Families at Shevet Achim. Michelle Bradburn, second from the left (Mariana Cristancho-Ahn/Journey to Jerusalem)

JERUSALEM – Um Parwa, the mother of six-year old Kurdish girl known as Parwa, was inconsolable. The mother, dressed in a tunic-style purple dress kept trying to contain herself by rubbing the tears from her eyes with both hands.

Mother and daughter had arrived in Israel in February for what the mother hoped would be life-saving heart surgery for Parwa’s heart. A month later, a delay in the procedure, as well as the separation anxiety from the rest of her children in northern Iraq, was making Um Parwa distressed. Next to her, two volunteers, Donna Taylor-West, 60, and Michelle Bradburn, 19, tried to comfort her. They reminded her that her sacrifice was the only hope to save her daughter’s life.

The opportunity to come to Israel for the surgery – and the support offered while waiting for the operation– was made possible by an organization called Shevet Achim, an Israeli-based Christian organization that helps bring children from Iraq and the Gaza Strip to Israeli hospitals for surgery.

Shevet Achim’s team of eight volunteers and three staff members make the necessary arrangements to bring the children and a parent and host them during the time of the treatment which could take from a couple of months to a year. The accompanying parent is usually the mother and she is so identified with her child that she inevitably becomes known as “um” or “mother of” her daughter rather than by her own name.

The surgeries are performed by Israeli doctors at the Wolfon Medical Center in Holon and at the Schneider Children Medical Center in Petach Tikvah, which hold down the costs to $5,000 to $7,000, a fraction of what they would otherwise cost. The funds are obtained through fundraising campaigns by the hospitals, Shevet Achim and NGOs.

According to the director, Jonathan Miles, 100 children have received heart surgeries and treatments since the organization was founded in 1994.

Taylor-West said that she was moved by the interfaith effort of Christians and Jews working together to save a Muslim life. “It gives me the opportunity to show them the love of Christ through strangers they always heard were their enemies,” she said.

By the middle of March 2010 four Kurdish and two Arab families – mother and child – were staying at Shevet Achim. In the cozy first floor living and dining room the families gather to eat and spend time together. Bradburn speaks some Kurdish and is able to hold basic conversations with them. She also helps translate. A seven-year-old boy named Barzan joined her in singing as the music of a Christian Kurdish song played in the background.

Up in the bedroom children were running amid the two rows of black metal-framed single size beds set side by side. Um Parwa had calmed down and was playing with her daughter. “Since I’ve been here God has given me a heart for the Kurdish people,” Bradburn said. She said she has witnessed amazing transformations.

“When they come here often times their fingers are blue and their lips are blue for having no oxygen,” said Bradburn. “And then you see them after the surgery, if all goes well, they are pink for the fist time, and they start playing.”

Located on Prophet Street, about 10 minutes away by car from Jerusalem’s Old City, Shevet Achim is based in the same historic building that once housed the first children’s hospital in Jerusalem. A plaque outside the stone-walled entrance states that this was the site of the Marienstift Children Hospital, which operated from 1872 to 1899.

Miles, 48, a former journalist and teacher from New York, founded Shevet Achim and moved it into the old hospital building. He took the name from the Hebrew words of Psalm 133, “Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity.”

“I though this passage spoke better about what we are really working at the end,” he said.

Miles, a Christian, has been involved in helping people in the region since 1991. By 1994 he started bringing children from Gaza to have heart surgeries at Israeli hospitals. He lived in the Gaza Strip with his family for five years. Now he lives in Amman where he makes the connections with Iraqi and Kurdish families to bring their children to Israel.

Taylor-West, Bradburn, Miles and other volunteers maintain blogs with updates of the children’s progress on Sheven Achim’s website. According to the blog about Barzan, he recovered and went back home to Iraq on March 26th. Parwa had a successful catheterization on April 7th and went back on April 16th. “I was surprised by the tears from both my coworkers and the traveling moms when it came time to say goodbye,” wrote Taylor-West in the Parwa’s blog under a picture that shows her, Um Parwa and Parwa smiling.

Bradburn says that she is motivated by her Christian faith to do what she does and, while not overtly trying to convert them to Christianity, she hopes the families could eventually get to experience the same understanding of God that she has.

