Julian Barnett
Christian Sects of Jerusalem, Part 2

Julian Barnett | Christian Sects of Jerusalem, Part 2 | 06.16.22

Visuals displayed throughout the presentation.

- Good evening everybody, or good evening from London, from a very barmy London, where I believe it is warmer in London than it is in the Holy City. It’s 27 degrees outside in London tonight and then expected 33 tomorrow. So for once, good old London is up on the temperatures to the Holy City of Jerusalem. And thank you wherever you are for joining me this evening or today. This is of course the sixth of six lectures on Jerusalem. I’ve covered two on the physical structure and then the sects of Jewish Jerusalem, two on the physical structure and the sects of Islamic Jerusalem. And last week I looked in the main on the buildings of Christian Jerusalem, and now I’m going to really dive in and look at some of those Christian sects within the city. I should add a caveat to that, that whatever I do in these lectures and whatever I’ve done in the last five lectures and including today’s, it’s only scratching the surface. I refer quite a few times to the columns that the articles that I had published in the Jerusalem report when I was living in Jerusalem 2002 to 2006. And you are welcome to email me, Lauren has my email address if you need to email me. and I will happily send those columns and articles to you because there I really wrote about my travels amongst those sects. And when I was living in Jerusalem, I managed to log and register 116 Islamic sects, 106 Christian sects, 232 Jewish sects.

Now I’m just going to show you a few of those Christian groups this evening, and it just gives a little taste of that. Let me also, I always start off with this first picture and if I can just remind you, I mention it in the very first of the six lectures, but that was me sitting in my home in Musrara in Jerusalem, a wonderful little neighbourhood sandwiched between secular West Jerusalem and Mea Shearim at the Ultra-Orthodox Jewish area and East Jerusalem going down into Damascus gate. And while I’m at it, I’d like to read to you something that I received in an email from an old and close friend of mine who said the following, “It might be useful to those new to Jerusalem to emphasise that what we are seeing is indeed the old city and its environments, and there is a thriving modern Jerusalem down the road too!” And she says that with an exclamation mark, and she’s right. I am, of course, I’m concentrating on those Islamic and Christian and Jewish sects within the old city or what’s now sometimes called the Holy Basin. But of course there is that incredible city of Jerusalem of a million people, almost, 936,000 people in Jerusalem. And of course it is a thriving, fascinating, varied city beyond those walls that fascinate me in particular that she has an absolute point.

So bear that in mind, those people that have never been to Jerusalem and would like to go to Jerusalem, it’s not all Christian, and Islamic, and Jewish sects. And just to again put the skin on the bones of what I mean by the Christians of Jerusalem, I mentioned this last week, but again to put it in context, we’re talking about 180,000 Christians in the whole of the state of Israel, of which 77% of those are Arab Christian, in the main Greek Orthodox Christians. And of those round about 12,000 or 13,000 live in Jerusalem. Now when you think that the population of Jerusalem is 936,000, of which about 540,000 are Jews and 350,000 are Muslim, but Christians are a tiny group within Jerusalem, but a very colourful group and a very important group and in many ways a very powerful group within Jerusalem. So that’s something well worth bearing in mind. If we can go on to the next picture now, something that should be quite familiar to you now, that map of the four quarters of Jerusalem, the Christian, the Muslim, the Jewish, and the Armenian.

The Armenians, which I’m going to come onto today in some detail, are a group of Christians. So there are in fact, in effect, two Christian quarters within Jerusalem. And to the next picture, in two that holiest of all shrines, which I mentioned quite a bit last week, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, there is the Parvis square, the small square in front of those huge double doors, one of which is sealed. And you can see the two domes just above the large of the two domes, only half in view is over the Edicule, which we’ll be looking at again a little bit later. The traditional burial site for Jesus, according to most Christians, note the word most, because one of the groups of Christians I’m going to be looking at today are those that say that there might be another place where Jesus might have been buried. And you’ll recall from last week’s lecture that I went into some detail about the layout of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre , and I brought in the Church of Santa Sabina in Rome, which sits on the Aventine Hill, which looks today what the Holy Sepulchre would’ve looked like when it was first built in the fourth century, when Helena, the mother of Constantine went out to Jerusalem immediately after the Roman Empire officially became Christian.

And to the next picture, please, are some more pictures of the actual church. There are the double domes. And to the next picture please, you will see that picture that I’ve mentioned about the two minuets that encase, so to speak, the central dome of the Holy Sepulchre. Next picture shows the minuet of the mosque of Omar, and the next picture shows the minuet of the Handker Mosque. And just to make that point once again because it’s very important to understand the Christians in Jerusalem today to the next picture, those two minuets are 1/28th of the distance, the height of the minuets, if the minuet was laid down on its end, it’s 1/28th of the distance from this, the top of the steps that lead up to the Dome of the Rock, this is the side of the Dome of the Rock that faces eastwards down into the Kidron Valley to which I’ll be taking you a little bit later. And those 28 holes all to do with the 28 Satanic verses according to some. And it’s all wrapped within the fact that when Jerusalem fell to Islamic rule in 638 A.D., although the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was not sacked, it was made clear the Christians were there under the control, under the watchful eye of Islam.

