Jerusalem, Holy City In Crisis:
A Christian Perspective
Part I

By Bishop John Bryson Chane
Washington Window Volume 79, No. 5, September/October 2010

Editor’s note: This is the first, second and third part of an Aug. 13 lecture Bishop John Bryson Chane delivered at the Chautauqua Institution in New York.  

Introduction

Some years ago I traveled to the International Olympic Academy in Ancient Olympia, Greece, with a delegation from the United States Olympic Committee. Following a week of presentations on the future of the modern Olympic Games, our hosts transported us to Delphi to visit the ruins of a marvelous amphitheater with astounding acoustics and a magnificently preserved athletic venue at the top of a steep hill overlooking the Delphi valley. As my wife, Karen, and I admired the magnificent vista of the ruins and the valley with its hundreds of olive trees, I heard several Olympic officials from Crete and Greece openly weeping. Concerned, I went over to them and asked if everything was alright. “Can you feel it…can you feel it?” asked one member of the group. “Feel what?” I asked. “Feel the presence of the sacred,” he replied. “We are at a place where heaven and earth meet.”

I share this story with you because it may help you to understand the nature of the holy city called Jerusalem; an ancient city whose beginnings date to 3,000 B.C. and the Bronze Age. Holy places at that time were always situated on hills. It was believed by the ancients that this brought them physically and spiritually closer to the divine, ultimate ineffable(s). Karen Armstrong writes in Jerusalem, One City Three Faiths that “God is not an ethereal concept, but is centered by our senses in the physical.” So it was with Delphi, and so it is with Jerusalem.

Because Christianity is so closely linked to Judaism and Islam and shares the designation as one of the three Abrahamic faiths, it is not really possible to speak about Jerusalem from an exclusive and isolated Christian perspective. The impact of Jerusalem on Judaism and Islam cannot be discounted or underestimated, nor can these faiths be isolated from the Christian story. It is therefore important to share a brief historical overview of the city which defines itself as the birthplace of Christianity.

The birthing of Christianity began when Jesus entered Jerusalem in the spring of 30 A.D. at the beginning of Passover. An early record of the events that unfolded then can best be understood by reading Mark, the oldest of the four Gospels, chapters 11-16. The narration of Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem, the Last Supper, his arrest and trial, his crucifixion and resurrection have become the core of the sacred imagination of Christianity and its direct relationship to Jerusalem.

Of Jesus’ place in the life of Jerusalem, Armstrong quotes the theologian Gregory of Nyssa: “God has left a trace of himself in Palestine just as perfume lingered in a room after the wearer had left.”

An overview of Jerusalem’s history and the three Abrahamic faiths

In 1,000 B.C., Jerusalem served as the capital under the reign of King David. At that time the country was united under the 12 tribes of Israel. In 900 B.C., David’s son Solomon built the great temple in Jerusalem. It was a wonder to behold and was the sacred center of the Jewish world. As Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan write in The Last Week: What the Gospels Really Teach About Jesus's Final Days in Jerusalem, it was the “naval of the earth connecting the world to its source in God, and here (and only here) was God’s dwelling place on earth.”

Following Solomon’s death, Israel was divided into two kingdoms; the Northern “Israel,” the Southern “Judah” with Jerusalem being its capital. The prophet Isaiah describes Jerusalem as a sign of peace, a place of justice, prosperity and security; all of which come from God who resides in the temple. In 586 B.C. Jerusalem and the temple were sacked and destroyed by the Babylonians.

Eventually people returned to Jerusalem but found themselves under the rule of the Persians and Hellenists. In the 2nd century B.C., the Maccabees, a Jewish rebel army, founded the Hasmonean dynasty and ruled the city for 100 years before the Roman Empire swallowed it up in 63 B.C. Herod was appointed king and he abolished the Jewish monarchy but rebuilt both the temple and the city to a standard of magnificence. By the year 6 A.D. 40,000 people visited the city, both Jews and non Jews, who came just to experience its beauty. Their numbers swelled the population of Jerusalem to more than 200,000.

Once again religious persecution raised its ugly head in the city of Jerusalem. By 390 A.D., Jerusalem was predominantly a Christian city, and Jews were prohibited from settling there. As corruption, political intrigue and excesses continued to weaken Rome, Theodosius I became the Emperor in 379 A.D. He proclaimed that Christianity as defined by the Nicene Creed was to be the orthodox religion of the Empire. Most scholars believe it was at this time in history that Christianity became a “militant” religion. Pagans and Jews were physically confronted as Christians made up the dominant population in Jerusalem as both residents and pilgrims.

In 614 A.D. the Persians arrived in Jerusalem with their armies. They gutted outlying churches, shrines and holy sites, slaughtering all Christians they encountered within the walls of the city. Scholars believe that more than 60,000 souls were killed. The Persians left Jerusalem for other conquests and for a time left the city under the control of the Jews. But political expediency in 616 A.D. caused them to return and place the Christians in control of the city once more.

With the ascendancy of Islam and the decline of the Holy Roman Empire, Jerusalem once again became the center of conquest and theological iteration. In 638 A.D., the Muslims conquered Jerusalem. Caliph Omar signed a covenant to protect the Christian holy places. And while the Christians had denied Jews permanent residency in the city, Omar allowed them to return.

Next issue: The Crusades

JERUSALEM, HOLY CITY IN CRISIS
A Christian Perspective Part II

By Bishop John Bryson Chane
Washington Window Volume 79, No. 6, November/December 2010

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 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

JERUSALEM, HOLY CITY IN CRISIS
A Christian Perspective Part III

By Bishop John Bryson Chane
Washington Window Volume 80, No. 1, January/February 2011

Editor’s note: This is the final installment of an Aug. 13 lecture Bishop John Bryson Chane delivered at the Chautauqua Institution in New York. 

