Haram al-Sharif

So, a while ago, I was able to go on a VIP tour of what the Muslims refer to as the Haram al-Sharif (or the Noble Sanctuary) and the Jews call the Temple Mount. This was a great opportunity because normally the buildings up there, the Dome of the Rock and the al-Aqsa Mosque are off limits to the public. This is mainly for security reasons (not anything related to Islam). The restriction (as far as I know...) was set down in 2000 after Ariel Sharon went up on the Mount and made some inflammatory remarks while at the mosque. This was partially the cause that set off the 2nd Intifada.
So, since I wasn't able to tour through it with my padre when he came to visit, I thought I'd put up some pictures, and videos as well as some thoughts on it all.

From my experience journal:

I woke up this morning at 7 am with Kyler Kronmiller, one of the members of the branch who works at the Consulate and is in charge of the religious affairs portfolio there, calling to see if I would like to come join a VIP tour of the Haram al-Sharif as they had had someone drop out. At first I refused, because I was sleepy and confused and would have had to get dressed and ready and get to the old city within half an hour. I thought about it though, and decided that it was a once in a lifetime opportunity because I would be allowed to tour through the Dome of the Rock as well as the al-Aqsa mosque. So I hustled myself down to Stephen’s/Lion’s gate to meet the tour. It turned out that there were a lot of spaces on the tour that were not taken up by consulate workers, but instead were other Mormons who had been “smuggled” in. It was a pretty cool experience.

The tour guide led us onto the Haram al-Sharif and talked a little about the religions and what the general landmarks were: the Golden Gate, through which the Messiah will come, etc. He was very careful to avoid mentioning anything specifically Jewish, though he did say some things that referenced it. All in all, his English wasn’t the best, so some of what he tried to say was garbled, but I figured I already knew everything that he would explain on the outside.

We went into the Dome of the Rock, (took our shoes off of course) and he led us around and explained the overall architecture and motifs found in the building. The best part of the experience, though, was right when we entered the building. There was a man doing his prayers right there, standing, prostrating and kneeling, etc.

Despite this, and in true Arab/Israeli fashion, the tour guide launched into his spiel in a loud voice describing very mundane things (watch the video...). I had pulled out my camera to film this first little spiel and was lucky enough to get the flabbergasted response of the man praying who slowly rose, and began berating the tour guide for choosing to do his explanation right there and so loudly as someone was trying to pray. It was great! They of course argued for a second, but then the tour guide just went on.

We looked around the building really quick seeing the basic architecture- the columns, pillars, octagonal shapes and windows, inscriptions, etc. Then we went down into the Rock of the Dome of the Rock to see down there. It was interesting, but slightly anti-climactic. (But then again, how inspiring can a simple cave in a very plain rock be? Maybe you just have to be Muslim, or Jewish…but if you were really spiritually religious Jewish you wouldn’t be there….). Photography in the building was hard because the lighting was rather dim, and the room is large, so flashes don’t work and you can’t get really good pics. On top of that, they have been doing some renovations for the last couple years, so the middle is covered in scaffolding and blocked out of view. You can see all this in the background of some of these pictures. As well, we were kind of squished on time, so we were hustling, I only had a few minutes in the Dome and the Mosque.

After that, we went out and headed across to the al-Aqsa mosque. This is probably one of my favorite mosques I have ever been in. (The picture on the left is of Koran kursi or seat, meant to hold a holy book while one reads).The outside is very bland, plain and somewhat depressing, but inside, the walls are a pristine white, and the ceilings are intricate, with either wood carving or plaster moldings. The hypostyle hall is raised and has sufficient large windows to allow in a lot of light (as opposed to the Dome, whose windows are small and covered with intricate mashrabiyya which blocks out a lot of the light). There are a lot of stained glass windows, one of which is a particularly massive and impressive one that was put in place by the Crusaders. Apparently, its beauty outweighs who constructed it. (Sadly, we were so squeezed for time, I didn't get a picture of it...)

The mosque has a particular place within Islamic theology as being the historical “First Qibla” or direction of pray. Muhammad changed the direction to Mecca about the time of the Hijra (622 AD). So this place has been pretty important for a long time to a lot of people. The Crusaders used it as a palace and a church.

