The One Day of Christmas
For the next few weeks, when I’m not grading, I will likely be on a plane. But this one was too good to pass up. From the Times of London (HT — once again — BoingBoing):
The cradle of Christianity was rocked by an unholy punch-up when Greek Orthodox and Armenian priests came to blows in a dispute over how to clean Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity. The ancient place of worship, built over the site where Jesus Christ is said to have been born in a stable more than 2,000 years ago, is shared by various branches of Christianity, each of which controls and jealously guards a part of the holy site.
The brawl apparently began when Greek Orthodox priests set up ladders to clean the walls and ceilings of their part of the church after the Christmas Day celebrations. Armenian priests claimed that the ladders encroached on their portion of the church, which led the two sects to exchange angry words which quickly turned to blows.
I think this makes all the more important the ongoing debate in another thread as to whether the angels said, “Peace on earth, good will toward men” or “Peace on earth to men of good will” (or any of a number of other proposed renderings).
These are, of course, priests who claim to have the fulness of the faith, not just “subsist in” like all those poor souls outside. They are not RC priests as such but they are consonant with the nonsense that comes out of Rome on such things. The rights to the Holy Land are considered more important than the reason the land was considered holy to begin with.
I couldn’t imagine what people could possibly have to say about a story like this, but David and Bill, you never cease to amaze and impress with humor and sense.
Hope you both had good Christmases.
I have visited the Holy Land quite a few times since 1987. If you think the little dust-up at the Church of the Nativity was shocking, pitiable, or whatever, you should take a peek at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The Franciscans and the Greek Orthodox should be recruited as mercenaries for use in Iraq!
Nothing like a holy site to cause dissension and unrest.
Apparently these same types of tensions were apparent when Margery Kemp visited many centuries ago, when the whole pilgrimage racket was controlled by Muslims.
The Muslims would allow a certain number of pilgrims into the holy sites, then bar the doors until morning. There was always eye-gouging for a spot because if you got shut out, you’d have to hang around the doors waiting until the next night.
The idea was that everybody would spend the night in prayer. But a lot of people really couldn’t pray the whole night, so invariably somebody would sneak in a bottle of booze, and people would wander around picking fights, playing dice, and carving their names into the wall.
Louise Collis wrote a highly engaging book about it in “Memoirs of a Medieval Woman.” Margery was a nutbar, but she still makes great copy!
The odd thing is that this is not really news. One expects no less than sectarian squabbling in these places.