The Holy Land and SyriaCarpenter, Frank G. (Frank George)
Religion
The Holy Land and Syria
Carpenter, Frank G. (Frank George)
Palestine -- Description and travel; Syria -- Description and travel
The Greek Church has a score of monasteries and convents in the Holy City
where it can accommodate pilgrims by the thousands. Its believers come to
worship here from the borders of Siberia, from the isles of Greece, and
from the wilds of Arabia, and as I write there are thousands of Russian
pilgrims paying their devotions in the gorgeous Greek chapel of the
Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The Greek Church has a faith which might be
called a cross between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism. It differs
from Catholicism chiefly in denying the spiritual supremacy of the Pope,
in not demanding the celibacy of the clergy, except the bishops, and in
authorizing all of its people to read the Scriptures. It claims to be the
original Christian church and says that the Roman Catholics broke away
from it. The dispute between the two branches of the Church arose three
or four hundred years after Christ. It was a question as to what should
be the rank of the Patriarch of Constantinople, and as the Pope would
not give in the trouble began. It continued off and on until about 1000
A.D., when the two churches broke apart, and from that time the Greek
Church has existed on its own footing.
The head of the Greek Church is the Patriarch of Constantinople, and
under him are the patriarchs of Jerusalem, Antioch, and Alexandria. Since
the sixteenth century, the Russian branch has been independent of the
main body. These patriarchs are elected by the clergy and the laity. They
have limited terms of office, but the Patriarch’s power over the people
here in Jerusalem is to a large extent that of a judge as well as of a
pope.
But let me tell you about my talk with His Beatitude. It was arranged
by one of the church and the audience took place in the Patriarch’s
house, a great stone building near the Pool of Hezekiah and not far from
the Church of the Sepulchre. His Beatitude lives there with one hundred
monks, and I saw many fine-looking Greek priests as I went up the stairs
of rose-coloured marble. I passed through several rooms filled with
high-capped, black-gowned ecclesiastics, and as I waited priests and
bishops from the four quarters of Greek Catholicism passed in and out.
One of the priests, who spoke English, went with me into the audience
chamber and gave me a seat at the right of the throne. He asked me to
wait, telling me that the Patriarch would be in shortly.
Meantime, there were others who had come for an audience, and the chairs
about the long table in the centre of the room were soon filled. Most of
the men were bearded priests dressed in black gowns and high caps.
As we waited a servant brought in a silver tray containing a plate of
rose-and-white cubes of Turkish delight and several glasses of water.
Upon the tray were many silver forks, each having two fine tines as long
as my little finger. As the candy was passed each one of us took a fork
and stabbed it into a cube of the sweets, and thus conveyed it to the
mouth. It was delicious.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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