Editor’s note: This is the second part of an Aug. 13 lecture Bishop John Bryson Chane delivered at the Chautauqua Institution in New York. The remaining section will run in the January/February issue of the Window. The previous section can be found online at http://www.edow.org/news/window/2010/sept-oct/bishop.html

The Crusades

Enter Pope Urban II and the Crusades. In an effort to curb infighting in Europe and preserve peace amongst Christians within the jurisdiction of the Holy See, Urban called upon the populace to refocus its aggression on freeing Jerusalem from the Muslim Turks who controlled much of the Holy Land. The response was frightening: Thus began the blood-letting of the Crusades. During the 1st Crusade, more than 60,000 soldiers left Europe for Jerusalem, followed by 100,000 combatants and camp followers. A chaplain in the army wrote at this time; “If I tell the truth it will exceed your powers of belief. So let it suffice to say this much, at least, that in the Temple and the Porch of Solomon men rode in blood up to their knees and bridle reins. Indeed it was a just and splendid judgment of God that this place should be filled with the blood of unbelievers since it has suffered so long from their blasphemers.” (Karen Armstrong, One City, Three Faiths)

A second Crusade followed with disastrous results for the Christians. The Crusaders were defeated, and in 1187 the victorious Muslim leader, Saladin, proclaimed that no Christians would be killed. The wealthy could buy their freedom, and the poor who could not afford to do this would be held as captives. Saladin and his Muslim army was not a “killing machine” as the Christian Crusaders had been. Armstrong writes that Saladin, a Muslim ruler, had behaved in a far more Christ-like manner than had the Christian Crusaders who had captured Jerusalem and unmercifully slaughtered its Muslim inhabitants.

Crusader violence practiced by Christians and perpetrated indiscriminately against Muslims, People of the Book, has never been forgotten by Muslims. Recall then-President George W. Bush’s ill-advised use of the word crusade in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center. The word created a furor in the Muslim world. The dark history of Christian/Muslim relations continues to surface in contemporary times, with Muslims experiencing Islamophobia in its many forms. Too often trust between Muslims, Christians and Jews has been fractured by these ancient histories and the intersection of those histories in an ever shrinking global community.

Contemporary Christian denominationalism in Jerusalem

Today the Christian denominations residing in Jerusalem are sometimes brought into internecine conflict over who has ownership of the various holy sites. There have been disputes between the Greek and Armenian Orthodox over who can enter the Holy Sepulcher to engage in the traditional “Miracle of the Holy Fire.”

(The Holy Fire, documented since 1106 A.D.,  is considered to be the longest-attested miracle in the Christian world. On Holy Saturday, the day before Orthodox Easter, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch and the Armenian Archbishop lead a procession of clergy three times around the Holy Sepulcher. The Patriarch then enters the sepulcher alone to wait for the fire to descend on 33 white candles, while the Armenian Archbishop waits in the antechamber. Before entering the tomb, the patriarch is inspected by the Israeli (Jewish) authorities to ensure he is carrying no incendiary device. In previous times, this inspection was carried out by Ottoman (Muslim) authorities).

The Holy Sepulcher and the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem are sites divided and guarded ferociously by different and sometimes uncooperative Christian denominations. Sweeping and censing are signs of who possesses oversight. Priests and monks from different denominations come out like clockwork to sweep their designated areas. Thurifers enter in a pecking order defining first, second or third orders of sacred space possession.

In a somewhat earlier comedic response, when Jerusalem was under Muslim control, Caliph Omar gave the keys to the Holy Sepulcher to the Nusseibehs, a Muslim family (638 A.D.). This eased interdenominational tensions and created a sense of respect for the other’s religion. Later, in 1192, Saladin gave the key of the Holy Sepulcher to a Jewish family, who brought them each day to the Nusseibeh family, who would in a symbolic way oversee this sacred resurrection site for Christians. Both Jewish and Muslim families were friends, and the system of sharing ownership and respect for the other was a wonder to behold. Today, the Nusseibeh family still is the keeper of the key!

Next: The future of Jerusalem and its role in the Peace Process