Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Repairs to proceed on Church of Holy Sepulchre

ECUMENICAL AGREEMENT: Decades on, historic accord reached on renovation of Jerusalem's Holy Sepulcher Church (Peter Kenny, ECUMENICAL NEWS).
The Church of the Holy Sepulcher is one of Christianity's best known places of worship which is said to house the tomb of Jesus in Jerusalem, but it is rather run down in parts.

The church is run as a consortium consisting of Custodia Terrae Sanctae, a Franciscan order that represents the Catholic Church; the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate; and the Armenian Patriarchate, who do not always agree and Coptic, Ethiopian and Syriac Orthodox churches also have a say.

The agreement assigns each part of the building, every floor tile, door, window and corridor, to a specific church, and any alternation, addition or repair requires all three churches to agree.
The church is located in the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem.

After decades of wrangling, however, within two months, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher will begin its first major renovation since Israel was established in 1948, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports.

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This issue has been quiet for some years, but past posts on it (etc.) are here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. I'm glad to see that some sort of agreement seems to have been reached. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre (Sepulcher) is built over a number of first-century rock-cut tombs, so it is at least possible that it really is the site of the tomb of Jesus.