for "security reasons".

Over the whole of its history access to the shrine has been restricted at times, but never, in any war, has the holding of services been forbidden in the principal church of the Paschal feast.

The only documented prolonged interruption of worship in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre lasted from 1009 to 1020, after the church was destroyed by the Caliph al-Hakim. In the 1200 years of Muslim rule that followed, nothing of the kind has occurred.

The heads of the churches are negotiating with the secular authorities and hope that the services of Holy Week and Easter will nonetheless take place in the Church, at least for the clergy and religious figures, as was the case during the pandemic