Christian Communities in the East

Today I went on my first (and probably one of my only) field studies this semester.

I admit, I didn't enjoy it as much as it probably deserved. It was hot, I was tired, and I'd already been to many of the churches and monasteries that we visited. Still, some of them were new, and some of the old ones were seen under different circumstances, so it was interesting.

This particular field study was for the Christian Communities in the East class, taught by Petra Heldt. She is very passionate about both the eastern churches and the Jewish people, so quite a bit of today was spent learning about how there is dialogue and cooperation happening between various Christian and Jewish groups (sometimes also Palestinian).

We visited...let's see if I remember...

1. The Monastery of St. John of the Desert, a Franciscan monastery. Apparently, the Franciscans have been in the country for 800 years now, according to Petra, the only Catholic group that was somehow allowed to stay after the Muslims kicked out the Christians. It was fun to see this sight while not dodging raindrops.

2. The "Moscovia" Monastery? Not quite sure of it's name...but its a Russian Orthodox Monastery. With a fairly new church (build since the re-unification of the Red and White Russians in the land) with beautiful gold domes.

3. The Visitation Church (celebrates where Mary visited Elizabeth and sung the Magnificat, and where Elizabeth and John hid from the soldiers who came to kill John). Claim to fame: The Magnificat on a wall in hundereds of different languages.

Side note: At this point (and a few others in the trip) we discussed non-cannonical stories about John, Jesus, Mary, and Elizabeth. Very interesting. I think it's a bit unfortunate how little we in the west know about our "roots" in the east.

4. The Monastery of the Sisters of Zion. By this point in the trip I was quite warm, quite low on blood sugar, and quite unable to give my full attention. But they had some pretty flowers. :) (And, from what I did hear, it sounds like they do some good things in the land.)

5. LUNCH!

6. The Monastery of the Holy Cross. I'd been here before as well.

7. Syriac Church in Jerusalem. I'd also been to that compound, but this time we met with a different guy and actually got to see their church. I didn't realize that they also claimed to be built over the location of the Last Supper. Of course, for every event that took place in this land, there are at least two sights that claim "It was here!"

8. Church of the Holy Sepulchre. As I've already spent several hours in this church, I felt less guilty when I skipped out early and went home. I was a bit exhausted.

And then I came home...ah...a relatively cool flat, and really cool flat-mates, are good to come home to. :) Just for kicks, here's a picture from the road outside my apartment of sunset over Jerusalem.

Holy Smoke!

...and actually, I'm not just being irreverant.  If such a thing as holy smoke exists, then that's what I expericenced today.  I suppose that technically it's the fire that is considered holy, but I figure the smoke is connected closely enough to consider it holy too. :)

I probably should start at the beginning.  If I can determine where that is.  Beginnings can be rather hard to determine and rather hotly debated in this country, believe it or not.  

Perhaps I should start with an explanation as to why Easter is celebrated on two different days here in Jerusalem.  From what I understand (which may not be entirely correct), part of the Council of Nicea (325AD) was to decide which date to celebrate Easter.  The majority of the council agreed to break away from the Jewish system of dating (thus also making a final break with the Jewish community).  However, some parties disagreed with this decision (and perhaps others too) and split from the main church.  Thus, the Eastern Orthodox and Armenian Churches celebrate Easter on a different day.  This year, that happened to be exactly one week after the Protestant and Catholic Easter.  

Perhaps next I should explain something that happens on the Saturday of Orthodox Easter weekend.  I quote from our Friday AM (school news) publication:
"'The Miracle of the Holy Fire' by Christians from the Orthodox Churches is known as 'The greatest of all Christian miracles'. It takes place every single year, on the same time, in the same manner, and on the same spot. No other miracle is known to occur so regularly and for such an extensive period of time; one can read about it in sources as old as from the eighth Century AD. The miracle happens in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, to millions of believers the holiest place on earth."

Still confused?  Just wait.

This morning I got up and was reading my Bible and eating breakfast when Cameron came by and asked if I wanted to go with them to see the Holy Fire.  He and Matt had been planning to go and had connections with people in the Amenian Church who gave them passes.  It ended up that they had an extra pass, so I decided to go with them and Terry, a worker at Jerusalem School in Beit Jala.  

We went into the old city through Zion gate and arrived at the Armenian Convent.  Eventually, some people they knew came by and invited us inside.  It's not really a convent.  It's more of a compound where quite a few Armenians live.  All their "scouts" were inside with their uniforms, drums, and trumpets, getting reading to march in the parade.  

Eventually the procession started, the band leading the way and the rest of us following on foot.  It was crowded, but not too terrible.  

