Orthodox Christians Celebrate Epiphany
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The head of the world’s 300 million Orthodox Christians, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, led U.S. celebrations of Epiphany by ritually throwing a cross into the Gulf of Mexico.
The cross was grabbed within seconds by James Vasilaros, one of 53 teenage divers waiting to retrieve it in the highlight of an annual ritual that draws tens of thousands to Tarpon Springs, a few miles northwest of Tampa.
Epiphany in some Eastern churches commemorates the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River; in Western churches it marks the visit of the three kings to the Christ child.
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