Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is the single holiest site in the world to many Christians. Religious tradition states it contains within it 3 sacred events in the death of Jesus. The site where his cross was set in the ground, the slab where he was anointed for burial, and the cave where Jesus was entombed before his ascension. The church was originally built by, Helena, the mother of the Holy Roman Emperor Constantine, in 335 AD.

Today, the Holy Sepulchre is a complicated church. The church is divided among 6 religious groups. Catholics, Orthodox, Armenians (more on them below), Copts (Orthodox Christians from Egypt & Sudan, primarily), Ethiopians, and Syrian Jacobites. Each group had their own traditions and calendars. Given that we were there on Catholic Easter, it was also very eventful. You can see one priest running around cleansing the church with incense, and another of a different faith running around with bells to do the same.

The worst of it is that these Christians don't trust eachother. The church has 1 set of keys and no one trusted the other to hold the keys. A compromise was reached when 2 local muslim families were given they keys. One opens the church everyday and gives the keys to the second family who will then close the church that evening. They consider it a great honor, but it does seem like a bit of a failure of harmony.

Now I have to admit, I hadn't heard much about Armenian Christians in my life before visiting Jerusalem. Not only do they have a large portion our this church, but they have a quarter or district within Jerusalem. Their status, comes from the fact that Armenia was the first state to adopt Christianity as an official religion in 301 AD. This was because 2 apostles Bartholomew and Thaddeus, came to Armenia following Jesus death to spread religion.

Now to top it all off, Protestants don't recognize The Church of the Holy Sepulchre as the correct burial site. They instead, believe it to be The Garden Tomb, about 1 km north. This is assuming the real tomb is still accessible as Jerusalem had been besieged 23 times and completely destroyed twice. So who knows.

If you're interested in more details on the church and seeing a map showing "ownership" of parts of the church see the link below.
https://www.206tours.com/cms/blog/inside-holy-s…Read more