“My greatest joy being here is to see them change physically and get healthier,” said Bradburn, “but most of all, to see them grow in hope, peace and knowledge that God is sovereign, and that he loves them.”

Um Parwa and her daughter (Mariana Cristancho-Ahn/Journey to Jerusalem)

Um Barzan and her son (Mariana Cristancho-Ahn/Journey to Jerusalem)

Nine centuries ago, the Knights of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem defended the place where Jesus Christ was crucified and buried, fighting the Muslims with their swords, sometimes dying in the battle. Today, however, the order is engaged in a very different kind of effort: fighting to stem the flow of Christians out of Israel.

In the last two years, the society of the knights in New York City raised more than $15 million to support the few remaining Christian communities in the Holy Land. The money goes to monastic orders in Jerusalem such as the Franciscans or the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word, as well as housing and schools for the Christian population in Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian territories.

“Some people envision that some day there will be no followers of Christ in the Holy Land,” said Joseph Spinnato, who is part of the Grand Magisterium, the highest governing body of the order in Rome, directly supervised by the Pope. “That is something that we just don’t want to see”.

The order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem was founded in the 12th Century during the Crusades to protect the Christian presence in Jerusalem, against Muslim attacks. The knights wore a uniform comprised of a white, woolen full cape and a black velvet hat while on duty. The cape had the Jerusalem cross –the group’s insignia– attached to the left breast, below the shoulder. Currently, the membership of the group has expanded to women and members only wear their uniforms during the investiture ceremony.

Every year, around 100 new members join the order in the New York region.

The Roman Catholic order, consisting of 10,000 knights and ladies worldwide, has been trying to reinterpret the ideals of the Crusades from which it originated. The group’s original mission of preserving the faith in the Middle East and defending the Catholic Church in the Holy Land remains the same, but they have changed their approach. Now, even Muslim communities are benefiting from their actions.

“It is very difficult for the Christians to live, to work in Israel.” said Spinnato in an interview in the headquarters of the Hotel Association of New York, where he serves as chief executive officer and president. “The young people leave, the old people stay. And you have families disrupted and separated.”

According to Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics, Christians constitute 2 percent of the population in the country, and over the past decade their communities have been slowly shrinking. Arab Christians have been migrating to Europe or the United States, plus they tend to have smaller families than other minorities.

On average, 3.5 persons compose Christian households. A Jewish household contains 3.1 people and the Muslim 5.2, according the Central Bureau of Statistics.

“Christian communities are getting smaller, specially the Catholic communities because most of them go to the west and don’t come back.” said Jacob Salami, the director of the Department of Non-Jewish Affairs at the Ministry of the Interior of Israel. “They get married later and don’t have a lot of children.”

Through fundraising events, pilgrimages, and a yearly $400 annual fee, the 1,200 knights and ladies of the Holy Sepulchre in the Eastern Lieutenancy (which includes New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Connecticut) bought a plot of land for 400 Catholic families that were relocating to a small town near Amman, Jordan’s capital.

The order also helped refurbishing the School of the Latin Convent, in Jaffa Nazareth, one of the 44 Catholic schools in Israel, located in a historically Christian enclave, but now predominantly populated by Muslims.

The School of the Latin Convent is about 8 miles from the Basilica of the Annunciation, in Nazareth, northern Israel. Nazareth is one of the holiest sites in the Roman Catholic tradition; Catholics believe that in this city the angel Gabriel told Mary that she would miraculously conceive Jesus, the Son of God.

“We speak the same language, we share the same past and the same future. We are the same people.” said Father Louis Hazboun, the director of the school, during an interview in his office, just across the main hallway of the Latin Convent.

The school has 620 Arab students from kindergarten through junior high school. Two thirds of the children are Muslims, and the rest are Protestant, Greek-Orthodox or Catholic.

“We live together, so we have to include them in our activities, and they also include us in theirs.” said Hazboun, who is also an active member of several interfaith dialogue groups in Israel.

A concrete soccer field serves as the school’s main plaza, separating the classrooms from the school’s church and a smaller chapel. The sounds of the church bells sometimes mix with the Muslim call of prayer while the kids eat lunch, run or play soccer in the main plaza during the noon break. It is impossible to differentiate the kids’ religions. Nevertheless, a crucifix hanging above every classroom’s blackboard, nuns in habits and priests wearing white neck shirts along the hallways and in the administrative offices are a reminder of the school’s origin.