Let me also remind you that with the exception of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, that out in 1099 to 1187 and then a little bit further through to the 1240s, we have 151 years of Christian rule in Jerusalem. Other than that, from the Byzantine period onwards from the fourth century, from the seventh century onwards when Jerusalem fell to Islam, there has been no Christian rule in Jerusalem. Even though when the British were there, they respected the status quo of Islamic control of the holy sites, until of course 1967 when Jerusalem was reunited, reunified, and now it is under Israeli control. That’s the first time since 638, since Christian rule ended that we have a situation where Jerusalem is not controlled under the auspices of Islamic authorities. So pretty historic times we are living in. But once again, the Christians are this very much a minority group within a city that’s controlled now by the Jewish state, before then by Islamic authorities. Very important to understand that, to understand how the Christians feel and behave within the city itself. Next picture please. So this view is the Church of Dominus Flevit, I also showed this to you last week, but again I wanted to use that to encase the sects which I’m going to talk about, named after those two words. Dominus Flevit, the Lord wept, the Lord wept, the shortest sentence in the gospels. And if you could go to the next picture, the church is shaped in the shape of an inverted tear, and it looks out to this wonderful view.

So there we now look over the Kidron Valley, straight aligned to the Dome of the Rock and the Holy Sepulchre, which is just to the right. You can just see those two grey double domes to the right of the golden dome of the Dome of the Rock. Those two distinctive domes of the crusader structure of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. And now to the next picture. Because now I’m going to take you to something new. And if you look at that, squint your eyes, look at the two little sort of holes, there’s a big hole to the left of that large rock. And then there’s two little holes just to the right where the cursor is. And if you use your imagination a little bit, it almost looks like a face. Now, this is what many call the Hill of Golgotha. The Hill of Golgotha was by tradition, the sight of the crucifixion of Jesus. Golgotha is Greek for skull, and there were three explanations why this was called Skull Hill. Explanation number one is that there was an ancient Jewish Midrashic tradition that the skull of Adam was buried somewhere underneath that hill. Reason number two is that when Romans would crucify their victims, at the end of the crucifixion, sometimes as an added and final humiliation to the person that they had executed, they would cut off the heads and not allow the family to reclaim that head of their beloveds who have been executed. So Golgotha, the hill was often scattered with the skulls of those poor people that are being crucified. And reason number three is that the hill had this skull shape.

Now you have to bear in mind that I’ve mentioned to you Greek Orthodox and Russian Orthodox and lots of the Orthodox churches which I’ll be coming to very shortly, over the Byzantine period from the fourth century onwards, many of these churches claimed holy sites within the old city, what we now call the old city of Jerusalem. So when the Protestants arrived in Jerusalem, the reformed churches amongst them, the Protestants and the Lutherans, when they started to arrive in Jerusalem in the 18th and 19th century, particularly the 19th century, they had no footprint within Jerusalem. There was no more holy sites available for them to claim as their own, General Gordon of the British who eventually went down to Khartoum where he lost his life, arrived in Jerusalem and said, aha, many of the orthodox churches have got it wrong, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which for centuries and centuries has been claimed to be the true sight of the crucifixion and the death and the burial and the resurrection of Jesus. It’s all wrong. I’ve now found the proper site, and it is this, it is a hill just outside of what is now known as Damascus Gate, Bab al-Amud in Arabic, Sha'ar Shkhem in Hebrew. So he encased the area and planted the beginnings of a most beautiful garden. Now, what he actually discovered there in his own and in subsequent archaeological digs was indeed a Roman period burial site. If we go to the next picture, please, you will see a group of pilgrims there. Look at them.

They’re mainly western faces, blonde hair, very western looking. These are not necessarily orthodox Christians. They are very, very different altogether. And if we go to the next picture, they’re in this beautiful garden, and they’re looking down into that little door. There they are going into that door. It’s a beautifully kept garden. And that door is indeed a Roman period tomb. Now most Christians that go there now don’t say this is the tomb of Jesus and that all the other Christians that have said the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is all wrong for these last 1,800 years. What they say is it might be the tomb of Jesus. It is very, very possible. It’s outside the walls of the old city. And of course crucifixions occurred outside the walls of the city, whereas the Holy Sepulchre is inside the walls. But 2,000 years ago where the Church of the Holy Sepulchre now is, was outside the wall ‘cause the northern wall hadn’t yet moved and enveloped the area where the Sepulchre is. So there is discussion and debate. What is certainly the case is that this very lovely garden is perhaps much more conducive to reflection, and to thinking about the suffering and the passion and the execution of Jesus.

It is a very beautiful, normally very quiet spot and many Christian pilgrims find this much more conducive to reflecting on the life and the death and the resurrection of Jesus than the hullabaloo and the chaos and the liveliness and often the conflict of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. So at least the claim is that this is much more in the Christian spirit. Some do maintain that this is a more likely burial spot of Jesus. Nobody truly knows is the answer. To the next picture please, I mentioned that this is a Roman period tomb. There it is without pilgrims in front of it, it’s a very lovely spot and if you go to the next picture, please, I’ll take you inside, and that is what Roman period tombs looked like 2,000 years ago. Hewn out of the rock, and the body will be placed normally with almost like a pillow. You can see the little slope of the rock where the head will be placed and the body will be put there, and then a rolling stone will be rolled across the entrance to the tomb. To the next picture please. You can see now back in the Holy Sepulchre. So this is what is held by most Christians around the world to be the burial site. Very different to the Garden Tomb.

