Don’t let a church divide the Church

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Don’t let a church divide the Church
Cross in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

For 1,700 years, travelers have finished their pilgrimages at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, honoring Christ’s sacrifice. The church centers around a tomb filled with the light and gratitude of innumerable Christians thanking God for the life that He granted them there. While the church stands as the most important site in Christianity, it also reveals the tragic division that separates the Body of Christ. This division shone clearly during Hillsdale’s recent trip to Israel. But although this was my most anticipated site, it became one of the saddest moments on this very emotional trip.

The first division is between Protestants and Catholics. While the church is the traditional site of the tomb, many Protestants propose the Garden Tomb as the site, including my own denomination, Anglicanism. During the trip, students visit both the Holy Sepulchre and the Garden Tomb. On both of Hillsdale’s trips, these sites divided students by denomination. The Protestants expressed their skepticisms of the Holy Sepulchre’s claims and the Catholics did the same at the Garden Tomb. Instead of a unified church praising Christ’s ultimate sacrifice, we squandered our time arguing over locality. Regardless of denomination, the sight of thousands of pilgrims praying, singing, and crying at the site where they believe Christ died and resurrected should pull believers to their knees to worship with their brothers and sisters.

This divide doesn’t exist solely between Catholics and Protestants. The relationship between the six different movements who share the church, including Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Armenian Orthodox, is so marred by fighting and tension that the groups gave the duties of locking and unlocking the church to two Muslim men. A ladder outside of the dome has stood in its same spot since 1854 because there is a long-running argument over which group owns it. In 2008, Israeli police had to storm the church to break up a violent fight between groups of monks. Here, in the spot that should be the most protected, cherished, and sacred place in the world for Christians, clergy are brawling over service times and territorial disputes.

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre stands as an all-too-accurate symbol of the state of the Church. It is an incredibly beautiful memorial commemorating the ultimate act of love that Christ accomplished at Golgotha. Yet instead of appreciating its beauty and coming together in thanksgiving as the bride of Christ, the Church is divided between Protestants who have abandoned it for their own site and Catholics who brawl over its altars and fail to practice Christ’s love and grace. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre stands as memorial to Christ, who suffered and died for sinners who struggle to pause their arguments long enough to contemplate the extent of His sacrifice and join together in thanksgiving for the grace and mercy freely given to His children that is both completely undeserved and desperately required.

 

Mr. McChesney is a senior studying religion and Greek.