The Church of the Holy Sepulcher
On Friday, our lectures and meetings finished up at around lunchtime. I was scheduled to leave Tel Aviv on Saturday morning at 5:30a, so Friday afternoon was my last chance to explore Jerusalem. Our big group of students broke up into smaller groups depending on who wanted to see what, and Mona, Camille and I headed back to the Old City to see the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.
This is, in my humble opinion, the best group of photos from the trip. So take a minute to check them out in the gallery.
The Church has a rather unassuming facade. It sits on the northern edge of the Christian quarter in the Old City, and has been a church resting on this spot since 326 AD. Today, the Church is huge, and encompasses both the Holy Sepulcher (the location of Christ’s tomb) and the hill of Calvary, where Jesus was crucified and killed.
The Sepulcher sits inside a small building, called the Edicule, which is inside the largest dome of the Church, called the Rotunda of the Anastasis. When we were there on Friday afternoon, the Church was quiet. There were a few people milling around, praying, lighting candles, and taking pictures. It was a beautiful spot, and the whole room felt cool, calm, and peaceful.
We spent a little more than an hour exploring the Church. The layout of the building is confusing, and I was wishing I had a guidebook to the church itself. Each room had staircases or hallways leading off into other chambers and chapels. The building was organic, fractal, and passageways twisted through it like the arteries of a larger being.
It was amazing to walk these ancient hallways, to visit these Holy sites, and to pray at such beautiful alters. I was quickly aware of the austerity of my protestant religion. Other people in the rooms were crossing themselves repeatedly, sprinkling holy water on themselves, chanting their Hail Mary’s, and generally practicing rituals that have been developed over the two thousand year lifetime of the Catholic Church. As a protestant, I don’t practice any of these rituals. The protestant churches left the pomp and ritual of the Catholic Church behind, and developed a very democratic Church.
Kneeling at the alter of Calvary, I began to really appreciate the way our churches are structured. Our church doesn’t build fantastic alters, or commission much awe-inspiring art work. In our church, Christ resides in the community of people who gather to worship, not in any jewel-encrusted adornments of the clergy. I felt both proud and sad about the puritan ancestry of my church. The perspective is good, and I do agree with the directness and the view of the importance of individual relationships with God. But there is something completely beautiful about building a church this impressive, and I felt confused about what to do with my hands as I walked from room to room. No crossing for Katy. I simply folded my hands demurely in my lap and prayed, and stared, and wondered.
Your faith is both simple and beautiful at the same time. No adornment needed for that. It is it’s own adornment!
Love you!
There is a monastery on the cliffs at Big Sur that is one of my favorite places to go, it is a Franciscan order Catholic monastery with some funky monks. I was always struck with the appreciation that they have for their liturgy, their icons and their tradition, specifically with regard to communion. I was impressed with the notion of how important that sacrament is, in that it needed to be given to you by the elder, and how the importance is not be missed…
but at the same time, learned to appreciate that my daily, practicing faith is with a group of believers that believe in a congregation of priests and priestesses, and that we are able to take communion ourselves. I think both perspectives are important, and worth embracing, that they really can be taken together to enhance each other.
Very nice, Kate. I would love to go there some day.
It’s interesting to me that you don’t declare your denomination. Protestant tends to cover a wide ground from those who have much in common with the older faiths (such as the Lutherans and Anglicans) to those that have attempted to get as far away as possible (southern Baptists, maybe?). Being Anglican myself, I have an appreciation for the role of tradition and ritual and find it particularly enriching. Your statement “In our church, Christ resides in the community of people who gather to worship, not in any jewel-encrusted adornments of the clergy” is strange – I don’t think that in any denomination would suggest that they obtain connection with God through the adornments of their church leaders. Different people approach God any many ways (I don’t choose to get baptized on a regular basis, but I can’t find fault with those who do). Consider the Nicene Creed, a declaration of faith common to all Christian denominations – “I believe in one holy catholic and apostolic church”; I hope that you do believe this, that all Christians are united in our love of Christ despite our differences.
(Oh yeah, when you say Catholic, you should probably preface that with Roman – the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is the seat of the Greek Orthodox Patriarch in Jerusalem, a faith as old (older they would argue) as Roman Catholicism. )
Peace, m
Hi Matt, thanks for your comment. I was baptized and confirmed in the United Methodist church, and I do identify with that denomination, but I was trying to discuss what I see as general differences between those American protestant churches which are descendants of puritanical sects and, yes, traditional Catholic churches.
The Church of the Holy Sepulcher is the seat of the Greek Orthodox church, but “the primary custodians are the Eastern Orthodox, Armenian Apostolic, and Roman Catholic Churches, with the Greek Orthodox Church having the lion’s share. In the 19th century, the Coptic Orthodox, the Ethiopian Orthodox and the Syriac Orthodox acquired lesser responsibilities, which include shrines and other structures within and around the building.” [Wikipedia] So, when I’m talking about Catholic here, I’d rather not preface it. I was thinking about Catholic as I was observing it though-out the church.
Interestingly, also, we UMC members don’t recite the Nicene Creed. We only use the Apostle’s Creed.
The final point of the discussion is that I’m very, very used to thinking about all Christian denominations as being the same, and they are united in love of Christ, of course. But, for once in my life, I was distinctly aware of the differences, too.
Kate!!
I love your pictures! They are so much more artistic and beautiful than the ones that I took :). Thanks for sharing them with me!