As we got close to Jaffa Gate, Cameron decided that we should be closer to the band, so we snuck up and managed to start down the road towards the church, just as the police closed the barrier behind us.  I think they must have let in more people later, but we felt priviledged.  We made it past the next barrier before it was closed, passed the band, and paused before the next barrier as it was opened.  There was a bit of a crush there, and some people near me fell down, but we got through that and made it into the chruch.  Once inside we weren't quite sure where to go.  We had a couple people checking our passes and trying to tell us where to go.  Eventually we got to a place, pretty much right next to the tomb, on the south side (to the left as you enter).    

It was probably between 11 and 12 when we got into the church...so we had a long wait.  We stood for a while, and watched the people around us, 

watched people come it, etc.  It was pretty crowed, but we were able to sit down on the floor where we were, so we sat for a while and read. 

Apparently it is traditional at this time for fights to break out and for some of the Armenians (that our connections were through) to get arrested.  Apparently the police really prepared this year because there really was no fighting, at least that I saw.  

Eventually the Greek Orthodox, Coptic, and Amenian Churches began their procession around the tomb.  They walked around it 3 times.  I couldn't really see much of what happened after this, but supposedly the Israeli soldiers (which were out in great number throughout the city and the church today) 'push' their way to the tomb and 'seal' it - enacting what Matthew says the Roman soldiers did to Jesus' tomb on Saturday.  Then I think the Greek Orthodox Patriarch enters the tomb and prays.  After the prayer, supposedly God sends fire.  

I quote again from Friday AM (supposedly this is what the Patriarch sees):

"From the core of the very stone on which Jesus lay an indefinable light pours forth. It usually has a blue tint, but the colour may change and take many different hues. It cannot be described in human terms. The light rises out of the stone as mist may rise out of a lake — it almost looks as if the stone is covered by a moist cloud, but it is light. This light each year behaves differently. Sometimes it covers just the stone, while other times it gives light to the whole sepulchre, so that people who stand outside the tomb and look into it will see it filled with light. The light does not burn — I have never had my beard burnt in all the sixteen years I have been Patriarch in Jerusalem and have received the Holy Fire. The light is of a different consistency than normal fire that burns in an oil lamp... At a certain point the light rises and forms a column in which the fire is of a different nature, so that I am able to light my candles from it. When I thus have received the flame on my candles, I go out and give the fire first to the Armenian Patriarch and then to the Coptic. Hereafter I give the flame to all people present in the Church."

At this point I can again pick up my narrative.  People all around were holding groups of candles (33 candles in a bunch, I think, for the years of Jesus' life).  As the lighted candle emerged from the tomb, the fire was passed from candle to candle.  

Soon there were small blazing fires all around us.  The heat, light, and smoke were incredible.  It was actually a little scary.  

However, it didn't last for long.  Most people blew out their candles within about a minute.  I even got to help one lady blow hers out.  Supposedly, though, the fire from here goes out to churches across the globe and is used to re-light candles (or something like that).  

At any rate, fairly soon most of the candles had been extinguished.  

The churches began processions around the tomb again, people left, and police barriers inside the church started to come down.  We stayed and watched for a while and then made our (crowded) way out of the church, past the rows of police and IDF, and eventually out of the Old City.  By this time it was probably about 3:00 and we were hungry.  Terry gave us a ride to 24 (the open all-day every-day mini-mart type store) where we got pita and hummas.  Yay, food!

Anyway, I have to say it was an interesting experience, and I daresay my description hasn't done it justice, just giving the bare facts as it were.  So let me try to give some thoughts and impressions.

First of all, let me emphasize that this is a really big deal.  I heard that there were something like 10,000 people in and near the church.  The people we stood next to were Armenians from Turkey.  Basically, people come from all over, sleep in the church over night, and expend all sorts of effort to be in the church to witness this miracle.   To us in the west this behavior seems bizarre.  But it's part of their tradition.

Then there's the "miracle."  Of course, our first thought is to discount it: the Patriarch takes a lighter in with him and that's where the holy fire comes from.  Of course, they have evidence of candles outside the tomb being spontaneously lit, but I'm sure we could come up with some explanation for that too.  Probably some joker (like one of the guys I was with) snuck up behind someone and just lit their candles when they weren't looking.  Likely enough, that's what happens and there is no real miracle.  But could there be a miracle?  I don't want to put God in a box: "No, God, you can't do this.  It's too weird and unreasonable."  Certainly God is powerful enough.  And our lack of understanding is hardly a good argument.  There are a lot of things about the orthodox church that I don't understand, but I want to learn more.  After all, they do claim to be our brothers and sisters in Christ, in spite of obvious differences.  Perhaps we could learn some things from them.  

It was interesting to see the excitement and passion in all the people around me when the fire emerged from the tomb.  It was an interesting experience, just in general.  Kind of hard to describe.  I don't think I'll plan to go next year, though.  

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.