Holy Fire burns in U.S. for first time

WICHITA, Kan. — A fire is burning in the “unsleeping lamp” at St. George Orthodox Christian Cathedral in Wichita, a fire that Orthodox Christians believe is tied to a miracle and the resurrection of Christ.

It’s the first time the Holy Fire has made its way to Wichita — and the first confirmed time that the flame, believed to have originated in Jesus’ tomb, has made it from Jerusalem to the United States.

Carried from Jerusalem to New York in a private plane, the Holy Fire is now being taken to Orthodox churches across the United States by priests and parishioners.

For Wichitan Matthew Ash, bringing the fire from Stillwater, Okla., to St. George meant surrounding four candles with potting soil in a large stock pot — then driving carefully, trying not to slosh wax over the flames.

“It’s like a mini pilgrimage,” Ash said. “It’s a prayerful time in the car when you’re with the Holy Fire driving hundreds of miles. For me that’s something I’ll always carry with me. It’s a pilgrimage for the people who are delivering it, it’s a pilgrimage for the people who are coming to see the Holy Fire.”

Ash, like other Orthodox Christians, believes the fire he carried from Stillwater to Wichita originated in a miracle in Christ’s tomb.

Every year, the patriarch of Jerusalem, one of the leaders of the Eastern Orthodox Church, goes into the tomb on the day before Easter. According to church tradition, fire rises out of the stone on which Jesus’ body lay.