The Old City and Holy Sepulchre

Today, Sunday, we went on a walking tour of the Old City. This included visiting the Christian and Jewish Quarters, and a visit to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. First I went with a couple of others to Mass, in English, in Notre Dame, the Latin Catholic Church. This church is part of a complex administered on behalf of the Vatican by the Legionnaires of Christ. In the complex are a hotel, restaurant, cafe and probably a few other things! As you can imagine it is pretty flash. They do do a good cappuccino though (not that it was Legionnaire serving us!)

A couple of photos:

A Street in the Christian Quarter

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre (note the ladder)

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is traditionally identified as the being built over the place Jesus was crucified and containing his tomb. It has been fought over for centuries by the Greek Orthodox, Armenian Orthodox, Catholics, Egyptian Copts, Syriacs and Ethiopians. There was so much tension that finally the Ottoman sultan (the Holy Land was under their control at the time) ruled that the status quo in terms of who had control of which part and what each church was doing would remain in force. 

The status quo means that nothing can change in the church without the agreement of all the different churches who maintain a presence in the church. So the church itself is falling apart, dark and a bit grubby. Bits and pieces are held together by scaffolding. It all needs agreement from all the players and that seems too hard at times. The ladder is an example of this lack of agreement! See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immovable_Ladder 

Our guide maintains that the ladder was to make it easier for the Armenians to haul up baskets of bread from below. When the other churches noted the appearance of the ladder they objected to this novelty. An impasse occurred. In the end in a face saving gesture, the Armenians were able to have the ladder, but were unable to use it! It has remained there ever since.

Relations seem to be pretty cordial right now. While we were there we saw the three Eastern churches incensing the holy places. They do this at 11.00 am every day. They follow each other, carefully avoiding being in the same place at the same time. They do meet - one descending the steps leading to the place Jesus was crucified, the other ascending. They incense each other - at least with a smile. It was not always so.

The clip below takes place at the slab venerated as the place that Jesus was embalmed. You'll notice the Greek Orthodox monk doesn't muck around. The second, a Syrian monk I think, is even faster. The last, an Armenian Orthodox insists on his rights and moves the people away.

https://youtu.be/U-U3we4e0V8

The Franciscans, who represent through the Custodia of the Holy Places, the Catholic Church have prayer and a procession each day at 3.00pm. This involves visiting the five Stations of the Cross that are within the church (the rest being down the Via Dolorosa outside). There are prayers, hymns and incensing. People are able to accompany the friars holding candles. 

The Franciscan Friars praying at one of the Stations in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre:
as they have done for 160+ years

That evening we finished up in the Greek Catholic Church for an ecumenical prayer service for the week of Christian Unity. I have no idea what the prayers were, but they had the most interesting liturgy, which involved servers, several priests, deacons and the archbishop processing, praying, singing. There were at least two processions, the celebrants entered and left the sanctuary area several times, disappearing behind the iconostasis (which was richly decorated with icons) all accompanied by chants in Arabic! The highlight was a priest who placed a tray of bread and wine on his head and processed it up and down the aisle accompanied by incenser, other priests, deacons and servers before it was blessed and distributed by the archbishop who explained carefully (in English) that it was not the Eucharist, but a sharing of bread and wine.

The archbishop, wearing his cylindrical hat with veil, farewelled everyone one by one at the end of the aftermatch function in the foyer. He is a very cheerful chap.