Church of the Holy Sepulcher

May 10 -  Entering the Old City of Jerusalem through the Jaffa Gate, we passed a Falun Gong demonstration, adherents of which have been persecuted and tortured in China.   After a short walk along narrow streets lined with shops, we arrived at the  Church of the Holy Sepulcher located where Jesus was crucified and buried. The church having had a tumultuous history is now adminstered by the Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Armenian Orthodox, Coptic Orthodox and two other organizations.  A decree by the sultan in 1853 fixed responsiblities for various parts of the church among the various communities. Everything was fixed!  A short wooden ladder below a second floor window hasn't moved since!

Inside, we climbed up a short flight of stairs to a small room. A Catholic chapel, the XI Station of the Cross, lies on the right and the Greek Orthodox chapel, the XII Station of the Cross, on the left. The XIII Station, A wooden bust, Our Lady of Sorrows, stands between the chapels' altars.  We also viewed a huge rock that was split when Christ was crucified.

The church is really a complex of chapels and holy sites.  I was much confused as the crucifixion occurred on Calvary, a small hill just outside the city's gate.  A lot has changed in two thousand years -the city's walls moved and the hill is now inside the walls but the second floor is Calvary?   Future pilgrims might profit by study before visiting. See also:

Church of the Holy Sepulcher - Website
Church of the Holy Sepulcher -Bible Places   

Of course, the holy sites are packed with pilgrims. We returned to the ground floor to stand in line to see the Coptic church's altar placed where Christ's feet were in the burial chamber.  Another long line leads to a Greek Orthodox chapel at the place where Christ's head lay; we missed this one.

Before leaving the church we assembled in the church within a church, the Catholicon, for a short devotional service.

After an hour or so in the Christian Quarter for lunch and shopping, we bussed over to the Garden Tomb for Mass, our last one for the trip. 

We enjoyed a fine dinner at the American Colony. Our guide, Marian and our bus driver, Gabby, received presents from us and in turn, Marian had presents for Fathers Jerry and Bob.

We were up early for what seemed like a short bus ride to the airport for our ride back home.  The plane was late taking off so we missed our connection in Newark. After a short stay in a Newark hotel, we flew to Fort Myers early the next morning.   No complaints from me - In the year 330, a pilgrim on his way to Jerusalem exchanged donkeys 230 times on the first leg of his trip from Bordeaux to Constantinople!  No donkey exhanges for us - we are so blessed.