Why The Guardians of The Key to The Holy Sepluchre

edited December 1969 in Faith Issues

are not Christians? Imagine, if the guardians of the Kaaba in Mecca were either Christians or Jews!

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An 800-year-old tradition of religious co-existence in Jerusalem's old city looks set to come to an end at the insistence of the Israeli authorities. The ministry of tourism is forcing through a plan to open a second entrance to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, one of the holiest sites of Christianity, and relieve two Muslim families of custodianship of what is currently the only door. The Nusaibi and Joudah families have been the sole guardians of the key to the church since they were entrusted with it by the Muslim ruler Salah el-Din (Saladin) in 1178.

It seems that has been the only solution to squabbling between the numerous Christian denominations, which have jostled for space in the building since it was built 900 years ago. Salah el-Din closed all but one of the 10 entrances to the building, causing what the Israeli authorities now describe as a serious risk to pilgrims in the modern era of mass tourism.

But some observers say the Israelis are exaggerating the risks for territorial purposes, in a city whose sovereignty lies at the very heart of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Millennial flood

The Jewish state, which claims sovereignty over Jerusalem's old city after occupying it in 1967, says the new arrangement is necessary in preparation for the 4 million Christian pilgrims it says it expects during next year's millennium celebrations.

Months of negotiations between the authorities and the churches have resulted in an agreement to open a new entrance and transfer custodianship of the key to the churches, the tourism ministry announced this week. He said the decision on where to put the entrance will be taken by the end of June. But the ministry could be being over-optimistic, given the long-standing territorial disputes within the building between the churches, which jealously guard every inch of space they occupy.

The Israelis say the second entrance could be via an Ethiopian monastery situated on the roof of the building. Ethiopian monks have occupied the roof since the 1600s, when they were forced out of the main body of the church for not paying their taxes to the Muslim governors of the city. But the Ethiopian Patriachate has already expressed unwillingness to cede its quiet little spot without a fight.

Terminating the contact

Meanwhile, the bemused Muslim key-holders have not even been officially informed of the termination of their ancient responsibilities.

Wajeeh Nusaibi continues - as he has done for 20 years - to open and close the building's only door morning and night, before returning the ancient 25 cm (10 inch) long key to his neighbours, the Joudah family, for safekeeping.
He appears unconcerned about the fuss: "I don't pay attention, it's all talk," he told reporters.

The families are not paid for their services. Salah el-Din gave them about 4,000 hectares (10,000 acres) of land near the West Bank city of Nablus, which provides some income, but much of it has been confiscated by Israel since 1967 to build settlements.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/375320.stm

Comments

  • hi, your news article is from 1999, do you know if the situation changed at all?
    maybe we should work hard towards fellowship with other Christians so other people have no excuse for controlling our Christian heritage.
  • Hi, Mabsoota! Nothing has changed since this report was made ten years ago. It looks as though, Satan still has the power to hold the Key to our doors. What angers me is that Islamic supermacists are exploiting this situation in making their propagnda that only Moslems are capable to prevent feudings between the rival Christian Chruches at the Holy Sepulchre.
  • I don't know why it makes you angry.

    The fact is that the Holy Sepulchre is full of un-Christian bickering and fighting. It is well recorded in very recent years that there have been many fist fights between members of the Christian communities.

    We should not feel angry that Muslim's have the key - why is that something to be angry about. Anger is a sin. Rather we should be sad and even ashamed that it is a place that seems to manifest our divisions and animosity most clearly.

    Father Peter
  • Dear Peterfarington, I agry with you that Anger is a sin, I am human and I am weak, the same as those wonderful monks in Jerusalem, who are human and have earthly weakness. But, I don't think that we have the right to judge them. I inssist on giving the Key to a Christian. Moslems, as followers of Islam, have nothing to do in Jerusalem. Please correct me if I am wrong!
  • I am Father Peter, it does seem to me that you are wrong.

    Jerusalem is important to Jews, Christians and Muslims. It has a varied history that links it irrevocably to many different empires, states, governments and people. As part of that history the site of the Holy Sepulchre has come into the hands of Muslims - it may well be that this is a judgement upon Christians. Yet even before then it was in the hands of the Byzantine Church and our own people were not welcome there. At other times it has been in the hands of the Persians, and they carried off the relic of the Holy Cross. This is history. We cannot demand that history be different, but we can seek to live differently in the present.

    I am not able to judge particular persons in Jerusalem, but when Christians fight with their fists then there is something seriously wrong. When monks attack each other over property or privilege it seems to me that there is something wrong. A Muslim family holding the key as a matter of history is the least of the problems there. Indeed it would be easy to imagine that if the Christian communities there did serve one another in love then the key would have been handed back to the Christians some time ago.

    Imagine if the key was offered to the Christians. Who would hold it? What conflict would erupt over the matter. Perhaps it is God's will that it be held by Muslims to shame us.