“We know who is Muslim, who is Latin, who is Greek, but it doesn’t matter, we are together all the time, inside the school and outside the school also,” said Jonas, a 12- year-old Catholic student, living just a few blocks from the Latin Convent.

Although the students share most of the curricula, Christians only take the religion class, while the Muslims go to the library, which has a small collection of books and videos of Christian, Muslim and Jewish faiths.

For the Christian celebrations, such as Christmas and Eastern, the Muslims are invited, but not required, to attend the events.

“A lot of the kids participate with us. But the majority prefer to stay in the library or play soccer while we pray.” said Hazboun.

Spinnato and Hazboun agree that running a Catholic school where the majority of the students are Muslims will help to strengthen the ties between two communities, fostering interfaith dialogue and creating better living environment for Christians in Israel.

“It’s a good idea to take Muslim and Christian students together, because they live together,” said Salami, from the Ministry of Interior. “They build their cities, so this is a step of creating more inclusive communities.”

For Spinnato, being part of the order of the Holy Sepulchre gives the members an opportunity to strengthen their faith by being part of an organization with a specific mission, important for the Catholic Church and with clear impact in the Holy Land.

“We just don’t go parading around in fancy robes.” said Spinnato.

Pilgrims lit candles to memorialize loved ones.  (Carolyn Phenicie/Journey to Jerusalem)

The Church of the Holy Sepulcher is a chaotic place.

Catholic and Orthodox Christians mark it as the site of Calvary Hill, where Jesus was crucified. As a site so central to the founding premise of Christianity – that Jesus was the son of God who was crucified and resurrected to pay for humanity’s sins – I had thought it would be a place of reverence and order, one where Christians worked together to welcome pilgrims from all corners of the globe to come and pray and celebrate in the holiness of the place. I was wrong.

On the roof of the church, Coptic (Egyptian) and Ethiopian Orthodox groups have staked out tiny enclaves. The fight for control of the church is so intense, in fact, that in the 19th century a status quo was declared and nothing has moved since, including a ladder that is still propped above a door on the exterior of the building.

The Roman Catholic, Armenian and Greek Orthodox churches control the interior of the building. The site of Jesus’ crucifixion, preparation for burial and resurrection are three distinct stations in three different decorative styles controlled by different combinations of the religious groups.

I was raised in a mainline protestant church and never felt my faith particularly deeply, but visiting this crazy, chaotic place held special sway for me.

My paternal grandfather had, for his entire life, wanted to come to Israel, or as he always called it, the Holy Lands. Since I was a little girl, I always remember my grandfather ending prayers with “In Jesus’ name we pray,” so a site that marks Jesus’ importance in Christianity seemed a fitting place to remember my grandfather.

“He always said that was his life’s ambition, to go to the Holy Lands,” my dad said. “That, and fix up an old car and retire in Florida.” The trip in particular held special meaning. “He believed that’s what good Christians should do,” he said.

Whenever he would watch Christian television shows that would take trips to the area, he would comment about wanting to visit, my grandmother said. “He never expressed a desire to go anywhere else, ever.”

My grandfather, Fred, is now 87 and for the past decade or so has slowly but surely started fading as Alzheimer’s takes away his memory. For the last year, he has lived full-time in a nursing home near his home in central Pennsylvania. It is rare that he remembers anyone besides my grandmother and his sons, but he still knows all the words to “Jesus Loves Me” and the Lord’s Prayer. Once one of the happiest and most vibrant people I knew, always cracking a joke and flirting with waitresses, he now sits quietly at family gatherings, hanging his head and remaining largely silent.

He was the youngest of eight children, born in Lewistown, Pennsylvania, where his family had moved after my great-grandfather’s lumber company went bust in the Great Depression. Though his family didn’t have much money, my great-grandmother always made sure they attended church. My grandfather – the veritable Cal Ripken of church goers –held a record for consecutive Sundays of attendance that spanned five or six years. Once, my dad said, my grandfather was heading to a Phillies baseball game and made the group he was with leave early and stop at church so that he wouldn’t break his record.