This is the Edicule itself very recently restored after not decades, after two centuries of discussion and debate and argument over who should restore it, because remember, if there is one word that encapsulates the relationships of Christian sects, or the non-relationship of Christian Sects one to the other in Jerusalem, it is territorialism. There is deep, deep territorialism between the Greeks and the Russians and the Ethiopians and the Protestants and the Lutherans and the Syrian Orthodox and the Copts and the many other Christian groups that I that I mentioned to you though, 106 of them. So it is deeply territorial. So any change to anything has to be negotiated, and those negotiations can take many, many years. Now this structure, the Edicule was almost falling down for many decades until the British arrived in the mandate period. And in 1921 they surrounded it by a cradle of metal girders. And I mentioned last week that if you look very closely on those girders, you could see it said Bombay Metal Company. The British actually brought them over from Bombay, propped up the Edicule, which was built by the Russians in 1808, and literally held it up until five years ago when finally after he put years of protracted negotiations between in the main, Greeks, Armenians, and Catholics, in the main, it was decided who should repair it and how should it be repaired.

By the way, this state of disrepair did serve the interests of the architectural archaeologists very, very well indeed. Martin Biddle from the University of Oxford in the 1980s and 90s actually instigated an archaeological investigation into what is beneath the church of the Holy Sepulchre. And there he found ancient Roman burial sites once again. So the current day Church of the Holy Sepulchre, though it is a crusader structure, I often describe it to people as being like a series of Russian dolls that one inside the other, inside the other What we are seeing today is a crusader structure from the 11th century with some Russian and Armenian and Greek Orthodox and Catholic architectural interventions. But it is a essentially a crusader structure built upon a Byzantine structure, built upon an even earlier structure. And every archaeological excavation of the church so far, rather excitingly does show that that tradition that this is an ancient burial site has turned out to be reliable. That’s all we know. We can’t make any more claims that that is definitely the tomb of Jesus, but it is a very, very ancient site, and that is a very exciting prospect. Let’s go to the next picture, and we look up, and that is the rooftop of the Greek Orthodox Chapel, one of the domes, the smaller the two domes of the Holy Sepulchre taken in very early sunlight with those fantastic beams of lights coming in.

The Greeks are the stakeholders in Jerusalem. I touched upon this last week a little more on it this week. They owned vast tracks of land, indeed the Prime Minister’s house in Balfour Street in Talbiyeh, they can asset many government ministries are actually built on Greek lands. So the Israeli government pays rent, land rent to the Greeks to have their buildings on Greek land. They are powerful stakeholders in Jerusalem in particular, but in Israel generally, and that shouldn’t be overlooked. They are a top dog Christian group within the state of Israel today. And the next picture. There he is, Theophilos III. He was actually educated in Athos in Greece, and then at Durham University, studied theology at the University of Durham, one of the great cathedral towns of Britain. Watch out future electors on the cathedral towns of Britain to come in the months ahead. Theophilos is a man of great charm, and he was librarian for a time in the Greek Orthodox patriarchate. He was secretary to the patriarch and so on. And then he rose and rose and rose. He has been patriarch, when was it? I think 2005, I think he became patriarch. Very powerful man within that whole Christian umbrella of Christian sects within Jerusalem. And if we go to the next picture, you can see the majesty of his position, there he is coming out from mass in the Holy Sepulchre on a Saturday afternoon. He visits the Sepulchre at least once a week. The Greek patriarchate, you have to imagine is almost like a mediaeval potentate within Jerusalem.

It’s like a mini Vatican. It has its own quarter within a quarter with its own churches, its own treasury, its own relics, its own group of bodyguards, its own traditions, and its own language, and its own prayers, and its own books and libraries and schools and so on. These are remarkable mediaeval and even older, little worlds within worlds of Jerusalem. This is the wonder of Jerusalem. And there he is in his majesty coming out from a mass, and he will then process from there eventually to the patriarch’s palace. And to the next picture please. There he is meeting the previous Pope, Joseph Ratzinger, Pope Benedict XVI, on a rare papal visit to Israel. And this was a really important meeting because for a leader of one of the orthodox churches to meet the leader of the Roman church, this is all part of that healing from the great, great schism that has driven Christianity, that schism between Rome and Constantinople. And bear in mind, although he’s the Greek Orthodox patriarch, Constantinople is the centre of Christian orthodoxy in the world. If you ever do get to Istanbul, if you haven’t been to Istanbul, or if you have and you return, make sure you are there on a Sunday, and go to the Patriarchate in Istanbul where you can see Bartholomew, the Supreme Patriarch of all orthodox Christians in the world, where he sits within the Patriarchates. It’s a fascinating experience to visit the patriarch within Istanbul.

People often think of Istanbul, of course, as an Islamic city, or I should say a city of Muslims. Turkey is still a secular state, officially, constitutionally, but it is of course a state of massive majority of Muslims. But within Istanbul, you have that very ancient Christian tradition coming from Constantinople after the Emperor Constantine in 326 A.D. converted to Christianity. So here we have a really important symbolic meeting in Jerusalem of the Greek patriarch Theophilos. The third meeting, the father, the Holy Father, the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church. And the next picture please is Cardinal Martini. And he was the Roman Catholic patriarch of Jerusalem. This photograph is slightly out of date now, but he was there when I was there in Jerusalem, again proceeding, on Palm Sunday this was taken. And look at the dragoman, look at the bodyguards in full ottoman costume. Critically important that the status quo is maintained, that all those agreements over who should proceed and when and how and where and who with and who is their bodyguards and when they go in and when they leave.

