The traditional site where Jesus is believed to have ascended into heaven is located on top of the Mount of Olives, just outside the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem. The building there is actually a mosque; the site of the ascension is the only Christian site in Jerusalem over which Muslims retain control. Although Muslims do not believe Jesus actually died on the cross or was resurrected, they do believe that he ascended into heaven, without ever having died. (They also believe that Jesus will return at the end of the world, as Christians do.) Thus, the site of Jesus's ascension is a holy site for Muslims as well, and they retained control of this site. One day a year, on Ascension Day, they allow Christian liturgies to take place in the mosque.
When I read about this before traveling to Jerusalem and realized that I would be in Jerusalem on Ascension Day, I really wanted to attend one of the Ascension Day liturgies. Ascension Day is one of the principal feasts of the Episcopal Church, along with Christmas, Easter, Pentecost, All Saints' Day, Trinity Sunday, and Epiphany, and I was very excited to be in Jerusalem on this day and to get to worship at the very site where Jesus is believed to have ascended into heaven.
I asked about the service times at the front desk of the convent's guest house, figuring that they would likely know the details about the liturgies. (I'd been unable to find any information online.) They said that the Catholic masses would begin at midnight and go through 5:30 a.m., and then the Orthodox liturgies would start. Each group only had so much time allotted to use the sanctuary at the Ascension Mosque, and so they staggered the different Christian groups throughout the night and day. The woman at the reception desk told me that a group would be leaving from the convent at 10:40 p.m. to head up to the Mount of Olives for the services. I decided to go with them, since I didn't feel comfortable walking that far at night by myself.
As it turned out, I'd probably have been fine walking there by myself, because there were TONS of Christians in the streets all walking toward the Mount of Olives for the services. It was really awesome to see these streams of people all walking in the same direction from all over the city and realize that they were all going for the Ascension services as well.
After a long, steep walk up the Mount of Olives, we arrived at the Mosque of the Ascension, which was fairly bare and unadorned. In the middle of the courtyard area was a large minaret (tower from which the call to prayer is issued), and inside the circular base of the minaret was the piece of rock that supposedly has a "footprint" of Jesus in it from his ascension (it didn't look much like a footprint to me, but whatever). There was a red cloth around the perimeter of the inside, an altar set up in the middle, and one painting of the ascension hanging above the altar. I assumed these items had been brought in just for tonight's festivities. (I decided not to bring my camera on this outing, so that I could be entirely present for the worship and the spiritual aspects of this event, so I have no visuals to share of this event -- I'll just have to rely on creating pictures with my words.) Above the cloth and the paintings, on the inside ledges of the minaret, were unsuspecting pigeons, nesting and trying to get some sleep, when suddenly this whole hoarde of people crammed into their home and started chanting.
We arrived around 11 p.m., and I thought the mass wasn't supposed to start until midnight. A service started at 11, though, which was a long service of the Word, with lots of chanting of psalms and versicles and responses, entirely in Latin. That service concluded and many people left, and then a bishop came in to preside over the mass. Unfortunately, not too far along into the mass, I started feeling light-headed and dizzy and had to step out (I was privileged enough to be actually INSIDE the tower, instead of standing outside and trying to hear, like many people were). I don't know if it was all those people crammed into such a tiny space -- lack of air and claustrophobia -- or if it was the cumulative effects of the day I'd spent wandering around the city in the heat, or if it was just sheer exhaustion (I hadn't been staying up much past 11 p.m. since I'd been in Israel), but I wound up sitting outside the tower and listening at a distance instead of really being there for the service, which was rather disappointing.
I'm glad I went, though, because it was certainly a very interesting scene. All the different groups -- Roman Catholic, Armenian Orthodox, Greek Orthodox, etc, etc -- had these tents (like the kind you'd see at a crafts fair, not the kind you'd camp in) set up inside the mosque's courtyard where they stored all their vestments and went in to change and whatnot, and there were several different altar areas set up for the different groups. On the one hand, it was cool to see all the different Christian communities worshipping in and sharing the same space; on the other hand, it was sad that we couldn't just have one liturgy that all could participate in, that we couldn't worship TOGETHER as the body of Christ, that each group got their "time slot" to do a Mass or Eucharist or Divine Liturgy, whatever they call it, right after one had already been done by another group.
As I took it all in, I was keenly aware that this might be the first and last time I'd ever have the opportunity to take part in such a gathering in Jerusalem on a principal feast of the church. As a priest, I will have liturgical duties in my own parish on the church's principal feast days, and unless I'm a member of a church with many priests on staff and somehow manage to have sabbatical time during a principal feast (unlikely!), this may well be the last opportunity I'll have to do something like this. It made me all the more glad that I decided to take this trip with the funds from my Ministry Fellowship, and all the more grateful to FTE for making it possible.
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