After high school, he joined the Navy and served at the tail end of World War II, mostly in New York as a radio operator. He went to college on the GI Bill where he met my grandmother. They will have been married 60 years in September.

So when I entered the first stop in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, an elaborate shrine marking the site of Jesus’ crucifixion, I knew I was there for more than just me. By coming to this holy Christian site – never mind that Protestants believe that the crucifixion took place at a different site in another part of Jerusalem – I was coming for my grandfather, who never had the opportunity to fulfill his life’s dream to visit. And I was there for my grandmother, my father and all the other Phenicies. If my visit earned any kind of cosmic benefit, I wanted to share it with all of them.

Kneeling beneath the elaborate altar, I touched the rock that marks the site of the crucifixion and said a quick prayer – there was a line of a few dozen other pilgrims waiting their turn – for my grandfather, asking God’s blessings on him in these final difficult years. After exiting the shrine area, I gave a donation and lit a candle, saying a second prayer for others in my family who have passed away.

I’ve seen my grandfather since returning to the U.S. and told him that I went. Even though I’m certain he doesn’t remember or even really understand, it gave the trip extra meaning for me and is the portion of the journey that I will always remember.

Christian pilgrims visit the Garden Tomb in Jerusalem (Mariana Cristancho-Ahn/Journey to Jerusalem)

JERUSALEM — In the weeks before Easter, Christian pilgrims could be found visiting the Garden Tomb in Jerusalem in ever increasing number.   For many of them, mainly Protestants, this is the place where Jesus Christ was crucified, buried and resurrected.

The Garden Tomb is located just outside the Old City near the Damascus Gate and sits right next to a rock formation that appears to have a skull shape.  Biblical accounts state that there was a garden right near the place where Jesus was crucified, and that he was taken to a place called “Golgotha” or “Place of the Skull” outside the walled city.

Many Catholic and Eastern Christian groups believe that the crucifixion, burial and resurrection happened just a short distance away at what is now the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. But while at least six Christian denominations share the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Garden Tomb is not a church at all.  The two-acre garden houses a tomb discovered in 1867; some archaeologists describe it as a typical tomb of the 1^st century AD. The site is maintained by a British charitable trust named The Garden Tomb Association.

On a recent spring day, groups of pilgrims from around the world gathered singing hymns and holding communion services at different locations of the garden before entering the empty tomb carved into a solid stone wall.

“I always wanted to come here since I was a child,” said Catherine Mortimer, 21, a Christian who came in a group of about 30 pilgrims from Johannesburg, South Africa. “We have been all over Israel from head to toe and it has been a good spiritual journey for me personally.”

According to the Israeli Ministry of Tourism about 54 percent of the 2.7 million visitors that came to Israel in 2009 were Christians tourists.  Jewish tourists accounted for 39 percent.

Preliminary reports from the recent Passover-Easter holiday season indicate that tourism is increasing rapidly. About 550,000 travelers passed through Ben-Gurion airport between March 25 and April 8. An article in the Jerusalem Post said that air travel was up nearly 20 percent in the holiday season.

Revenue from tourism in 2009 was about $ 3.3 billion. The United States represented the largest country of origin for incoming tourists with nearly 550,000 visitors, followed by Russia, 400,000; France, 260,000; and the United Kingdom, 170,000.

From Jesus Christ’s birthplace in Bethlehem to the different sites connected to his ministry in the Galilee region to Jerusalem where he spent his last days, many Christian pilgrims are attracted to the idea of “walking the steps that Jesus walked” which is the phrase many used to describe their motivation for visiting the Holy Land.

“Walking in the steps of Jesus is just awesome,” said Jimmy Faison, 62, from North Carolina.  “So much that we have read about had come to life and you can place it in the context where it should be.”

Cliff that some believe is "Golgotha" or "Place of the Skull." (Mariana Cristancho-Ahn/Journey to Jerusalem)

Some Christian pilgrims took the experience beyond Israel visiting the neighboring countries of Egypt and Jordan.  Rev. Robert Botsford, from Horizon Christian Fellowship, an Evangelical church in San Diego, came with a group of 50 in a pilgrimage called “Following the Footsteps of Moses.”

His group started the journey in Egypt touring the Nile River and visiting places like Mt. Sinai, the place where, according to the Bible, Moses received the Ten Commandments.  In Jordan the group visited Amman, Petra and Mt. Nebo, where Moses died after seeing the Promised the Land.

