Built around what is believed by many to be the site of Christ’s Crucifixion, burial and Resurrection, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is the most revered site in all Christendom. (Last week I related my conversation with my teaching assistant in Ukraine, who told me that the altars of the Ukrainian and Russian Orthodox Churches are relit with great ceremony each Christmas and Easter with a flame brought from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre). The present structure is an eclectic remnant of generations of structures built or maintained by many faiths over the past two thousand years, dating back to the first basilica constructed on the site by the Roman Emperor Constantine in about A.D. 335. Max and Brooke pointed out to me shrines built or maintained by the Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, Syrian, Ethiopian and Coptic Churches, among many others.
The main impression one brings away from this amazing place is one of unrestrained devotion. To see countless pilgrims surging through the structure, many in tears, is a memorable thing. Above all the people queuing up to enter the time-darkened shrine supposedly containing the Lord’s tomb is a sight to behold.
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