Two rival monks are posted at all times in a rooftop courtyard at the site of Jesus’ crucifixion: a bearded Copt in a black robe and an Ethiopian sunning himself on a wooden chair, studiously ignoring each other as they fight over the same sliver of sacred space.
For decades, Coptic and Ethiopian Christians have been fighting over the Deir el-Sultan monastery, which sits atop a chapel at the ancient Church of the Holy Sepulcher. The monastery is little more than a cluster of dilapidated rooms and a passageway divided into two incense-filled chapels, an architectural afterthought alongside the Holy Sepulcher’s better-known features.
And yet Deir el-Sultan has become the subject of a feud that has gone far beyond the walls of Jerusalem’s Old City. The Ethiopians control the site, but the Egypt-based Copts say they own it and see the Ethiopians as illegal squatters.
And we thought Anglican feuds were bad!
Unfortunately, we are nothing more in a very long line of squabbles in the Church.
So, the folks in Pittsburgh think they can share the cathedral. Hmmmm…
Geez! I’m going there in three weeks. Do you think there will be a fire door then?
Christians have been fighting over that church for a thousand years, thats why Saladin gave the keys to a Muslim family that still opens the doors every day.