In Petra, Botsford and his group held an outdoor service of prayer and outreach.  “My love for God is what brings me here,” said Tony Canarieto, 55, one of the members of the tour. “I have been able to connect Biblical stories to specific places.”

The Garden Tomb is a favorite of Evangelical groups. In fact, tour groups organized by the New York-based Chosen People Ministries ends it 10-day Holy Land tour at the tomb.

Rich Freeman, who organizes tours for Chosen People, said: “American Christians are friends of Israel. We want them to see the importance of Israel strategically to our country and the importance of Israel spiritually.”  The theme of their tours is to “See Israel Through Jewish Eyes.”

At the Garden Tomb shortly before Easter, a British volunteer tour guide, Roy Haywood, minimized the differences between the Garden Tomb and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.  There is no way to know for sure whether the Garden Tomb or the Church of the Holy Sepulcher was the actual site of the burial and resurrection of Jesus, he said.

“Jesus was crucified somewhere in Jerusalem and he was buried somewhere in Jerusalem.” he said.  “He rose again. Isn’t that far more important? Jesus is alive and he is alive today.”

“If we knew the exact place where Jesus was crucified and buried we would have finished up worshiping the site instead of the living Lord,” he adds.

Haywood, 70, said he was an atheist who nine years ago became a Christian after being healed from a pain in his arm that he couldn’t get rid off. “I had a visitation in the night from Jesus and I told him if you can take the pain away, I will become a believer and the pain went instantly,” he said. Since 2002 he comes to Israel frequently to volunteer as a tour guide.

Sarkis Joulfaian, a Californian born in Armenia, sits on a bench in the Garden in a contemplative mood.  Looking at the tomb he reflects on the meaning of his visit, “It helps me to reinforce my faith in the Bible,” he said. “And to recommit myself to follow the principles and teachings of Jesus Christ.”

Growing up in a Christian family, Joulfaian, 52, said he became a real believer when he was about 19 years old as he started reading the Bible. “I committed my life to Jesus because he is able to forgive my sins and he has given me that gift of forgiveness as I accepted him as Lord and Savior of my life.”

Joulfaian grew up hating the Turkish because of their role in the Armenian genocide.  “My father saw his seven brothers and his parents being killed in front of him when he was five or six years old,” he said while describing how his faith has helped him to forgive others. “Within a few weeks I met a Turkish fellow from school and I came to recognize I need to forgive him and his parents and the Turkish people just like God has forgiven me.”

The highlights of our March 16, 2010 Daily Dispatch included visits to the Church of Annunciation, the proposed site of Shihab a-Din mosque and the Lights of Peace Sufi Center, all in Nazareth. More highlights included our  travel to Safed, one of the four holy cities in Israel and the center of Jewish mysticism and our visit Meron to see the Tomb of Shimon Bar Yohai.

The Christian Embassy in Jerusalem coordinates many Christian Zionist groups' activities.

But don’t dismiss them just yet as a force in American politics, a prominent French scholar told an audience at Columbia University on Feb. 18.

“Announcing the death of the Christian Zionist movement is both premature and naïve,” said the scholar, Celia Belin, at a talk titled ‘Israel’s Last Allies? Christian Zionists and Their Expansive Vision of the Jewish State.’

Though the Christian Zionist movement has lost some influence, it is still a strong and growing presence in the United States, said Belin, who recently completed two years as a visiting fellow at Columbia’s Middle East Institute and is writing a book on the subject.

The Christian Zionist movement, which has been tied closely with the evangelical right wing of the Republican Party, gained strength as evangelical and fundamentalist Christians became increasingly politically active in the 1980’s, particularly during the administration of President Ronald Reagan, Belin said. The movement gained even more followers after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, when American evangelicals could identify with Israel, which is often under attack by Muslim extremists. “The effects of 9/11 cannot be underestimated for this movement,” she said.

During the Bush administration, the Christian Zionists’ political goals allied with the international relations and homeland security priorities of neo-conservatives in the Bush administration. Belin called it “this moment of perfect relationship with neo-conservatives and the far right of the Republican Party.”