    Father Peter
  • [quote author=peterfarrington link=topic=8017.msg103439#msg103439 date=1243001038]
    I am Father Peter, it does seem to me that you are wrong.

    Jerusalem is important to Jews, Christians and Muslims. It has a varied history that links it irrevocably to many different empires, states, governments and people. As part of that history the site of the Holy Sepulchre has come into the hands of Muslims - it may well be that this is a judgement upon Christians. Yet even before then it was in the hands of the Byzantine Church and our own people were not welcome there. At other times it has been in the hands of the Persians, and they carried off the relic of the Holy Cross. This is history. We cannot demand that history be different, but we can seek to live differently in the present.

    I am not able to judge particular persons in Jerusalem, but when Christians fight with their fists then there is something seriously wrong. When monks attack each other over property or privilege it seems to me that there is something wrong. A Muslim family holding the key as a matter of history is the least of the problems there. Indeed it would be easy to imagine that if the Christian communities there did serve one another in love then the key would have been handed back to the Christians some time ago.

    Imagine if the key was offered to the Christians. Who would hold it? What conflict would erupt over the matter. Perhaps it is God's will that it be held by Muslims to shame us.

    Father Peter


    Brilliant Post Father,

    It is sad to see Christians fighting in the same place where our Lord reconciled us with the Father...

    Also, Muslims have their Holy Sites in Jeruzalem too, which are to be respected, if we demand respect from others, we must do to them as we want done unto us...

    Gb
  • I agree with you on that.... on account of our sins God has cast us into the midst of this people, the nation of Ishmael, who persecute us severely, and who devise ways to harm us and to debase us. God tells us that He will send infidels to punish those who permanently ignore him, and exercise anti-God/anti-Christ power over fellow Human beings. We see that in Europe where populations are on the verge of capitulation to the infidel Army of Mohammed – without the sword, stealthily, and they're still unable to wake up and stretch their hands to Almighty God.

    I think, the things of the world may be desired and possessed for the uses and purposes which God intended, and they are to be used by his grace, and to his glory; but those who believe in Christ must not seek or value them for those purposes to which sin abuses them – we should not thirst after honor and applause, that's why we should follow the examples of those Christian Martyrs who were never infected by the virus of political correctness, and died preaching the truth.

    Brothes and sisters, parents and children, at times, disagree and fight in a family. We should also take the Christian Church as one big family whose members are just weak human souls who apologize for their mistakes and, who learn from them. We should be thankful to God that they are not killing each other every other Friday like the followers and guardians of the Mohammedian faith do it in this world.

    Now, coming to Jerusalem, historical presence of a Muslim Mosque over there is undeniable, but followers of Islam don't have the spiritual right to be there,  hence, they must be fought spiritually if we would like to see peace coming to this “City of Peace”.

    It's irrelevant to us what the Mohammedans claim, they also claim that the whole world belongs to them, only to them.

    Besides, the Muslim claim to Jerusalem, based on Muhammad's ascent into Paradise from the Temple Mount, is never mentioned even in their Qur'an. Nor is Jerusalem mentioned anywhere at all. Qur'an 17:1 refers to Muhammad's journey to the "farthest [al-Aqsa] mosque," but doesn't say where that mosque is, and the mosque that bears that name now in Jerusalem hadn't yet been built. So, the Mosque is The main Problem for the absence of peace in Jerusalem and the entire region, not the Jews, the Mosques in Cairo and Alexandria are the main reasons why there are so many injustices happening to our Christian Copt brothers.
  • [quote author=Melchoir link=topic=8017.msg103496#msg103496 date=1243261717]


    Brothes and sisters, parents and children, at times, disagree and fight in a family. We should also take the Christian Church as one big family whose members are just weak human souls who apologize for their mistakes and, who learn from them.

    Last time I checked, in any civilized society, a family that beat each other with shovels, ladders, threw mop buckets and brooms at one another, and argued over the position of a step ladder would be considered a "dysfunctional" family and the parents would be locked up in jail, while the kids would be taken off to foster homes.

    Why is it when Christians do these sorts of horrible acts they're just "weak human souls" but when Muslims do this, they're characterized as evil zealots? How will Muslim's ever come to Christ when they look at us Christians (and I'm talking specificially about us Orthodox Christians) and see nothing but battle royals and "celebrity death matches" in our holiest shrines? How do you think that looks to NON Christians? My dad, who while a Christian, is only one in the loosest sense of the word, was completely scandalized by the last "Christmas Eve fist fight" that broke out at the Church of the Nativity. These are not humans with weak souls, these are MONKS....they are supposed to be the spiritual center of our faith, and they were "fighting for their rights to worship"? It's total nonsense!

    The keys were given to Muslims because WE cannot be trusted with them. The last time Christians had keys to the Church, we were locking each other out the place if my history is clear.


