Christian Quarter, Separation Wall, Gethsemane

So this field trip we just learned a bunch about the various Christian churches around Jerusalem. It was really neat, but I don't think I'm going to include the full history of each one. I'll just put little blurbs if they're important. 

Church of the Holy Sepulchre

Okay, so already this church is one of my favorites! This church was built to mark the place of the crucifixion, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It was built in the 4th century AD, but has been rebuilt two times since then. The current church is from the Crusader era! The three most important features of this church are 1) The Rock of Calvary, where Jesus was crucified, 2) the Stone of Anointing, where the body of Jesus was anointed for burial, and 3) The Edicule, or tomb where Jesus was buried. 

It is controlled by both the Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox denominations. There are chapels for each denomination within the church. In 1853, an agreement called "the Status Quo" was reached between the denominations that assigned each group certain areas of responsibility (such as sweeping the stairs, holding religious services, and certain days and times to fulfill them). Each group is extremely territorial and no deviation of the Status Quo is permitted. On the outer ledge of the window above the main entrance is common ground and the ladder outside the right window has been there since 1853 because no one can agree who should move it.

No Christian group controls the main entrance to the Church. In AD 687, in order to avoid fights between Christian groups over control of the church, the Caliph Omar assigned the keys to the entrance to a Muslim family named Nuseibeh. Later, the duty was extended to two Muslim families. These two Muslim families still open the door and close the door to this day.

This is the entrance to the church! There's the gate that is controlled by Muslims :) 

Here is that silly ladder that everybody fights over. I personally think that is quite ridiculous, and I'd offer to move it for them, but my teacher said that would cause a lot of problems between the two denominations. He said that the priests have gotten into bloody fistfights before over issues like that.

We saw a group with a Ms. Sparkle!! Refer to my Turkey day 7 if you don't understand why this is important :) Our whole class freaked out when they saw this!

This is the dome right over the Edicule. A lot of the upper portion of the church is lit by natural light, and it's beautiful! Often birds fly in and make their nests in the windows :)

There are candles and incense burning everywhere. It gives it a very interesting feel. Really magical and medieval. I love it, though. It adds such an air of mystery to everything.

You can see the light streaming in through the domes!

We were there during Holy Week, so there was a ceremony or a mass thing going on. It was SO beautiful. They had a choir and an organ singing masses! I really love listening to religious choral masses. I really miss music, so I stood for a long time and listened to the sounds reverberate through that huge stone building. It was kind of interesting to be a part of that--smell the incense  feel the chill from the stone, but have your ears and heart full of music praising the Lord. I love seeing the different ways that people worship Jesus Christ. I'd say I was a little more familiar with this type of worship, just because I've listened to so many masses, but it was still a really new experience. It was super epic, too! I've had a Cathedral/organ/choir in white robes/candles/stonewalls/church bells ringing kind of experience! It did feel medieval, and fulfilled some of my dreams. 

Lutheran Church of the Redeemer

This church was built to allow a Protestant presence in the city, which is dominated by Catholic and Orthodox churches. It was built by the same ruler who built the Augusta Victoria tower, which I visited on my first field trip here! :)

We didn't spend long in this church, but we did sing a couple of hymns. I was really excited, we sang one of my very favorite hymns, "Abide with Me," #166. I love that hymn, and it really is an amazing experience to sing in such a beautiful chapel and hear your voice echoing. I love the plain walls, too. It looks a little more like a castle, and a little more like heaven. :)

Russian Orthodox Church of St. Alexander Nevsky

Alexander Nevsky was a Russian prince and a mighty warrior, and he was canonized as a saint! The chapel is decorated in true Russian Orthodox style, dominated by the colors gold and black. Large icons with pictures of Russian Orthodox saints, as well as huge paintings of scenes from the last week of the life of Jesus, were all brought from Russia to decorate the church  As is typical in Orthodox traditions, there is a large iconostasis (a barrier separating worshipers from the high altar and clergy).

So I didn't even take pictures of the chapel--I was completely obsessed by this artwork! It was SO AMAZING!! I think I found the new Carl Bloch. Good heavens, these were so beautiful! I even went and asked the nun what the name of the artist was, and through the struggles of a language barrier, I found out that his name is H. Koshelev. I am TOTES looking up more of his stuff when I have the time!

This is depicting Christ performing the Atonement and having the angel come to comfort Him.

The women coming to dress the body of Jesus at the tomb, but the angel tells them "Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here; for He is risen."

Christ in all of his resurrected glory, saving the souls of the repentant!

