The Battle of Bethlehem: 100 rival priests clash at church built to mark birth of Jesus

Daily Mail ^ | December 29, 2011 | Lucy Buckland

[Pan_Yans Wife]

An extraordinary brawl between clergymen broke out yesterday at the very site where Jesus is said to have been born.

The annual cleaning of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem descended into a battle between the rival Christian denominations that share it.

Brooms, fists and vicious insults flew in all directions between 100 priests and monks dressed in their traditional robes.

The fight ended only after Palestinian police, bending their heads to squeeze through the church’s low ‘door of humility’, rushed in with batons to restore order.

The row is believed to have begun after a clergyman of one order – either Greek Orthodox or Armenian Apostolic –accidentally pushed his broom into space ‘controlled’ by the other group.

Conflict is easily sparked by any perceived encroachment of jurisdictional boundaries within the church, where control is split between the two denominations along with Roman Catholics. All three groups were cleaning the church for annual Orthodox Christmas celebrations, which will be held next week.

Palestinian police lieutenant-colonel Khaled al-Tamimi tried to play down the incident, saying there had been a ‘trivial problem’.

He added: ‘Everything is all right and things have returned to normal. No one was arrested because all those involved were men of God.'

[Yardstick]

Yeah, I think this episode must’ve been from the later, more surreal period. Newhart really was a good show.