    We should be thankful to God that they are not killing each other every other Friday like the followers and guardians of the Mohammedian faith do it in this world.

    By "we" do you mean Copts, all Orthodox (EO and OO) or Christians in general? I guarantee you Orthodox ARE killing each other or at least were a few months ago in the country of Georgia. Copts probably are not, so you may be right in that sense. But so what? Christ died for the Muslims too.


    Now, coming to Jerusalem, historical presence of a Muslim Mosque over there is undeniable, but followers of Islam don't have the spiritual right to be there,  hence, they must be fought spiritually if we would like to see peace coming to this “City of Peace”.

    Spiritual combat implies prayer, fasting, and LIVING the Christian life. Not fist fights in the place where Jesus was crucified, which is total sacrilege.

    Secondly, as a Christian what do you care if there is a Mosque on the Temple Mount? We, the Church (by that I mean the people, not the building) are the Temple of God now. We have no need of an earthly temple on the temple mount. The issue of a Mosque or a Jewish Temple should be irrelevent to all Christians, and certainly is to Catholic/Orthodox Christians. The Church is the temple, and it is of heavenly origin.



    Besides, the Muslim claim to Jerusalem, based on Muhammad's ascent into Paradise from the Temple Mount, is never mentioned even in their Qur'an.

    And the Gospel of Matthew doesn't say a guy named Matthew ever wrote it. It's part of Tradition. I assume Islam has a similar oral Tradition.


    Nor is Jerusalem mentioned anywhere at all. Qur'an 17:1 refers to Muhammad's journey to the "farthest [al-Aqsa] mosque," but doesn't say where that mosque is, and the mosque that bears that name now in Jerusalem hadn't yet been built. So, the Mosque is The main Problem for the absence of peace in Jerusalem and the entire region, not the Jews, the Mosques in Cairo and Alexandria are the main reasons why there are so many injustices happening to our Christian Copt brothers.

    that's quite a claim seeing as how Christians and Muslims got along pretty well in Jerusalem for centuries until the founding of the modern secular state of Israel. In 1948 Bethelehem was 90% Christian, now it's something like 30% of I remember correctly.

    I truly feel for my Coptic brethren who have suffered persecution under Islam.  However, from a non Coptic perspective, the greatest "proof" to the Coptic Church has been her forbearance and faith in the midst of that suffering, and the fact that her people continue to press on IN LOVE. The Coptic Church has rarely fallen into the sins other Orthodox Churches have, and her people is what I'm refering to. As far as I know, Copts have never taken a "revenge" mentality that plagued some Greek circles even up till today, but especially during the Greek war of independence...(one Greek told me of how in his village they roasted a Turkish soldier alive on an open fire)...I realize persecution is brutal, and never having lived through it I probably shouldn't comment, because persecution....God forbid, is horrible and I doubt I could ever hear such a thing. But once people get a "revenge" mentality, or become violently angry and have an "us vs them" mentality, IMO it's no longer persecution. When Greeks began roasting human beings on open spits, it completely invalidated any persecution they may have undergone IMO.

    Agian, I do not speak from experience, and I pray to God I never will, and so I cannot imagine what those who DO live through it must endure, but from a purely historical perpective, and from the POV of someone who was not always Orthodox, it was the Coptic confession, the Copts love, even in the sight of persecution that initially drew me to Orthodoxy to begin with. That is in fact what converted pagans to Christianity 1800 yrs ago, and it is in fact what in part, drew me to Orthodoxy 7 years ago. I encourage you to not let anger and bitterness overcome you. Maybe you've been through more than I can imagine, but know that people are praying for the Coptic Church and her suffering. But also remember, Muslim's are Christ's children to, and if you want them to come to Christ, there is no better way that love. Yes, easier said than done, I know.......but I still think it's true.

  • I agree, being Christian has nothing to do with what it says on your ID (if you're coptic egyptian at least), or what you claim to be, or what building you pray in... It's about HOW YOU LIVE!
    If you claim you're christian and that you're proud of your heritage, yet you have hatred in your heart toward anyone, then I would say some self-evaluation would be needed... If you want the freedom to worship in peace, yet would gladly take that right away from someone from another religion, then this is hypocrisy not Christendom.. If you believe Christ died for all mankind, and that all fall short of glory, yet you believe somehow you are better or more deserving of Christ's grace than anyone else, then you haven't understood Christianity...

    I'm a Coptic Egyptian from Alexandria, the mosques in Alex and Cairo are not the reason for the problems Copts are facing, the reason is the backward, igonrant, extremist way of thinking that some people choose to follow, and by the way, I've heard Copts making themselves guilty of such manners too, and it is very saddening to see how some people can be so blinded by hatred that they fail to see God...

    May God have mercy on us, we think we are better than others and that we're saved just because we go to church every week and know some hymns, but God is the true Judge, He knows what's in our hearts, and I think there will be some surprises awaiting us after death..
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