But they lost momentum in the 2008 election season when they failed to rally around one single candidate in the Republican primary, splitting Christian Zionist support. President Barack Obama has openly extended a hand to Muslims around the world – a group often maligned by Christian Zionists – and supports a two-state solution for the area, contrary to Christian Zionists’ goals of expanding Israel into the ancient lands of Judea and Samaria (now Palestinian-controlled territory in the West Bank). Additionally, there has been some fragmentation within the pro-Israel community, including the rise of a Christian left that is in favor of a peace process between Israel and the Palestinians.

Despite these setbacks, the movement is still going strong. Pastor John Hagee formed Christians United for Israel in 2006, a lobbying group that “aims to be the Christian AIPAC,” Belin said referring to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a pro-Israel Jewish lobby. Hagee himself has long been obsessed with Iran as the embodiment of evil against Israel, she said, and recent developments in Iranian nuclear technology have helped fuel that belief.

Besides Christians United for Israel, the Christian Zionist movement can continue to rely on the extensive political influence of the evangelical churches in which it gathers its primary support and the increasingly powerful Christian media in this country, Belin told the group of about 20 who came to hear her lecture.

Christian Zionists have proved to be huge financial contributors to Israel as well. Belin estimates that Christian Zionists funded, at least partly, one-third of Jewish settlements in Palestinian territories.

Though there has always been a Zionist movement among fundamentalist Christians, the current incarnation gained followers in 1948 with the creation of Israel and particularly in 1967 when Israel captured Jerusalem from the Jordanians. Fundamentalists took these events as fulfillment of Biblical prophecy about the end of days, Belin said.

Christian Zionists take the Bible as literally true and believe that it shows that Jesus will come to Earth and suddenly rapture, or collect to heaven, all true believers. There will then be seven years of tribulation for the non-believers left on Earth followed by Jesus’ 1,000 year reign on Earth.

Several days later, another scholar of Christian Zionism, Shalom Goldman, told a journalism class that Christian Zionists’ fervor for the Holy Land comes from their desire to see Biblical prophecy play out in the present day. Christian fundamentalists have been challenged recently by evolution and other scientific discoveries that refute the Bible, said Goldman, the author of ‘Zeal for Zion: Christians, Jews and the Idea of the Promised Land,’ but the return of Jews to Israel gives fundamentalists an example of Biblical prophecy coming true.

Belin said fundamentalists find further support for Israel in the doctrines of anti-replacement theology, prosperity and prophecy that they believe is promised in the Hebrew Bible. This doctrine is based in Genesis 17:7-8 and Leviticus 26:9. The two versus refer to God’s covenant with Abraham and his descendants, the Jews. The prosperity doctrine, based in Genesis 12:3 and Psalm 122:6, says that those who support Israel will be prosperous. The verse from Psalms even says, “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: May those who love you prosper.” And the prophecy doctrine is based in 1 Thessalonians 4:17, which says “Then we who are living at that time will be gathered up along with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord.”

The Christian Zionist movement, though still limited abroad, is growing overseas as increasing numbers of evangelicals adopt its tenants. “Some wonder if we are working toward a trans-national, pro-Israel Christian Zionist movement,” Belin said.

The growing movement could have impact beyond increased funding for Jewish settlements and American support for Israel. Because of Christian Zionists’ increasing interest in the area, the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians is being moved from a basic territorial dispute to a much larger clash between two religions.

The Christian Zionist movement is again returning to political prominence as it allies with the Tea Party movement, Belin said. Whatever the movement’s status politically, it’s unlikely its believers’ theology will be shaken from their firmly rooted Biblical beliefs. Emblazoned across the top of the Christians United for Israel Web site is Isaiah 62:1,”For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, for Jerusalem’s sake I will not keep quiet, ’til her righteousness shines out like the dawn, her salvation like a blazing torch.”

The world's largest Gothic cathedral is located in Morningside Heights. (First Things)

The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine is the seat of the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New York and the world’s largest Gothic cathedral. The first stone was laid in 1892, but construction is not yet complete. The cathedral is a study in contrasts. The grounds stretch for three long blocks between busy Amsterdam Avenue and Morningside Drive—a vast tract of Manhattan real estate—and yet the complex maintains a distinct charm. The cathedral is nestled in Morningside Heights, an uptown neighborhood teeming with students from nearby Columbia University, and yet this city landmark, a highlight on tourist maps, feels, at its heart, like a tight-knit neighborhood parish. At the 11 a.m. service on Sunday, February 28, the contrast between the vast and historic structure and the intimate service within couldn’t have been greater.