These are all negotiated over the generations and now very carefully kept to, and there is Cardinal Martini proceeding to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre by these people in full ottoman costume, as is dictated in the tradition, so that the status quo is followed and respected. To the next picture please. And there he is once again in prayer in the Franciscan Chapel in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre After the Greeks come, come the Armenians, and after the Armenians, come number three in the pecking order of Christian Jerusalem, the Roman Catholics and the dominant Roman Catholics sect within Jerusalem are the Franciscans, but there are many, many other sects as well. Next picture please. And there are the Franciscans going round the Edicule, and why I took that picture was also, it’s a beautiful picture, and it’s an evocative picture. It was taken very early in the morning. But what I also took it for there you can see the girders, those crisscross girders around the Edicule that the British propped the Edicule up with. Now you can see what I mean by that central burial chamber of Jesus being held up by this rather inelegant, but very effective set of metal girders to hold the thing up And all these Franciscans, extremely early on Easter, no, it was Maundy Thursday, on Maundy Thursday morning, processing around the Edicule, it’s a wonderful thing to see. Next photo please.

And there we have the Armenian patriarch of Jerusalem, Nourhan Manougian VI, he is the Armenian patriarch. The Armenians have their own quarter, one of the most ancient Christian groups in the world. The Armenians claim that they were the first sovereign Christian state in Christian history, and the Armenian quarter is extremely old. A fourth century quarter, there were 12 Armenian bishops. There is the patriarch in his throne room in the palace of the Armenian patriarch. And again another world within a world with its own library, and its own schools, and its own traditions. And most people’s dealings with the Armenian patriarchate is really through their famed pottery. And they have many potters as one of their great traditions. Armenians also are instrumental in the redecoration of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the Dome of the Rock when after Jerusalem fell in 638 A.D., the Dome of the Rock was built in 691 A.D., you’ll recall, the original octagonal structure was quite unstable. It was strengthened and then beautified in 1552 under the orders of Suliman the magnificent from Istanbul, although he never came to Jerusalem himself, and the Armenians, groups where they were one of the groups that actually made a lot of the tiles that now beautify the Dome of the Rock.

Not all, many of them were made in Isnik, and you can tell the difference because those made in Isnik were made with a much, much high content of quartz, which gives them a much greater depth of colour. So you can tell very quickly which ones were made in Isnik in the firing kilns of Isnik in Turkey and which were made in Jerusalem by the Armenians. But tremendous potters, tremendous ceramicists, and important stakeholders in Jerusalem. On more to the Armenians please, next picture. And I’m going to run through quite a few pictures now because there are many cathedrals in Jerusalem. This is the wonderful cathedral of St. James in the Armenian quarter. Look at those tiles, it’s a fantastic structure. It’s open every afternoon for afternoon mass. Other than that, it’s quite difficult to get into unless by appointment, which you can make. But you can go any afternoon to this beautiful choral mass, and this very, very wonderful church. It claims to have the head of John the Baptist within it. But I’ve seen quite a few heads of John the Baptist over the years. One in Damascus, one in Cairo, one down in Khartoum, and one in Jerusalem. So there are many such claims of such relics. But there is certainly a head kept within a silk sack within one of the chapels just off this main church. Who knows whose head it is, but this church is a really important church in the Armenian world.

Not as important as the Cathedral Etchmiadzin, in Armenia itself, which is a stunning structure. And if ever you ever get that way to Eastern Turkey, then over to Armenia, go to Etchmiadzin, most magical, wonderful town. Next photo please. And more of the Armenians. This is within their own chapel within the church of the Holy Sepulchre. They had these very instantly identifiable hoods that they wear, these pointed hoods that the priests and the bishops wear. And the next picture please. Wonderful light, look at the tiles there. Those tiles are extremely similar to those on the Dome of the Rock. And this was Father Muhanian often that I-A-N is one of those suffixes at the end of Armenian names, Father Muhanian, the Armenian patriarch is Manougian. In London, there is a very large Armenian community. There’s a large everything community in London, and it’s one of the instant giveaways of an Armenian family is that I-A-N suffix at the end of their names, not always, but very, very often. And to the next picture please. This to me looked like a deck of cards, I felt. A group of Armenians on Easter Saturday preparing to leave the Armenian quarter to go to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre for the annual miracle of fire, more on that shortly. And the next picture please. This is the rare visit of Baba Shenouda, the head of all the Copts in the world. The Copts are the Christians of Egypt. I mentioned them briefly last week and the Coptic Pope here, Baba Shenouda has since died.

There is now a new Coptic Pope. But this was on a rare visit from Egypt to Israel to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The Copts are fascinating. It’s estimated that they are between 12 and 15% of the population of Egypt. They are one of the most ancient Christian communities in the world, along with the Armenians, along with the Chaldean Catholics in Iraq, along with some of the Christian villages that still speak Aramaic in southern Lebanon, and sorry, in Northern Lebanon and southern Syria. So these are really, really ancient Christian communities that are having a very hard time of it at the moment with secular Arab republics, seemingly coming to an end in the rise of Islamism in some of these countries. And when there is a rise of Islamism, there tends to be a squashing of some of those ancient Christian minorities within the groups. They had an extremely hard time under President Morsi in Egypt. Things are now slightly easier under President Sisi in Egypt that he’s trying to give them some space again. They claim that they are the indigenous people of Egypt. Indeed the word Copt is the ancient Greek word for Egyptian. So they see themselves as the true people of Egypt. And indeed some of them claim they are the inheritors and the natural followers of Ancient Pharaonic Egypt because they maintain of course that the majority of Islamic Egyptians are almost imports, seventh century imports when Islam swept across the North Africa following the death of Mohamed and Egypt fell to the Fatimid rulers and so on and so forth.