More modern aspects that are apparent in the building are: 1- a bullet hole in one of the pillars that marks the place where Amir Abdullah I of Jordan/Transjordan was assassinated in 1951; 2- Bullet holes in other pillars dating from the 1967 War when the Israelis took control of East Jerusalem from the Jordanians; and 3- a glass cabinet (see below) containing grenades, shells and other implements of war from that same conflict that were collected from the mosque and its surroundings. Kinda funny things to have in a building dedicated to worshipping the God of Peace. This last picture is of the minbar, or place from which the Imam will offer the Friday sermons. This one was apparently commissioned specially for this mosque and is made of like a bajillion little pieces of wood put together without nails or glue. Simply because of where it is located, you can be sure that it has seen its fair share of fiery rhetoric and inflammatory speeches meant to incite rebellion...

This last video is just a general picture of the mosque...

Easter Sunday

So this post is gonna be all about Easter Sunday which was really interesting here in the city. Sorry it's taken so long to get these posts up and going, I do have a good excuse though: because of Passover break, the university has been fully closed, cutting me off from any type of consistent and regular internet access. So I haven't really had to time until now to get it done. And to save myself time and effort, again I'll be copying and pasting from my journal....

Today, I woke up at 5 am to go to a Sunrise service at Augusta Victoria, a large Lutheran Hospital on the Mount of Olives. I walked over there with Corinna Hann, my Baptist buddy (she's doing a MA in religious studies here), and got there to meet a bunch of the BYU kids and professors. The service was neat, a little somber and slow paced (especially with regard to the next one I went to) and as one person remarked “very Lutheran.” It was pretty neat to see, but I do have to say that it wasn’t especially inspiring. The remarks of the Father, while taken from scripture and containing much truth, just didn’t seem to ring with the Spirit. Maybe I was just expecting something like Elder Holland’s discourse on Christ’s lonely journey through the Atonement. It was interesting to see him use a tennis racket and some balls to connect his message to the phrase “the ball is in your court” talking of our need to work for Christ since He has already done His part. I felt this was really disruptive and was probably an attempt on his part to be fresh and “modern” in his approach. It became just a little distracting though, taking away from the overall message I thought, and became really funny (if not a little bit awful) when he miss hit one of the tennis balls and it careened into the Crucifix on the alter (it was outdoors) almost knocking it off. Kinda scary for him I bet.

The other interesting occurrence at the service, as I have witnessed at other places and services, was when it came time for the Eucharist, and half of the front row, which was made up of BYU students, didn’t stand up to take it. There are many reasons for this (the most obvious being the use of wine, but probably worse than that would be the witness that you are placing yourself as part of their Christian community (same room as "communion" after all) accepting all that they teach and profess to know about Christ as well as their denunciation of the many truths that we have received from modern day revelation, particularly in the Book of Mormon, but not to leave out the Temple and proxi work for the dead-- you can be the judges of what you would do, but I decided that taking part would never be appropriate or honest to my testimony...) but it caused a little confusion as people behind them were waiting for their turn to stand, and didn’t know what to make of it. This was also compounded (in my mind at least, and perhaps I am just sensitized to it) because they had taken part in all the singing as good Christians (and honestly who goes to a 6 am Christian Eucharist service on Easter without intending to take the Sacrament?), but when the Father invites “all who love Christ and want to welcome his Resurrection” to come forth and take part in his Body and Blood and they don’t go forward, it just raises questions, doubts and confusion among the congregation. This, coupled with the general lack of Holy Week/Easter celebration in the Church, probably constitutes a major reason why we aren’t considered by many to be Christian.

After that somewhat sober service, Corinna and I went across the street to a free breakfast offered by the World Lutheran Federation for all in attendance and had some good breakfast (including bacon which was pretty neat). It was good to socialize a little with some other Christians and some of the students came with.

