Dubai: More than 12,000 parishioners are expected to attend the Good Friday service at St. Thomas Orthodox Cathedral in Dubai.
The service is part of the 40-day celebration of Lent, a season of penance and prayer, that will end on Saturday. Easter will be celebrated on Sunday.
Baselius Marthoma Paulose II, Catholicose of the East and Malankara Metropolitan and head of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, will lead the Passion Week services.
“Holy week features Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter. In other words it represents various events of the last days in the life of Jesus Christ before he was crucified on Good Friday,” said Rev Fr. T.J. Johnson, vicar of the church.
St Thomas Orthodox was founded by St Thomas, one of the 12 disciples of Jesus Christ who came to India in AD 52. The church currently has more than two million members in India and the rest of the world.