But these, the Copts, see themselves as the true ancient Egyptians. This was Baba Shenouda coming to Jerusalem on a rare and very dramatic visit in 2003. It was my second year when I was living in Jerusalem. It was a fantastic moment when he came. Very, very, very exciting time. A rare visit. And the next picture please are the Syrian Orthodox Church. They have a very tiny chapel just around the back of the Edicule. Again an ancient Christian group aligned with the Orthodox churches, but with their very own traditions, and a very small group within the actual church itself and within Jerusalem itself. But they hang on there in Jerusalem, a small community, they have their own convents, their own nunnery, again their own livery, their own treasury, their own relicry, a world within a world within a world. I keep using that phrase because it’s the most accurate phrase to use. That is the story of the old city of Jerusalem. It is these worlds within worlds. These worlds which I’m sure you are gathering from these six lectures I’ve been given are metres apart from each other when those that have never been to Jerusalem, which of course is the majority of people in the world get the impression often that Jerusalem is a city of conflict. But in many ways, well it is in some ways, but in other ways it is, in my opinion, a remarkable success story.

Because here you have all these groups, Christian, Islamic, Jewish living cheek by jowl in what is a very tiny area. Hundreds and hundreds of sects, which could be an explosive situation such are the differences, the theological, and the ethnic, and the political differences between them. Yet let me put this question to you. How often is it that you hear of sectarian and religious based attacks or murders in Jerusalem? It is remarkably rare. Now why that is the case, that is maybe for another lecture, but it is the case. It is remarkably rare that that city explodes into religious strife where deaths and attacks occur. I’m not saying that there aren’t unpleasantries, I’m not saying that there are not attacks. But when you consider the potential for a blood bath in that city where you have such utterly different groups living cheek by jowl with each other, it rarely happens, and that is remarkable. So here we have one such example, the Syrian Orthodox, they’re a very small group, and they go around their business, they go around their private business and their private world to their little quarter within a quarter within a quarter. And yet they are in the main undisturbed to do so.

This is remarkable, and it’s a testament to what is rarely trumpeted as a great success story. I’m not saying these groups love each other, but I am saying that they don’t go round killing each other in the main. That is an amazing thing, all things considered. Next picture please is the entrance of the Edicule itself guarded by a Klyst, K-L-Y-S-T. Another small group, it’s a Russian orthodox group, although he’s actually dressed in Greek Orthodox robes to confuse things. But they are a Russian orthodox group. The most famous or infamous Klyst was Rasputin, a very interesting group. I know of only 20 Klysts in Jerusalem, a small group that live in one house together up just on the outskirts of Talbiyeh. But they have a little rotor that they are permitted to guard that entrance to the Edicule once in a while. Next picture please. And here we have another group coming down on Palm Sunday, Greek Orthodox, there you can see once again the Ottomans, the Ottoman dragoman guards there with their fezzes that were ordered at the time how they were to dress on Palm Sunday in particular, and there they are. On Palm Sunday itself, group after group comes down those steps, the Catholics and then they pass, and then the Greek Orthodox, and then the Armenians and so on. Each group with its own procession, each group with its own numbers that are limited by the status quo agreements. You can come at this time in this place with these numbers.

Everything is controlled so that it’s managed, so that conflict does not break out. The next picture please. And yet another little place within Jerusalem. This was a mass about to occur. This is a sub-sect of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. So this is the Coptic Ethiopian Church, which is in effect the Egyptian branch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Their most holy city outside of Jerusalem is Aksum in Ethiopia. A magical place if there ever was one. And if you ever get to Ethiopia, those people that haven’t been, go to Aksum, a wonderful, wonderful place. So here you have mass about to occur. You can see there the breads of the mass, the wafer breads and the wine is soon to be given out. This chapel is very beautiful, it’s very ancient. Look at those wisdomed, blackened walls from 1,500 years of bells and smells during the mass. This is absolute magic, open to anybody to go, man or woman at any time, you can all go there. This is part of the wonder of Jerusalem. For those that wish to wander, W-A-N-D-E-R, do so, and you will come across the W-O-N-D-E-R at any time. It’s open to everyone at all times of day and night. Jerusalem is there for you all, don’t be shy. You remember right at the very start of this series of six lectures, I said, not only be prepared to be overwhelmed, but seek to be overwhelmed and enjoy being overwhelmed and just allow Jerusalem to flow around you, and just love that feeling that you are in completely uncharted territory and just allow it to just come inside you and just enjoy what you are seeing. It’s magical. Next, please.

