A new holy war
A year and a half ago, I had a week’s holiday in Israel [see my account here] which including a visit to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. I wrote then:
“Now, in its own way, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is as bizarre as the Western Wall. Un-Christian as this may seem, control of the church and access to various parts of it are vigorously – and sometimes violently – contested by no less than six Christian denominations. Since 1767, the primary custodians have been the Greek Orthodox, the Armenian Apostolic and the Roman Catholic churches and then, in the 19th century, the Coptic Orthodox, the Ethiopian Orthodox and the Syriac Orthodox churches acquired lesser responsibilities.”
I gave three recent examples of violent conflict between the churches – and they are still at it as you can see here.