It's the holiest of Christian sites - the place where Jesus was buried. But the Church of the Holy Sepulchre has become a battleground where priests fight and monks stone each other. Victoria Clark reports on an ungodly turf war
Father Athanasius's Texan drawl sounds as steady as ever down the phone from Jerusalem but the tale he's recounting is hair-raising: "... I refused to close the door to our chapel and then the Greeks, priests and deacons and acolytes attacked the Israeli police standing by the door and I was pushed away and fell down, and someone was kicking me, and more police arrived..."
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre - the sanctified home to the site of Christ's crucifixion, as well the tomb he vacated three days later - is no stranger to violent bloodshed. Christian denominations have been violently contesting each others' rights to occupy every last inch of this holiest of holy places since shortly after the the first church was built on the site around AD330.
Soon it will be Easter, and the vast 12th-century Crusader church will host more services, processions and ceremonies than at any other time of the year. That means more friction and more occasions for violence. "From Catholic Palm Sunday on 20 March to the Orthodox Holy Fire ceremony on 23 April is a five-week danger period for us," Father Athanasius says. "I'm really scared someone's going to get killed."
Christian Monks Square Off at One of Jerusalem's Holiest Sites [2013]
1,000 years of rivalry -- and a little bit of harmony -- at the Church of ...
What would Jesus do?
Maybe he would say something about being the cornerstone that was rejected.
Does Jesus, the Father or the Holy Spirit need a holy site?
Do we?
What is It, Exactly,
That is the Problem?
A Door Knob,
The Ladder outside or
some arrangement of dried flowers?
That Place is an Absolute Circus.
Obviously a case of Christophobia and intolerance.
We need to contact a billion dollar organization in charge of “handling” complaints of Christophobia.
Oh wait, that’s right, it doesn’t exist.
American Fundamentalist Protestantism is a completely different religion from historical chrstianity--it's far superior, even though both are wrong.
Interesting. That has been almost a weekly occurence for over a thousand years.
I find it strange that you have posted an article about Israeli police getting into a fight with Coptic monks to beat up on Catholicism.
Hezekiah destroyed the pole with the serpent on it that Moses had made because it became an object of worship. If Christians are fighting over such a “holy” place, one has to wonder what is the purpose.