On the roof of the Holy Sepulchre, there is a view of the roof, there is a group of people that never managed to get a holy spot within the city, within the Church of the Holy Sepulchre itself. To the next picture, you will see the Ethiopians that have been on the roof of the Holy Sepulchre for around 170 years. There is the Ethiopian convent, there were their bells high up that have attached to long chains that they ring 'cause they don’t have access to the Greek Orthodox, or the Armenian, or the Roman Catholic bells. So have their own very modest set of bells. These bells actually came from a parish church in Norfolk from the Church of Great Wolsingham. I am going to be talking about English parish churches at some time in the future. And great Walsingham was one of the very important places of Christian pilgrimage in the time of Henry II and Henry III of England. So here you have these bells that were donated in the 19th century to the Ethiopians so that they could have a set of bells on the roof of the Holy Sepulchre, there they are, living very modestly in their convent on the roof of the Sepulchre. To the next picture please. And you’ll see a series of pictures. There is another one. Now what’s interesting about that picture is that that large tower looming at the back is the Lutheran Church, another group within the Christian communities of Jerusalem.

So here you have the Lutheran church. Couldn’t be more Germanic and European than the Lutherans, who by the way are one of the few reformed churches that say that the Garden Tomb is not the tomb of Christ. And that in fact they recognise the Church of the Holy Sepulchre as the tomb of Christ. So here you have the Lutheran reformed Church at the back with the Ethiopian church on the roof, all built upon the Church of the Holy Sepulchre below. How Jerusalem is that? With trees growing on the roof. I mean it, it couldn’t be more Jerusalem. And to the next picture please. More pictures of the Ethiopians. This is the ceremony that takes place mid-September, the Festival of Fire in mid-September. Not to be confused with the Miracle of fire, which takes place on Easter Saturday. This is the Festival of Fire. And you can just see the small of the two domes of the Holy Sepulchre with the Golden Cross in the background there. So they well and truly are on the roof of the Sepulchre, and they’re about to light that holy fire. It’s a fantastic ceremony that occurs in September where many marriages occur on the roof of the Holy Sepulchre in one night. Betrothals, marriages, all life goes on on that rooftop on that September evening. And the next picture please. And there are some more of these Ethiopian community. They tend to be enwrapped in white.

There’s a very large Ethiopian community in London, and I see them quite occasionally walking across Regent’s Park because one of their largest churches is in a public housing estate very close to Regent’s Park. And so it was such a surprising sight to me when I came back to live in London to see coming back from Jerusalem, a whole group of Ethiopian ladies like this walking off Regent’s Park on a Sunday morning. It made me feel as if Jerusalem was still within me here in London. The next picture please. More pictures of Ethiopians at prayer, there you can see some of the incense coming out of the holder there. And they had picked leaves that had been grown from trees. And those trees have been grown from seedlings that came from their holy town in Aksum. They brought the seedlings to Jerusalem in the 19th century, planted those trees around their own very beautiful round cathedral, so that the Holy City of Aksum was partly living in Jerusalem. And once a year they prune those leaves, they burn the leaves, and they have ceremonies around these leaves of trees from the town of Aksum in Ethiopia, and also from the town of Lalibela, one of the very famous rock hewn church towns in northern Ethiopia, where the Blue Nile floats down into those foothills in the highlands of Ethiopia. Next picture, please.

And there is a very proud Ethiopian who is showing me his book, one of the gospels and very beautifully written in this script. And look behind him, you can see the woodwork mother of pearl and acacia wood made by Syrian wood carvers in the 19th century. And there he was in his chapel. Show me one book, they have a most wonderful library, calligraphic library. And he was opening many of the books and showing me some of these things. They’re the heirs to a tremendous tradition, an Ethiopian tradition, Ethiopia and an Ethiopian tradition within Jerusalem itself. And the next picture, please. And this fantastic picture. It was painted actually in the 1980s. What does it depict? It depicts the visit of Solomon and Sheba in Ethiopia, and it’s interesting about this, if you look closely there on the left, you can see Sheba leaving Ethiopia coming to join King Solomon who married the Queen of Sheba. Now look at the picture on the right, and you can see, look closely, it’s wonderful. There you have King Solomon, but look behind him. You have a Belzer Hosage with his side curls wearing a black Hasidic hat, can you see him? And you have Catholics, and you have Greek Orthodox, and you have Persians. This painting painted in the 80s was to depict the peace amongst nations of peoples of all religion. Hasidim from the Jews, and Persians from Shia Muslims, and various other Christian denominations. It was painted in 1988, I believe.

It hangs on the wall of the upper chapel of the Ethiopian Chapel on the roof of the Holy Sepulchre, just as you come up onto the roof, it’s huge. It occupies the whole wall. A wonderful snapshot of the Ethiopian take of what Jerusalem in their opinion should be. And the next picture please. And we go into the internet, might be tiring a little, the Ethiopian cathedral itself, which is outside of the old city. Just on Yeha, Ethiopia, which is very close to Maychew. It’s a lovely structure. Next please. And another picture of an Ethiopian at prayer. And the next one please. And the next one please. There’s this simplicity to the Ethiopian community in Jerusalem, pilgrimage in Jerusalem. This is now Easter Friday, the reenactment to the crucifixion. I talked at length last week about the Via Dolorosa, architecturally in the history of this group. Here are pilgrims walking the Via Dolorosa, the street of the sorrows from the Latin word sorrows. Some people say it comes to the word roses because rose petals would be thrown on the ground to bring some sweetness to the sorrow of the pilgrims that were there. Next picture, please. And you can see more scenes from this pilgrimage. Look at the eyes, it took me some time to take that picture, I had to focus in. So it’s slightly out of focus, but look at the intensity there. And the next picture. Many pilgrims there holding the crosses. These processions occur every Friday afternoon, but they are particularly, particularly intense over the Easter weekend. Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Saturday, Easter Sunday, Easter Monday. Next picture, please.

