CHRISTIANITY’S holiest shrine – the Church of the Holy Sepulchre – was the scene yesterday (Palm Sunday) – of an unseemly brawl when dozens of Greek and Armenian orthodox priests and worshippers exchanged blows.
When police tried to break up the fight, they were pummelled with palm fronds.
All hell broke loose when Armenian clergy forcibly ejected a Greek priest from their midst. The pushed him to the ground and kicked him, according to witnesses.
The church, built over the site where Jesus was allegedly buried and resurrected, has an unhappy history of rivalry among several Christian denominations.
According to a Haaretz report:
Each denomination jealously guards its share of the basilica, and fights over rights of worship at the church have intensified in recent years, particularly between the Armenians and Greeks.
Under what is known as the status quo, the Holy Sepulchre is divided among the Armenians, Roman Catholics and the Greek Orthodox who have the largest share. The Coptic, Ethiopian Orthodox and Syrian Orthodox churches also have duties to maintain specific areas.
Last year, pre-Christmas cleaning in the Church of the Nativity turned ugly when robed Greek Orthodox and Armenian priests went at each other with brooms and tones. The Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem - built over Jesus’ traditional birth grotto - also falls under the status quo arrangement.
Hat tip: Michael Cohen
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A particular point of contention in recent years has been the “Holy Fire” ceremony, a strange ritual in which the Greek patriarch disappears into a cupboard and emerges a few minutes later holding a flame which has been “miraculously” lit by the Holy Spirit. Or possibly by the Ancient Apostolic Zippo. Traditionally, his Armenian counterpart has accompanied him (presumably to make sure he’s not cheating) but a few years ago the new Greek bishop announced that he was going to do the ceremony alone from now on. The Armenians were, as can be imagined, not best pleased. They’ve been brawling on and off ever since.
As I think the good book says, “See how these Christians love one another”.
Didn’t Howard Jacobson cover this church once in a TV thing about various silly or obnoxious bods who don’t talk to each other in Israel?
Also look out in the press around Xmas every year when some bishop or other inevitably points up the ‘positive example’ of various Christian traditions sharing this church, while taking a pop at Israel’s failure to talk to the Palestinians.
http://video.news.sky.com/skynews/video/?&videoSourceID=1313634&flashURL=/feeds/skynews/latest/flash/priest_220408_1524.flv
Watch the video^^^^^^^^^^^^
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