This is what they claimed to be the "eye of the needle." And here I am, pretending to be a camel. Because there's that verse, Matthew 19:24 "And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God." Brother Judd, after showing us this cool little spot inside the church, promised that we would learn about that metaphor later in class. So I'll letcha know what it means and stuff :)

Separation Wall

We took this field trip a couple days later than the Christian Quarter. I'm afraid that I don't understand politics very well, so I am not going to be able to explain the significance of this very well. So basically, Palestine 70 years ago was populated by Arabs and Palestinians and a few Jews. However, in 1948 under the British Mandate, Palestine was dedicated to be Israel, the homeland of the Jews and Zionism. The basic rights of the people already living here were pushed aside to make way for the Jews. There have been a lot of wars, lots of immigration, and lots of politics since then, but there is still a major discrepancy between how people are treated. The Palestinians are at a major disadvantage--they aren't supported by the funding of powerful nations like the Jews are. Their homes, lands, buildings, and entire communities have been displaced to make way for Jewish settlements. They don't have control over water, education, or many basic necessities. The way the Holy Land is divided right now is that Israel is pretty much an occupying power, and they have control over the rights and lives of the Palestinian peoples.

I have always had compassion on the plight of the Jewish people, and I still do, but my eyes have definitely been opened while living here. I've taken two Holy Land history classes, one from the perspective of a Jew, Ophir Yarden, and one from the perspective of a Palestinian, Bashir Bashir. They told the same story, but it couldn't be more different. I've seen the difference in the very streets that belong to Palestinians and Israelis. I've seen the graffiti, I've talked to the people, and I've seen the lack of interaction.

I'm not blaming one side or the other, but there is a definite lack of equality going on here. The general consensus of our guide and both of my teachers is what is termed "the Two-State Solution", where both Israelis and Palestinians are given the rights and recognition of a state of their own. But from what the professionals say, that isn't going to happen anytime soon, and with the way things are going, regression is more of a reality than progression.

The separation wall was put up in response to the second antifada, which included suicide bombings. The wall was meant to keep bombers out of Israel, and it did that. But it also cut off families, so a two minute walk to visit your family ends up being a twenty kilometer drive with checkpoints. There are no hospitals on the Palestinian side of the wall, so people die of preventable strokes and heart attacks.

The wall is very high and is made of solid concrete. There is barbed wire on the top. Does this wall remind you of another wall in history?

I think that this particular graffiti is really significant. In WWII, as we all know, thousands and thousands of Jews were stuffed into ghettos and died of starvation and disease. The world, in apology, granted Israel to be the homeland of the Jews and promised that nothing of that horrible nature would ever happen again. But look--there are more ghettos being built, ones that bear names in Arabic now. The world, despite its best intentions, has not moved past suppressing one people to satisfy the demands of another.

I thought it was ironic that this electrical tower was positioned right by the wall. "Danger of Death" for climbing the tower and messing with electricity, but the wall is a real death. A death of freedom and rights. It isn't a danger here, it's a reality.

I can't say or do much, I think, but I do feel for the situation. I understand that both sides of this conflict have rights and desires. I feel like since being here, I have become more well-informed about the conflict, and I have felt increasingly helpless as I learn more. 

Garden of Gethsemane

Every Sabbath, we have the opportunity to go the holy sites of the city to study and ponder. I got to go to the Garden of Gethsemane this week! I can't remember if I've blogged about it before, or if I just wrote an email home....either way, here I am at the Garden of Gethsemane :)

These olive trees are ancient. Something neat that I learned about olive trees are that the live in families. There is a single tree, the mother, who from dropping seeds, grows other trees around her. They grow close and intermingle, and their collective trunks get larger and thicker. Soon the mother dies, but the generations live on around her. Isn't that beautiful? :)

Just some more pictures of the serene beauty of the garden.

There is a gardener here, Faize, and I've made friends with him :) What an incredible job, to be the gardener of the world's most revered garden. He loves his job. He has shown me the different kinds of lavender he grows in the garden, and he has given me leaves from the trees and herbs to smell. I can't imagine a more beautiful job in the world.

The plaque just inside the garden fence.

These are some of the sweet people I went with. John, Montana, Me, Chloe, and Kara. I love everyone here at the Jerusalem Center!

I got to take a picture like the one in the back of my scriptures :) This place is incredibly beautiful, and is filled with people who come to revere and contemplate the sacrifice of their Savior.

The sign outside of the garden! 

A Fransiscan Monk, following after St. Francis of Assisi! He is dressed like Friar Tuck :)