Remember we’re talking about Orthodox Easter. And the next picture, please, man reenacting crucifixion. And to the next one. Palestinian young man processing down and the entrance to the Sepulchre itself. Let’s go in now to the next picture through the doors. And we see people kissing the Stone of Unction. In a moment there is a modern day mosaic in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre showing Jesus being laid down, I showed this to you last week, being laid down after he had died, being prepared for burial Remember he was born, and he lived, and he died a Jew. This is the traditional claim to be, the Stone of Unction. The stone that Jesus was purified on prior to his Jewish burial as Jews will be purified in the traditional fashion. And the next picture, please. You can see the intensity. Look at this. This was a Chechnyan pilgrim, in one of my articles, I think it was the second article I wrote, I wrote about being woken up by pilgrims bells very early in the morning, two o'clock in the morning, in the early hours, and I heard these bells, The bells signified pilgrims that had landed by land. Bell signifies a lot in Jerusalem. They signify who the pilgrims are, what the sect is, when they’re coming and so on.

This was a Chechnyan lady. And she had arrived after coming over land from Chechnya in 2003, 2004 actually. And just look at this, look at that place. This is a once in a lifetime pilgrimage. Her head on the slab, as she believes was the slab that Jesus had been purified on after his death and before his burial. Next please. More people washing their clothes on the Stone of Unction. They’re taking water, they’re putting water on the Stone of Unction, and then they wash, they wipe their clothes with that water, and then those clothes will be with them for the rest of their lives. Clothes that brought in some particles from that stone. Think of the concept of that, the intensity of what’s going on there. And the next picture please. And now we’re looking at the Miracle of Fire on Easter Saturday when once a year there is said to be a miracle that occurs in the Edicule where the three patriarchs, the Armenian, the Greek, and the Roman Catholic go into the Edicule with unlit candles and the Holy Spirit comes down to those candles. The Sepulchre is pitch black, and then the candle comes out, and then everyone touches it. Health and safety executives in the UK would have a heart attack if they were present in that building on that Saturday. But what happens is this church completely turns from total darkness to the most amazing intensity of thousands and thousands of candles within seconds. It’s the most incredible experience to see it. This photo was taken from high up in the balcony. You had to have good contacts to get up to that balcony for that Saturday afternoon miracle. Next picture, please.

Look at the faces of intensity when these candles being lit, look at that, Russian pilgrims, Russian male pilgrim and female pilgrims, just look at that, a mixture of joy and intensity and concentration as the lights are being passed on. Now by the way, these candles are then, some of them are sent in lanterns all over the world, some to Greece, New York, London, Rome, the key Christian centres of the world. Candles are then flown out on that Easter Saturday on flights in the planes, in the hold of the plane. And they’re flown out to various places where they’re then relit, and the holy flame from the miracle fire is then lit at these important Christian centres around the world. Next, please. Look at that. Once all these candles have been lit, isn’t it wonderful? And the next picture please. But strife breaks out, and here we have Armenians fighting amongst each other. I said this rarely happens, and it does rarely happen when you consider that these services are going on day in, day out, but the tensions are high on Easter Saturday when the church is packed full of people. Next please. And you can see what’s going on, the Israeli police, they’re in fact Druze police, D-R-U-Z-E. So they’re Israeli, but they are ethnically Druze, much more sensitive to police with non-Jewish police.

They are Israeli citizens, but they’re not Jews as such, they are Druze, and they are policing the Church of the Holy Sepulchre there trying to stop these sects from bashing each other. And the next picture please. And the next one, sad events when these things happen, more pilgrims on Easter Sunday. And the next picture, please. Huge amounts of pilgrims coming across some of the plains, that lead, P-L-A-I-N-S, of course leading to Jerusalem. These are Russians orthodox pilgrims coming by land across some of those planes to Jerusalem. Wonderful scene. And the next one please. And just pilgrims in repose, Greeks, Greek ladies who have been in pilgrimage sitting with their priest, just seeing the world go by. I love that picture. And the next one please. And the next one. The Arab Catholic Scouts playing at the Queen’s birthday party at the British Embassy. And I just want to whiz through a few more pictures. The next one please. And you can see this church could be out of an English parish church, but it’s not. If you go to the next picture, this is the Protestant Church of St. George’s, the Anglican Cathedral in Jerusalem. Yes, there is an Anglican presence in Jerusalem. If you cut out the palm trees, and if you cut out the blue skies, that could be an English parish church with the clergy at the front and the laity at the back. No, but it’s Jerusalem, it’s in George’s Cathedral in Jerusalem.

There is an important Protestant presence in Jerusalem. And the next, please, and I love this because Jerusalem at Christmas time, well it’s not exactly cold, it doesn’t snow, but traditional Christmas fair is hanging on the railings. And the last few pictures please. The next one. This is a group of Christian, of Jewish believers, those that believe that Jesus is the messiah. May this be a memory for me. These are Jewish believers who accept Jesus as their saviour and look at the church they built. This is Christ Church, just inside Jaffa Gate, what claims to be the oldest Protestant church within the Middle East. And the next picture, please. Now down into the Kidron Valley. The next please. And down to the Monastery of St. Onuphrius, another Christian group living just outside the walls. And the next. We’re now looking up into Silwan. And there were ancient caves peppered within those hills. Really ancient caves. Silwan and Akeldama, 2,500 to 3,000 years old caves. And within those caves, lived hermits. And I’ve mentioned one of these two before. Go to the next picture please. And you can see there are some of those little holes within the hills. They are the caves. And the next picture, please. Father Seraphim, who lives in the next picture, one of these little cells. This is how many of these hermits live, more Christian sects living in these hermitages around the old city of Jerusalem, just a few hundred metres from the old city. It could be another world away, and the next picture. And we now go to Mar Saba towards Jericho. And the next picture.

