Jerusalem - the divided city Oct 1999 and Feb 2001

‘Jerusalem the Golden’


It was over 20 years since I first visited Israel. Then as a student, I was full of Leon Uris’s ‘Exodus’ and the Kibbutz dream. My views have changed over the years. Everything seems a lot more complicated.

Jerusalem is a divided city, with the Jewish ‘New Jerusalem’ next to the old walled city of Jerusalem. And the old city itself divided into quarters: Muslim (Arabs), Jewish (Israelis), Christian (Palestinian) and Armenian. All three major religions of the book, consider it theirs. Jerusalem the Golden, the City of Peace.

For me the Old city starts at the Damascus Gate, entrance to the Arab quarter, and on through the maze of streets, into the heart of Jerusalem along the ‘Via Dolorosa’: the Way of the Cross which leads to the Church of Holy Sepulchre, ‘the centre of the earth’ as it has been called. Emperor Constantine’s mother, Helena, found the ‘rightful site of the Crucifixion and Resurrection’, as well as relics such as wood from the True Cross, ‘with miraculous aid seldom now vouchsafed to archaeologists!’  

In many ways it is a shabby centre of Christianity. I was appalled when I saw it the first time. In those days, like all good evangelicals, I preferred the simplicity of General Gordon’s Calvary: ‘The Garden Tomb’.

Bettina Selby in ‘Riding to Jerusalem’ calls the Church of the Holy Sepulchre a

‘thoroughly unsatisfactory building’

This was at the end of a long and arduous bike ride across Europe, Turkey, Syria following the route of the Crusades It was obviously an anti-climax

‘chopped up as it is into so many chapels, with a different branch of the Christian Church jealously guarding each portion. As for peace - that was in sort supply – with flash bulbs going off in constant burst…… even in the Holy Tomb itself!’

It seemed to hold a lot more charm for me now. An Egyptian Coptic Orthodox Priest inviting me to touch the sacred stone, a Catholic Priest preaching the love of God, a Korean Anglican Communion: ‘Do this in remembrance of me’. Now such diversity speaks to me much more of the church universal.

I had promised to light some candles and pray for some Pakistani brothers, recovering addicts, in the Sepulchre itself. Something they could never contemplate doing for themselves, since Pakistan does not recognise the State of Israel. So I found a moment of quiet and lit three candles and prayed that they would be ‘lights shining in the darkness.’

I must also admit to taking some photos ‘in the Holy Tomb itself’, flash an’ all!

CMS at the Wailing Wall

From Your own correspondent

October 1999
& February 2001