The Future of Jerusalem and Its Role in the Peace Process

Today, Jerusalem – known in Hebrew as Yerushaláyim "Place of Peace" and in Arabic as al-Quds al-Sharif, "The Holy Sanctuary" – is a tortured place. Jews see Jerusalem as their ancient and contemporary capital, the place of Solomon’s Temple. Christians see Jerusalem as the birthplace of Christianity. Muslims revere Jerusalem as the city where the Prophet Muhammad ascended into heaven. Jerusalem is a city defined by 30 centuries of war and conquest between these three religious forces, even though all have common Abrahamic roots and all are defined as “People of the Book.”

What lies ahead for this sacred city? Harkening back to the beginning of this work and recalling the trip to Delphi during my time with the United States Olympic Committee, my friends from Crete and Greece reminded Karen and I that we were standing on sacred ground, where heaven and earth met. And so it is with Jerusalem.

The prophet Isaiah helps us dream of what can become of Jerusalem and those who claim it as a portion of their whole; “The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie-down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den. They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” (Isaiah 11:7-9)

Jerusalem is not just a geographic place on a map, nor is it simply an important ancient and now contemporary city. I firmly believe that for divine reasons yet to be fully understood by humankind, Jerusalem is a revelation given by God to the original Abrahamic monotheists. It has been given to them to see if they can truly live together and share their being with one another without engaging in the idolatry that one religion has a more righteous and exclusive claim to God than the others. Neither does any have a solitary claim to land and holy sites that are a shared and significant part of Jewish, Christian and Islamic theology and history. As people of “The Book” Jews, Christians and Muslims worship the same God, revere each other’s prophets and have the same father in Abraham.

Jerusalem in the 21st century is the hope for the world. It is the umbilical cord connecting Jews, Christians and Muslims together physically, emotionally and spiritually. If peaceful and respectful co-existence between the three Abrahamic faiths can happen in both Jerusalem and the Holy Land then there will be peace throughout the Middle East and possibly other trouble spots throughout the world. And given the past history of Jerusalem, when there have been times of respectful coexistence between Jews, Christians and Muslims, there is enough evidence that the same can become a 21st century reality.

Disagreements among Jews, Muslims and Christians over ownership of land sacred to all three religions and the tensions that consistently flare up within the walls of the old city of Jerusalem cannot be resolved solely by delineating a workable border for both Israel and Palestine.

Jerusalem must never become a divided city. It must never become a city belonging only to Jews, Christians or Muslims. The story of Solomon threatening to slice the surviving baby of two prostitutes into two equal parts has many meanings (I Kings 3:16-28). But one that should not be forgotten is that slicing a living thing in half will kill it. And Jerusalem is a living, breathing, organic and holy place. To divide it would be to kill it and demean the very reason for its existence, created by the very hand of the one, living God of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Jerusalem must be shared! The inhibitions and prohibitions placed on visitations to the various holy sites that are part of the Jewish, Christian and Muslim tradition by any of the three Abrahamic “stakeholders” is a grievous sin indeed. In his book, War On Sacred Grounds, Ron E. Hassner writes: “The more central a sacred site is to a religious group’s ritual practice and belief in proximity to the divine, the more important it will be to believers; the more vulnerable a site is to desecration, the greater restriction a religious group will place on access to it. High values on both indicators entail significant risk that foreign presence or conduct in its environs will be regarded as offensive and a challenge to its integrity. Multiple claims to these spaces are therefore more likely to spark violent inter-group conflict than similar contested claims to non-sacred spaces. Once such sites move to the heart of disputes, their indivisibility renders resolution difficult if not impossible. The only instances where these spaces are conceivably shared are where the sacred site is of little importance to all claimants or a powerful, neutral third-party can intervene to force coexistence.”

This is a fair analysis of the current situation in Jerusalem, but imparts a sense of hopelessness – unless, as Hassner says, “a powerful, neutral third-party can intervene to force coexistence.” I believe that third party can be religious leaders representing the three Abrahamic faiths.

Jerusalem Undivided

Jerusalem must be shared if there is to be peace between Israel and Palestine. It must function as the capital of Israel, affirming its ancient standing in Judaism. But it must also function as the capital of Palestine.

During the Camp David Peace Talks between Israel and Palestine in 2000, negotiators made many compromises. But the issue of what to do with Jerusalem and who would have authority and rule over the holy site known to Muslims as the Haram al-Sharif (the Noble Sanctuary) and to Jews as the Temple Mount could not be resolved. Neither side was willing to share their vision of their holy sites with the other, because of a lack of trust and a failure to come to terms with a central and overriding theological concept shared by Jews, Christians and Muslims known as stewardship. Because of this religious xenophobia, Jerusalem has once again become a faith centered conundrum and a failure of the human soul.

Several years ago I was in Iran, visiting the holy city of Qu’om and speaking with religious leaders about the deepening the hostility and divisions between our two countries. As we studied theology together, one of the Ayatollahs turned to me and said: “Our politicians have failed our people and our two countries. It is now in God’s time for religious leaders to step forward and seek the peace that has eluded the Abrahamic peoples.” I claim that position as the hope for the future of Jerusalem, the hope for Israelis and Palestinians, Jews, Christians and Muslims. Religious public diplomacy must be the next process to be accepted and embraced if we are ever to go beyond the failed statesmanship and political posturing of the 20th century.

The hope for Jerusalem is an ancient hope and the Book of Revelation says it quite simply:

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. And I saw the holy city, the New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride, adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “see, the home of God is among the mortals.” (Revelation 21:2)

The challenge is, what are you and I going to do about it?