Christian group’s fanning out beyond monasteries in the Judaean Hills and the deserts around Jerusalem. And now back into Jerusalem, St. Mary Magdalene, the Russian Orthodox convent, overlooking the Mount of Olives. And the next picture, please. The grave of the late Prince Philip, the late husband of Queen Elizabeth II. And this is his mother, Princess Alice of Battenberg, who died in 1969 and was buried in Windsor. But then her body was moved to Jerusalem in 1988 after the terms of her will were found, she died, she was born in Windsor Castle, but married a Greek prince. And then after becoming a widow, became a nun and was finally laid to rest here in Jerusalem. And a whole small sect of Russian Orthodox and Greek Orthodox nuns tend to her. She is now canonised and the next picture, that’s her coffin by the way. And this you’ve seen before, the final few pictures, some Francis of Assisi, receiving the stigmata. And the next one. And Sister Salameh, who is suffering the stigmata on Good Friday before. And as I’ve mentioned to you before, it’s a wonderful few pictures to end off with, despite that suffering there, she is enjoying a G and T, a gin and tonic at the Queen’s birthday party, the annual event at the British Consulate in Jerusalem with me in 2004, less grey. And where I was based in Jerusalem, the Anglican International School of Jerusalem.

There it is, this beautiful Ottoman structure. And there it is, beautifully Cadbury walls, lovely old ottoman structure, then used by the British. And the final picture is me with my class, oh sorry, penultimate picture. And there out with my final class in Jerusalem before I left in 2006. And this was a class of Jews, of Muslims, and of Christians. It was a sort of rare success story of just students and children coming together. It was a wonderful, wonderful group of students. And there I was in one of my parting photographs with them. Let me just end off with one final thought before getting to a few questions. And that is that after this journey of six lectures around Jerusalem, I’ll remind you of one story when I was wandering streets to Jerusalem in 1981. And I said to Dan Bahat, who was chief state archaeologist for Jerusalem at that time, I said to him, with all this conflict in Jerusalem, wouldn’t it just do everyone a favour if a neutron bomb was dropped on the city and none of this existed anymore, nobody died, but a the buildings were just demolished.

And then the conflict would end, nobody would be arguing over holy sites. To which he threw back his head burst out laughing. He said, Julian, you obviously have no understanding of Jerusalem because if a bomb was dropped and all the holy sites were destroyed, everyone would then fight over the holy hole. And that in a sense is the essence of Jerusalem. It’s the people. It’s the people and the sects, the Islamic, and the Jewish, and the Christian, and the secular, that make that city, like any city, it’s the people that make it. I’m now going to move over to questions. I’m next on on the 30th of June where there won’t be a Muslim, or a Christian, or a Jew in sight. I’m taking you to the city of Oxford in England to give you a tour of the university town of Oxford and the lesser known corners of Oxford. And then on the 6th of August, I’m doing a little quirky tour of peculiar gravestones around London. For now, let me take any questions that will come through. I’m looking now with my glasses and here they come.

Q&A and Comments

The backdrop of my room. Can you remind me that next time, I did do a tour of my living room! Maybe we’ll do another one at a future date. But I did do a lecture which took you to some of the books and the objects in my room. So perhaps save that for next time, Heather. But there might be another tour of my room coming. So if that’s the case, that might answer what you want there.

Q: Do the Christians in Jerusalem support the Jews in the land of Israel? A: Do the Christians in Jerusalem support the Jews in the land of Israel? I.e., are they on the side of these Israelis and how the Jews run the country? Great question. It depends which Christians, and it depends which Jews, the answer is it is a difficult relationship, it’s a troubled relationship. But the Israelis, and the Jews, and the Armenians and the Catholics, and the Greeks, et cetera, they navigate it. It’s not easy, but it sort of works. It’s navigated through, bear in mind, that the majority of Christians in Jerusalem are Greek Orthodox, but although they’re Greek Orthodox, the majority of those Greek Orthodox are Palestinian. So you have an inherent conflict situation there because the majority of Christians in Jerusalem are Palestinian. So that is part of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict as well. So bear that one in mind. I hope that part answers your great question, Jen.

Hi, yes indeed, Mark Twain, according to Mark Twain, in the Innocents Abroad, the keys to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre are kept by a Muslim. They are, by the Nuseibeh family, because of the disagreements among the Christian sects, they are still kept, and every night you can go to the locking up. Ceremony of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Go along to that next time you’re in Jerusalem. It’s a very interesting ceremony to watch.

Q: Do the heads of all these sects marry? A: Some of them, some of them marry, but of course Roman Catholic not. So it depends which sect and so on. Some of them they do not marry, some of them do.

And that seems to be the questions. Are there any more coming? If not at 8:31, let me thank you all very, very much indeed for tuning into these last six lectures on the sects of Jerusalem. There’s going to be a lot more coming on Cairo, on Istanbul, on London. And as I said, the next one is going to be Oxford on the 30th.

Wishing you all a good evening and a wonderful summer. Thank you.