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Church of the Holy Sepulchre

There is a link in this to our last overseas trip to the UK. In York we discovered that Constantine the Great, the founder of Roman Christianity, had served in the legion commanded by his father there.

The first British Christian, St Alban, was martyred a few years earlier and Constantine would certainly have known of it as his mother was a Christian.  When later he became Emperor he resolved to stop the infighting and schism within the Christian Church at the Council of Nicaea.  It was he who then institutionalised Christianity as a new Roman religion and thus ensured its perpetuation.   As a side benefit, a lot of competing 'pagan' temples lost patronage and their revenues flowed into Constantine's coffers. 

It was Helena, Constantine’s mother, who upon hearing of the finding of three crucifixions (presumably three crosses and two bodies) during modifications to a temple to Aphrodite on the hill just above here, decreed that this was Golgotha  (Calvary) and ordered the construction of the first basilica here.

 


One of the first chapels was here

 

Since then, hundreds of thousands of pilgrims have climbed this hill. There are a couple of half size crosses to carry if you would like. 

A moment's consideration is all that it takes to realise that you are not actually walking in the footsteps of Christ, no matter what your imagination and  Jerusalem Syndrome might suggest. 

In Roman times the streets were ten to fifteen feet lower as several excavation sites around here demonstrate. 

 

Cado2

Remnants of the Roman Cardo, or Main Commercial Avenue, of Jerusalem in the time if Christ

 

And how has it escaped those who see this as other than an entirely symbolic and imaginative observance, that they are now walking through a Muslim market? 

This route was first defined some 300 years after the crucifixion is said to have occurred and it is very likely that it was quite arbitrarily chosen.  

There is also the problem of the probable mislocation of Golgotha.  Many religious scholars have doubted Helena's choice of location, in part because it is unlikely that Jesus was crucified at a temple to Aphrodite, that is very likely to have predated the event, and no one thought to mention it.  Instead, the Gospels mention the place of a skull. Scholars have identified other locations in particular Skull Hill and the Garden Tomb outside the walls and thus more in keeping with the story.  Yet, this city has been besieged so often, and so many have been massacred here, that I imagine that you'll find a skull or crucifixion or two almost anywhere you dig, so take your pick.

In due course, Christianity, based on Constantinople, Constantine's new capital (Byzantium now Istanbul) became known as Byzantine Christianity.  With the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the fifth century the Eastern (Byzantine) Empire became the most powerful Empire in the world and remained so for over a thousand years until conquered by the Ottoman Turks (Muslims) in 1453. 

Actually the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is very interesting.  Remnants may go back to around 260 but most is high Byzantine a hundred years later.  Writing is in byzantine Greek.

 

Byzantine1 Byzantine2

Byzantine elements in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre

 

Services are mainly in Latin and Greek but we heard one in English.  They may be in numerous other languages too.   This shrine has been expanded several times from it's consecration in 335. It has been damaged by fires, earthquakes and conflicts on numerous occasions.  Its virtual destruction in 1009 became a motivation for Crusades. 

 

Its dome was replaced as recently as 1870
Its dome was replaced as recently as 1870

 

For almost a thousand years there has been tension between Roman, Latin speaking, Western Christianity and Greek speaking Eastern Christianity, heightened by an attack on Christian Constantinople by Western Christian Crusaders in 1204, and this schism became even more complex after the Protestant Reformation in Europe in the 16th Century.  Eastern Christianity is still the predominant Christian faith everywhere from Egypt (Coptic) through the Middle East to Greece and Russia (Orthodox).

 

Holy Sepulchrel Holy Sepulchre2
Holy Sepulchre3 Holy Sepulchre4

Church of the Holy Sepulchre

 

Thus Christians have been fighting each other for supremacy in this basilica almost since it was built.  As a result the keys have traditionally been held by a local Muslim family who are charged with keeping the peace.  

A friend in Germany told us that during his visit to the Basilica violence erupted between Greek Orthodox and another group of Christians, presumably Roman, resulting in a running fist-fight that he likened to a bar-room brawl in a wild west movie.

The faithful praying in the Basilica, mostly women, are certainly intensely engaged and are matched only by the Jewish women in the tunnels along the western wall.  More of that later.

A number of Protestant Christians have been more inclined to the view that the Basilica is misplaced.  There is a large Lutheran church a few hundred metres away that is quiet and pleasant inside, if a little too sterile to be interesting, and makes no special claims about its location.

The third Abrahamic religion is in the majority in this sector and the call to prayer is heard at intervals during the day and men disappear from their shops. 

 

 

 

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Travel

Canada and the United States - Part1

 

 

In July and August 2023 Wendy and I travelled to the United States again after a six-year gap. Back in 2007 we visited the east coast and west coast and in 2017 we visited 'the middle bits', travelling down from Chicago via Memphis to New Orleans then west across Texas, New Mexico, Nevada and California on our way home.

So, this time we went north from Los Angeles to Seattle, Washington, and then into Canada. From Vancouver we travelled by car, over the Rockies, then flew east to Toronto where we hired a car to travel to Ottawa and Montreal. Our next flight was all the way down to Miami, Florida, then to Fort Lauderdale, where we joined a western Caribbean cruise.  At the end of the cruise, we flew all the way back up to Boston.

Seems crazy but that was the most economical option.  From Boston we hired another car to drive, down the coast, to New York. After New York we flew to Salt Lake City then on to Los Angeles, before returning to OZ.

As usual, save for a couple of hotels and the cars, Wendy did all the booking.

Breakfast in the Qantas lounge on our way to Seattle
Wendy likes to use two devices at once

Read more: Canada and the United States - Part1

Fiction, Recollections & News

Love in the time of Coronavirus

 

 

 

 

Gabriel García Márquez's novel Love in the Time of Cholera lies abandoned on my bookshelf.  I lost patience with his mysticism - or maybe it was One Hundred Years of Solitude that drove me bananas?  Yet like Albert Camus' The Plague it's a title that seems fit for the times.  In some ways writing anything just now feels like a similar undertaking.

My next travel diary on this website was to have been about the wonders of Cruising - expanding on my photo diary of our recent trip to Papua New Guinea.

 


Cruising to PNG - click on the image to see more

 

Somehow that project now seems a little like advocating passing time with that entertaining game: Russian Roulette. A trip on Corona Cruise Lines perhaps?

In the meantime I've been drawn into several Facebook discussions about the 1918-20 Spanish Influenza pandemic.

After a little consideration I've concluded that it's a bad time to be a National or State leader as they will soon be forced to make the unenviable choice between the Scylla and Charybdis that I end this essay with.

On a brighter note, I've discovered that the economy can be expected to bounce back invigorated. We have all heard of the Roaring Twenties

So the cruise industry, can take heart, because the most remarkable thing about Spanish Influenza pandemic was just how quickly people got over it after it passed.

Read more: Love in the time of Coronavirus

Opinions and Philosophy

The Chimera of Clean Coal

The Chimera - also known as carbon capture and storage (CCS) or Carbon Sequestration

 

 


Carbon Sequestration Source: Wikimedia Commons

 

Whenever the prospect of increased carbon consumption is debated someone is sure to hold out the imminent availability of Clean Coal Technology; always just a few years away. 

I have discussed this at length in the article Carbon Sequestration (Carbon Capture and Storage) on this website. 

In that detailed analysis I dismissed CCS as a realistic solution to reducing carbon dioxide emissions for the following reasons:

Read more: The Chimera of Clean Coal

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