Six denominations, one church, no way out
David Sharrock in Jerusalem
# Jerusalem shrine said to be a firetrap
# Leaders squabble over emergency exit
Turf wars between the Christian groups who run the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, on the site where it is said Jesus was crucified, buried and rose from the dead, are endangering the lives of worshippers by impeding an agreement on the creation of an emergency exit.
After years coaxing and cajoling the six Christian traditions who share the holy shrine — Roman Catholics, Greek Orthodox, Armenians, Syrians, Copts and Ethiopians — towards agreeing the opening of a second door, Israeli patience seems to have worn out.
Some Christian experts say that it is about time.
Last week Ehud Olmert, the Israeli Prime Minister, was briefed by security officials and Yaakov Edri, the Minister for Jerusalem Affairs.
“An emergency exit must be opened even if there is no authority to do so,” Mr Edri told Maariv newspaper. “In such a case, we will make a unilateral decision and begin work.”
The issue is, however, highly sensitive and it is fears of an international backlash from Christian groups — who generally support the Jewish state — that have until now prevented any action being taken on what has been described as a firetrap.
“This is a very complicated and serious problem,” said Shmuel Berkowitz, an Israeli expert on holy sites in the city.
“It is hard to believe that the Government will manage to tread carefully.”
Father Aristrarchos, the secretary-general of the Greek Orthodox Church, agreed.
“Certainly an emergency exit is important in case of emergency but the Church and its communities must come to agreement on the matter. There must not be a situation in which the Government of Israel does it by itself.”
A spokesman for the Roman Catholic Church, Father Astaniados, told The Times: “The reports are credible but we haven’t received any formal official communication.
“There were extensive negotiations in 1996 but an agreement wasn’t achieved, “It’s very complex, there would have to be renunciations and changes and there has only been one door since the fall of the Crusader Kingdom. Nobody is going to volunteer those renunciations,” Father Astaniados added.
As many as 8,000 people are sometimes packed inside the church that was built in AD324 and has only one door.
The interior is meticulously divided between the various denominations in an agreement which dates from 1767. But the status quo, confirmed in 1852, does not always prevent violence breaking out.
In 2002, a fight broke out when a Coptic monk stationed on the roof to contest Ethiopian territory moved his chair from its agreed spot into the shade. Eleven monks were taken to hospital after the pitched battle. Under the status quo no part of what is regarded as common territory may be touched without the consent of all the denominations.
A ladder, placed on a window ledge above the church’s entrance, is still there more than 150 years later because it is on common ground.
Fire has swept through the building more than once. In 1808 the dome of the church collapsed and the tomb of Christ was damaged in a blaze.
And in 1834 more than 300 people were killed when panic spread through the crowd attending the mass lighting of candles during the Easter Holy Fire Ceremony of the Greek Orthodox community.
Father Jerome Murphy- O’Connor, a Roman Catholic priest and an expert on Christian holy sites, told The Times that there were precedents for the secular authority to alter the building’s fabric, including one by the British in 1927 when, after an earthquake, it installed reinforced girders to shore up the building.
“However, it is imperative that there is an emergency exit installed and there is a responsibility on the secular authority to do it.
“There is a real danger either from the building falling down or from people being crushed in a panic. And precedents have already been set, because when fights break out the Israeli police do wade in.”
Father Murphy-O’Connor, a cousin of the Archbishop of Westminster, said it was a miracle that nobody had been killed inside the building in recent years.
He identified a number of locations where a second door could be constructed without harming the fabric of the building.
Outside one of them, a medieval doorway with a decorated archway covered by a metal grille, a group of elderly Palestinians were playing backgammon.
“Governments have come and gone here, but this door has always been blocked and will stay that way,” laughed one of the men, clearly unperturbed that he could lose his recreation spot.
Six denominations, one church, no way out
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