The Church in the East

Today I went on my first “real” field study of the semester – and it was for a class I’m not even in: History of the Church in the East. It was a class that I wanted to audit because I know very little about the history of the church, especially before the reformation, which is really rather a sorry state of affairs. However, I decided that for sanity’s sake, I might be better off not taking the course. So instead, I just joined them for their field study today.

It was a rather different flavor of field study than those I had experience thus far, which is to be expected. I really enjoyed it, though.

First of all, I’d like to say that I really like Petra Heldt, the teacher of the class. She was very welcoming of me, a visitor to the class, which I appreciated. She is well known throughout the Christian community in Jerusalem (and Israel) and well respected. I think she has connections pretty high up with pretty much every denomination in the country. She’s pretty spunky, in addition to knowing a ton about all sorts of things, which made the trip fun. The only problem is that she talks very quietly and at times I was unable to hear what she was saying.

Secondly, I’d like to say that I’m really glad to have an umbrella this semester (thanks mom!) While we were blessed enough to be inside whenever the rain (or hail) really started pouring down, it was still handy to protect against the softer rain.

Our morning started by Jaffa gate where we met up with Petra. The best sight there was the Jewish men with their fancy hats covered in plastic bags (while still on their heads) to protect against the rain. Knowing how expensive those hats are, I guess it makes sense. It’s just odd. In my part of the word, hats are to be protection from the elements, not protected from the elements. Oh well.

From Jaffa Gate we proceeded on to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher (or the Church of the Ressurection). Before arriving there we paused to talk a little about the iterations the church has gone through. Originally it was much longer and was entered from the east. Today it is smaller and is entered from the south. It also now has two mosques right next to it (in addition to being owned by a Muslim family), one the Omar mosque and the other something like the Strangulation mosque, I believe. Indeed, in many ways the Muslims are very purposeful in their attempts to strangle Christianity. It is felt very strongly by some of the Christians we visited today.

(These two pillars used to be one really tall one in the original church.)

Once inside the Church we looked around, visited various stations of the cross and various parts of the church owned by various denominations and learned about their significance, their traditions, their stories. We even saw the sword of Godfrey the crusader which, I believe, is still used today to knight the Knights of the Holy Sepulcher. There is a lot of really meaningful symbolism throughout the church, which we Protestants tend to miss. Probably one of my favorite things was at the site of Golgotha in the upper level of the church. You enter the room(s) and all you see are pictures of Christ, being nailed to the cross, or of Mary and John weeping as Jesus dies. And in the midst of the great sorrow and pain of these pictures you look up as if to ask God, “Why?” And then all across the ceiling you see mosaics celebrating the resurrection. What a good reminder that we as humans tend to look only horizontally and all we see are pain and suffering. When we remember to look “up” to God, that’s when we see the whole picture more clearly.


We then left the church and went up above it, through an Ethiopian church, to a roof where the quarters for the Ethiopian nuns and monks were located. We continued on to the Coptic Church where we were welcomed by the Arch-Bishop of the Coptic Church in this region. How impressive is that? He was a very nice man. We sat in a beautiful (though chilly) sort of grand hall and were served juice, cookies, and tea (in china, no less). We were able to ask him some questions. I don’t specifically remember anything he said, but it was encouraging. I think my general attitude towards the Orthodox Church has been changing. While I still don’t necessarily agree with their theology (or theologies, since there are many orthodox churches) or how they do things, etc., I think many of them are truly our brothers and sisters in Christ, and we should be more willing to cherish them as such.

From there we ran, through the rain and rivers running in the streets to a Syriac church were we met with another man. I don’t think he was quite as high on the totem pole, but that’s ok. :) He told us a little about his church, and I think he really shared his heart – his discouragement and even despair about the state of the church, about the persecution they’ve undergone and are still enduring, about all the talk among church leaders with no real change. We prayed with him for the Holy Spirit to come and renew and revive people.

From there we ran to the bus by Jaffa Gate and headed to the Monastery of the Cross. As the story goes (if I understood correctly) apparently Lot planted a seed, or maybe a stick given to him by Abraham, and it grew into a tree that was actually three different trees in one. He took good care of it and watered it daily. At some point the tree(s) was cut down and used to make the threshold of the temple. Then, when it was no longer needed there, it was used to form the cross that Jesus was crucified on. Apparently the monastery and church are located on the spot where the tree originally grew.

We ate lunch at the monastery in their old (crusader period?) dinning hall. I believe that Petra said at one point there were around 10,000 people at the monastery and they ate in 10 minute shifts. We got to see the kitchen and the huge pots that they used for food at some point too. They were really huge. I mean, I think that I have some huge pots and camp, but they’re nothing in comparison. The vat would fit into these things, oh, maybe 6-8 times? It took two of us to lift one a couple inches off the ground.

After that we went to another monastery who’s name escapes me…but it was dedicated to John the Baptist and we visited a cave that he supposedly prayed in. It was in the Sorek Wadi and we recognized the place across the valley where we hiked down last semester. It’s really a beautiful area, even more so now than it was in the fall, in spite of the rain and low visibility. There we almond trees blooming all over the place, as well as various other little wildflowers. There were also some piles of hail/snow – almost enough to go sledding on…if you had a really short sled… :)

Our last stop of the day was at a church at Ein Karin (the Spring of the Vineyard). This is supposedly the place where John the Baptist grew up, across the valley from the Monastery with his cave. Apparently also, tradition (or something) says that Herod also sought to kill John the Baptist when he was a babe (at the same time he tried to kill Jesus.) However, and angel kept Elizabeth and John safe by opening a hole in a cliff for them to hide in and then closing it behind them until they were safe. However, angered at this failure, Herod had his men go kill Zacharias in the temple instead. I had never heard this story before, so I have no idea how true it is or where its origins lie, but it was interesting. This church had depictions of the Angel hiding Elizabeth and John. It was rather a unique church in a few ways. First, the painting style was quite unique. Petra said that it was fairly recently done (maybe in the 50’s?) and in a very romantic style. I thought it was quite beautiful, but it was very different from all the other churches. It also has a wall with Mary’s Magnificat in most of the major language of the world. I didn’t get to examine them too closely because they were outside and it was raining and we were headed back to the bus. Maybe someday. I liked that area quite a lot.

That was pretty much our day. It was an enlightening experience. In spite of the heavy rain and the wet shoes and cold nose, I’m glad I went.