Brotherhood of the Holy Sepulchre

The Holy Sepulchre refers to the burial chamber, or sepulchre, of Jesus, which is believed to be inside the eponymous Church. The organization is also known in English as the Hagiotaphite Brotherhood, and its members referred to as Hagiotaphites or Agiotaphites, from the Greek ("holy") and ("sepulchre"). ==History==

Holy Sepulchre before the Brotherhood The Brotherhood asserts that its foundation traces back to monastic guardians of the Holy sites existing prior to the fourth century. Under Umar, a Document of Guardianship was given to the Church of Jerusalem to have ownership over the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. When the Crusaders occupied Jerusalem in 1099, they appropriated the Holy Sepulchre and other Holy places until Saladin threw them out of Egypt and reconfirmed he Document of Guardianship of Umar as placing the Holy Sepulchre under the "Indigenous Orthodox Arab people" rather than the Catholics. In 1250 Sultan Baybars again confirmed the right of the indigenous Orthodox over the Holy Sepulchre. When Mehmed II conquered Constantinople, Patriarch Athanasius IV of Jerusalem came to him and reconfirmed the document, and this happened again under Salim I and Patriarch Atallah. A local Orthodox tradition states that when Caliph Umar wanted to write the Document of Guardianship, he saw that Christians were divided into many groups, so asked Patriarch Sophronius what he should call the Christians of Jerusalem. After praying fervently for an answer, he heard the fifth Psalm, "Oh my King and my Lord", and decided upon the name Melkite, meaning "Royal People". Members of the Brotherhood would later claim that this tradition was meant specifically to refer to the Greek nation, because they claim Patriarch Sophronius was Greekthus being invoked as a justification for discrimination against non-Greeks. Establishment of the Brotherhood as Greek Nationalist project Monastic groups existed in Jerusalem prior to the Brotherhood which always had all indigenous clergy, but in 1534 Germanus "the Peloponnesian" became Patriarch of Jerusalem and founded the Brotherhood of the Holy Sepulchre. Germanus was a fervent Greek Nationalist who began replacing Arab bishops on their death with Greek bishops, eventually passing a law that a non-Greek cannot be elevated to the bishopric. Also seeking to have a Greek successor, he brought a priest from Constantinople and performed a suspicious and potentially rigged election ceremony which ended in this same priest, Sophronius IV, as his successor. The Brotherhood of the Holy Sepulchre from its beginning with Germanus was meant as an ethno-nationalist project to slowly remove indigenous control of Jerusalem and its Holy Places and consolidate it under the Greeks. Immediately after being elected, Germanus traveled to Constantinople and other places to gather finances. Except for Sophronius, every Patriarch from Germanus to Cyril would never once see their flock as a Bishop is meant to, but would live in Constantinople or a Metochion in affluent areas of Jerusalem apart from the indigenous people, leaving administration to a bishop called the "Patriarchal Commissioner", allowing the Greek monks and clergy to live in luxury as a higher class than the indigenous. Many of the Greek Patriarchs of the Brotherhood would only ordain their relatives. Damianos refused to step down and was threatened with defrocking, but the Ottoman government stalled any final decision until January 20, formally recognizing the locum tenens and thus implicitly Damianos' deposition. In response, the protesters occupied the Patriarchate, and even local Muslims joined in. On the election of Patriarch Benedict I in 1957 the Jordanian government approved a law establishing new regulations concerning relations between the Brotherhood of the Holy Sepulchre and the indigenous Arab community of the Orthodox Church. The rules gave the Arab laity a role in the financial affairs of the Patriarchate, and required that the candidates for the offices of the patriarchate be citizens of Jordan, but the changes were discontinued after negotiation between the Patriarchate and the Jordanians. ==Organisation==

Jordanian Law No. 227, dated 16 January 1958, regulates the Brotherhood's government. Holy places • Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem • Site of Christ's baptism in the River Jordan (Al-Maghtas & Qasr el Yahud) • Mount Tabor • Nazareth, the city of the Annunciation (the Church of St Gabriel) • The Sea of Galilee (also known as the Lake of Gennesaret and the Sea of Tiberias) • Capernaum, the "Town of Jesus" • Cana • Jacob's Well in Nablus. Status quo . Detail from photograph of main entrance above, 2011 After the renovation of 1555, control of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre oscillated between the Roman Catholic Franciscans and the Orthodox, depending on which community could obtain a favorable firman, or decree, from the Ottoman government; this was sometimes achieved through outright bribery, with violent clashes not uncommon. In 1757, weary of the squabbling, the Porte issued a firman that divided the church among the claimants. This was confirmed in 1852 with another firman that made the arrangement permanent, establishing a status quo of territorial division among the communities. priest of the Brotherhood of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem The primary custodians are the Greek Orthodox Church, which has the lion's share; the Custodian of the Holy Land, an official of the Franciscans affiliated with the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem & the Armenian patriarchate. In the 19th century, the local Coptic Orthodox archdiocese, the local Ethiopian Orthodox people and the local Syriac Orthodox archbishopric acquired lesser responsibilities, which include shrines and other structures within and around the building. Times and places of worship for each community are strictly regulated in common areas. Under the status quo, no part of what is designated as common territory may be so much as rearranged without consent from all communities. This often leads to the neglect of badly needed repairs when the communities cannot come to an agreement among themselves about the final shape of a project. Just such a disagreement has delayed the renovation of the edicule, where the need is now dire, but also where any change in the structure might result in a change to the status quo disagreeable to one or more of the communities. A less grave sign of this state of affairs is located on a window ledge over the church's entrance. Someone placed a wooden ladder there sometime before 1852, when the status quo defined both the doors and the window ledges as common ground. The ladder remains there to this day, in almost exactly the same position. It can be seen to occupy the ledge in century-old photographs and engravings. None of the communities controls the main entrance. In 1192, Saladin assigned responsibility for it to a Muslim family. The Joudeh Al-Goudia a noble family with a long history were entrusted with the keys as custodians. This arrangement has persisted into modern times. Breaches of the status quo The establishment of the status quo did not halt the violence, which continues to break out every so often even in modern times. For example, on a hot summer day in 2002, a Coptic monk, who was stationed on the roof to express Coptic claims over Ethiopian territory there, moved his chair from its agreed spot into the shade; this was interpreted as a hostile move by the Ethiopians, leading to an altercation that left eleven people hospitalized. In another incident in 2004 during Orthodox celebrations of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, a door to the Franciscan chapel was left open. This was taken as a sign of disrespect by the Orthodox and a fistfight broke out. Some participants were arrested, but no one was seriously injured. On Palm Sunday, in April 2008, a brawl broke out due to a Greek monk being ejected from the building by a rival faction. Police were called to the scene but were also attacked by the enraged brawlers. A clash erupted between Armenian and Greek monks on Sunday 9 November 2008, during celebrations for the Feast of the Holy Cross. ==See also==