On this Sunday after a record-breaking snowfall, nearly 200 worshipers gathered under the shallow dome at the cathedral’s crossing to sit in hard wooden chairs arranged in a U formation. To the east, toward the high altar, sat a culturally diverse choir of children and adults. The interior of St. John the Divine is an architectural marvel. The ceiling at its highest is lofty enough to enclose the Statue of Liberty, minus its pedestal. Although the facade and the nave are Gothic in style, the crossing is Romanesque. Small chapels within the cathedral reflect English, French, and Spanish Gothic influences. The cathedral boasts the largest stained-glass window in the country, exquisite seventeenth-century tapestries, and even a pair of twelve-foot menorahs donated by New York Times founder Adolph Ochs.

The music of this Choral Eucharist was sweetly sung and highly accessible, and the voices of choir and congregation together often filled the cavernous space. For the most part, the service was serious and refined. Although it showed signs, at times, of having been painstakingly rehearsed, it was refreshing. The hymns and prayers were directed to the individual parishioners who had come to worship, rather than to the steady stream of tourists and passersby who milled about near the bronze doors at the western entrance. At one point the celebrant (the Rev. Thomas P. Miller, the cathedral’s canon for liturgy and the arts) jokingly addressed a two-year-old girl in the congregation to thank her for dragging her parents to church every Sunday.

The service moved at a brisk pace. The homilist was the Rev. Canon Patti Welch, a chaplain at the Cathedral School; her sermon, no more than ten minutes long, was swept into the flow. Standing at an ornately carved pulpit to the left of the main altar, Canon Welch spoke of the church of Dominus Flevit, which stands on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. The church’s name means “The Lord cried”; it memorializes a specific time and place at which Jesus, approaching Jerusalem, was moved to tears as he thought of the city’s coming destruction at the hands of its enemies.

Canon Welch recounted the story of Christ’s lamentation of the loss of Jerusalem with a teacher’s sensibility, spinning a morality tale inside a dose of sentimentality. Christ wished he could cradle Jerusalem—could save Jerusalem—the way a hen cradles her eggs, explained Canon Welch, referring to a hen mosaic inside Dominus Flevit. But why a hen, she asked. Why not a more aggressive animal, like a rooster or a fox? “While a hen doesn’t inspire much confidence,” she went on, “Jesus is always creating havoc with our expectations of how things should turn out. A hen’s chief purpose in life is to protect her eggs,” thus making the hen a symbol of nurture and safety.

In the unexpected, said Canon Welch, lies beauty. “If I pulled off all expectations,” she said, “I’d be left with yearning and the experience of freshness and aliveness” as well as patience—all qualities manifest in Christ. Canon Welch’s expressive preaching was resonant and captivating, but she offered a reductive insight that expectation only “constructs disappointment in the world.” True, a life without expectation can be a life of inspiration and spontaneity, but it can also be a life without direction or self-conscious purpose.

Still, the words of this sermon, delivered within the walls of one of the world’s most imposing cathedrals, were heartfelt and touching. Canon Welch framed the importance of some of Christ’s most cherished qualities in a simple question: “What if love, softness, patience, protection, and openness were the key to awaken our wonderfulness?” St. John the Divine’s mission statement speaks of the cathedral as “a house of prayer for all people” that “serves the many diverse people of our City, Nation and World.” To contemplate going out of that great church and back into the world to bring love, softness, patience, protection, and openness to all people is not such a bad idea after all.

Information:

City: New York


Borough: Manhattan

Neighborhood: Morningside Heights

Address: 1047 Amsterdam Avenue (at West 112th Street)

Phone: 212-316-7540

Website: www.stjohndivine.org

Religion: Christian

Denomination: Episcopal

Main Service: Choral Eucharist, 11 a.m., Sunday

Pastor: The Right Reverend Mark S. Sisk, Bishop of New York; the Very Reverend Dr. James A. Kowalski, Dean. The celebrant on this occasion was the Rev. Canon Thomas P. Miller; the sermon was delivered by the Rev. Patti Welch.