Reports from Jerusalem

Inside The Holy Sepulchre For decades, the triumphant triumvirate of the Greek Orthodox, Armenian Orthodox and Latin Catholic churches, have stood firm guard over the panoply of Christian sacred places in the Holy Land, protecting, refurbishing and maintaining them. Often at enormous cost, the burden shared equally by all. It has been a practical and productive arrangement that has seen, among others, the roof of the Holy Sepulcher, one of Christendom’s holiest structures, restored to a brilliant display of inspiring color, after lingering as a painful eyesore buttressed by rickety scaffolding that soared upwards in an ungainly tangle of tubing....

A page from the Gospel of Infancy Cricket is supposed to have originated some 300 years ago in England, but it is just possible that the game venerated all over the British Commonwealth, is older than currently thought. The story, told me by the distinguished Kaghakatzi Armenian professor Dr. Abraham Terian, was first released online by the Australian Associated Press, and has been picked up around the world, with both the reverent and irreverent, having a field day with the intriguing revelation....

A page from the register of births of Kaghakatzi Armenians of Jerusalem. For years beyond count they have been languishing undisturbed, save for an occasional peek, in the cavernous archives of the Armenian Patriarchate of St James, in the Old City of Jerusalem. Three fat tomes of painstakingly meticulous script, with frequent lapses into flowery forays, the official registers recording the births, baptisms, marriages and deaths of the denizens of the city’s Armenian Quarter, the Kaghakatzis....

JERUSALEM For Christians all over the world in general, and the faithful who hold the fort in the Holy Land in particular, Easter should be the most sublime of all feasts in their religious calendar. But often it is not, its sanctity marred by internecine conflict. The festive season that begins with Maundy Thursday, which marks the washing of the feet of the 12 Disciples, commemorates the resurrection of Jesus Christ and is meant to engender a rebirth of faith and belief in the religion of peace he preached two thousand years ago....

Patriarch Torkom Manoogian of Jerusalem Armenians in the diaspora who originally came from Jerusalem are planning a reunion in the city of their birth over the course of this year and the next, seeking to relive for a brief spell, the heady days of their youth in the hallowed confines of the sacred Old City. They will be travelling mainly from North America and Australia, in time to attend the Armenian Easter ceremonies in the Holy Land which will be held towards the end of April....

A bold new initiative afoot to preserve the unique history and culture of the Kaghakatzi Armenians of the Old City of Jerusalem. JERUSALEM, ISRAEL Kaghakatzi Armenians having a ball - half a century ago. The tiny community of genocide survivors and their descendants living in the Armenian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, has taken a bold and determined step toward ensuring that their unique place in the history of this immortal city, is not irretrievably lost....

Ordination ceremony of three new priests in Jerusalem. The golden threads of the sun rappel through the high windows and entwine the velvet mists of incense floating in the air, before settling on the forms of the three figures kneeling before the cross and the bible. The candles on the resplendent altar flare as if in joy at the mysterious age-old ceremony being enacted before them. Their heads bowed in obedience, the three young men prepare to take their final vows as newly ordained members of the priestly brotherhood of the Armenian Patriarchate of St James in Jerusalem....

Early snow over the Old City Courtesy: Custodia di Terra Santa As members of the tiny enclave of Armenians in the Old City of Jerusalem celebrate Christmas on January 19, in accordance with a centuries-old tradition, they will be looking forward to perhaps one of the most decisive years in the history of the region. What does 2007 hold for them? What can the spiritual leader of this enduring bastion of diaspora Armenians, Patriarch Torkom Manoogian, tell them in the message he will be delivering from the Grotto of the Nativity, in Bethlehem, as the clock strikes midnight?...