Then we hiked down into the city and ended up at an evangelical type service at the Garden Tomb. “Wow” is the only real word to describe it. The service consisted of singing a bunch of “upbeat” (as the sermon leader said) songs accompanied and led by the King of Kings Worship Team- a whole band with backup singers, electric and classical guitars and a set of drums. It was pretty fun to sing along, and, while I didn’t feel personally that clapping along and/or raising my arms in spiritual ecstasy was appropriate to the spirit of the commemoration of Christ's Rising from the Dead, honestly, I do have to say that I felt more (though not a lot...) of the Holy Spirit in that congregation as they praised the Lord Jesus and hallelujah’d the time away than I ever have in more traditional Masses or what not. It was a good experience, and was again instructive to me that I need to add a little more jubilation to my worship of the God and in life in general. Of course, that in no way means to overpower quiet dignity and reverence. I am just seeing more of a place for it in general living (while not in specific ceremonies or places of worship). The sermon at this place was a little long, especially for a Protestant sermon (Corinna was dying! Said that a good Protestant sermon should be “about God in about 10 min.”), but the Pasteur had some good points mixed in with his general Evangelical Christian rhetoric. He, of course, was accompanied by a few “amens” and “hallelujahs” from the congregation. Yet, again, he felt that it was necessary to guilt people into giving money to the upkeep and ministry of the Garden Tomb by saying that “if you love Jesus and want to support His ministry, you will give money on the way out.” That last bit kinda ruined any good points he had made in his sermon for me…

So this last picture is the band's area set up right next to the empty tomb. I'm sorry the pictures are all from far away. We got there kinda late and then didn't get the best spots to be. Then after the service they hustled us out as fast as they could so that they could start the next one that consisted of "a bunch of Scandinavians" as the sermon leader said. During the service I took a few videos to give you all a little of the flavor of the "stand and sing" evangelical experience (probably why Mormons "don't stand for the hymns of Zion unless invited to do so by the presiding authority"- remember that guy from the MTC?). You can see some of these people were really into it, rocking out as it were, and you can just how 'jubilant' and 'upbeat' the tunes were. The lady two rows ahead of me (between the camera and the King of Kings Worship Team) that looks like she is wearing some type of tapestry was all kinds of into it, pumping hands up and down, swaying and bobbing and all. It was great. There was a cool old lady right next to me that was nearly the same, but she shied away every time I had the camera out so I didn't get a shot of her...

So, it's about time I got around to putting some new stuff up on the blog, especially since the last few weeks have been full of amazing experiences and thoughts.


April 5th was Palm Sunday. This is me hiding behind some of my Palm fronds.

I went out with a bunch of the members of the branch here in Jerusalem in tandem with the students to take part in the annual processional from Bethphage/Bethany into Jerusalem reenacting the walk that Jesus took as he left Lazarus’ house to head into the city for the last time and the beginning of Passion Week. It was a pretty neat experience to see whole bands of Christians celebrating and walking along the small street while sing Hosannahs and waving Palm fronds (see the vidoes at the end). It was a really interesting experience to contrast them with a rather large contingent of morose and somewhat subdued Mormons (though they, the students, did all loosen up towards the end and start singing on their own). Because we come from a tradition that strongly stresses reverence and “quiet dignity,” it was eye opening for me to see the direct contrast between such somber celebration and such raucous, jubilant and joyous shouting. I realized, as other have noted before me, that as Mormons we don’t do a lot to really celebrate the Easter season and especially Passion Week. It seems to be vastly overshadowed by General Conference which generally falls within a week or two of it. Besides the standard sacrament meeting dedicated to talks on the Atonement and the Resurrection, we don’t really follow and celebrate the happenings of Christ’s final week as do most (if not all) other Christian denominations. I believe that this is somewhat of an oversight on our part. After all, we do go to all the trouble for Christmas; families read Luke 2 together and reenact the Christmas story. Why do we not do likewise (or at least something similar) for Easter?

This is a picture of some of the members of the branch, particularly Sean Fitzgerald, a consulate worker, who paid this little Arab kid 10 shekels to push his daughters stroller up a big hill. The kid probably never felt so lucky!

These are more processional pictures, with nuns, larger boy scouts, Muslims watching the procession and having a BBQ on their roof.

Here are some smaller boyscouts and girl scouts across the way. And here you can see a Polish delegation, waving a flag and wearing elaborate costumes. There were a lot of "delegates" (I don't know if they are officially sent by someone at home, or if they are just people of differing nationalities waving their own flags and representing...)


These two videos show some joyous singing groups and tourists/other Christians lined up along the way to support/take pictures.

This is a video of the Latin Patriarch (I think that was his title- the guy in the middle wearing the bright pink hat and shawl who waves, I would have to ask someone in the know...), the highest ranking Catholic leader in Jerusalem. I think he might have a lot of sway in the greater Christian community as well...

(ps- the changes in font and underlining and all is happening because I cut and paste from a word document journal that I have. I have no idea how to fix it because I am so technologically inept...don't judge me.)