How would your 'dream church' look like?

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I love to go to St. Catherine’s Monastery, even though I’m not Orthodox. I would like to see the Successor of the Burning Bush, the site of the Transfiguration. (Wait was it there or somewhere else). It must have been why would they randomly be in Egypt. Anyways the spot where Moses received the Law. It’s also the head of the Autonomous Sinai Orthodox Church. It’s a very old monastery, it’s nice no one has destroyed it.
 
I would also like to go to the tomb of the Theotokos. It’s disputed what the actual location is, one in Ephesus and one in Jerusalem. I prefer the one in Jerusalem. It would be amazing to go there, because it is one of the Holiest Sites in Christianity. I believe that like the Church of the Holy Sepulchre it is shared between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church.

http://www.sacred-destinations.com/israel/images/jerusalem/tomb-of-virgin-mary/altar-c-zyzy.jpg

http://www.sacred-destinations.com/...mary/tomb-of-virgin-mary-lanterns-c-torie.jpg

http://www.sacred-destinations.com/israel/images/jerusalem/tomb-of-virgin-mary/entrance4-c-zyzy.jpg

More Info - Tomb of the Virgin Mary
 
holdencaulfield said:
I love to go to St. Catherine’s Monastery, even though I’m not Orthodox. I would like to see the Successor of the Burning Bush, the site of the Transfiguration. (Wait was it there or somewhere else). It must have been why would they randomly be in Egypt. Anyways the spot where Moses received the Law. It’s also the head of the Autonomous Sinai Orthodox Church. It’s a very old monastery, it’s nice no one has destroyed it.
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Its official name is The Monastery of the Transfiguration. It is the oldest continuously inhabited monastery in the world – since the 4th Century. The present monastery dates from the time of Justinian. How cool is THAT!
 
mercygate said:
Its official name is The Monastery of the Transfiguration. It is the oldest continuously inhabited monastery in the world – since the 4th Century. The present monastery dates from the time of Justinian. How cool is THAT!
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It is very cool. Yes, I don’t think the Transfiguration actually happened there, nonetheless you can see the heir of the Burning Bush and where Moses received the Law.
 
holdencaulfield said:
It is very cool. Yes, I don’t think the Transfiguration actually happened there, nonetheless you can see the heir of the Burning Bush and where Moses received the Law.
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The monk I know who lived there (born in the Bronx, BTW), said that when the monks tried to move the burning bush to a more protected location, the roots grew back and joined with the roots of the original tree. Listen? Do you hear “Twilight Zone” music?

This guy is not a space cadet. I believe him.
 
mercygate said:
The monk I know who lived there (born in the Bronx, BTW), said that when the monks tried to move the burning bush to a more protected location, the roots grew back and joined with the roots of the original tree. Listen? Do you hear “Twilight Zone” music?

This guy is not a space cadet. I believe him.
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It wouldn’t surprise me. That’s amazing. I truly believe that it is the Burning Bush. I’m suprised that it doesn’t have more ornamentation around it. You know gold, Icons, lamps, incense. It is a First Class Relic I believe so, it’s really important. Does anyone know if they have any other First Class Relics there?
 
I believe that in Axum, Ethiopia one can see the Chapel containing the Ark of the Old Covenant. It is currently under the control of the Ethiopian Oriental Orthodox Church. I don’t know whether it is the true Ark of the Old Covenant, however there would be no way to know. The only person who is allowed to see it is the High Priest who resides there, and is unable to leave the chapel. Even the president of Ethiopia is unable to see it. I guess you would know when you saw it because you would die if you touched it. 🙂

http://www.sacred-destinations.com/ethiopia/images/axum/resized/treasury2-c-gabagoo.jpg
 
mercygate said:
Its official name is The Monastery of the Transfiguration. It is the oldest continuously inhabited monastery in the world – since the 4th Century. The present monastery dates from the time of Justinian. How cool is THAT!
Click to expand...
The official name is actually ‘The Sacred and Imperial Monastery of the God-Trodden Mount of Sinai’ as previously mentioned. While the institution is popularly known as St. Catherine’s, the patronal feast is still the Feast of the Transfiguration (harking back to earlier days).

http://www.ou.edu/class/ahi4263/byzslides/038.jpg

Detail from the Apse Mosaic from the main Church, depicting the Transfiguration (which I posted earlier)
 
holdencaulfield said:
It wouldn’t surprise me. That’s amazing. I truly believe that it is the Burning Bush. I’m suprised that it doesn’t have more ornamentation around it. You know gold, Icons, lamps, incense. It is a First Class Relic I believe so, it’s really important. Does anyone know if they have any other First Class Relics there?
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They must have – if only because of the antiquity of the place. They have the oldest known icons in the world. The prophet Muhammad gave the monastery a writ of protection – an order that the Moslem armies would not invade the place. During the iconoclast controversy, the protection was known throughout the icon-worshiping world and some of the most precious ones were smuggled in and plastered up in the walls, only to be discovered fairly recently. And, as I mentioned earlier, they have the second largest collection of early Christian manuscripts in the world.

Great thing – if you can stand the heat!
 
patrick457 said:
The official name is actually ‘The Sacred and Imperial Monastery of the God-Trodden Mount of Sinai’ as previously mentioned. While the institution is popularly known as St. Catherine’s, the patronal feast is still the Feast of the Transfiguration (harking back to earlier days).

http://www.ou.edu/class/ahi4263/byzslides/038.jpg

Detail from the Apse Mosaic from the main Church, depicting the Transfiguration (which I posted earlier)
Click to expand...
This mosaic is clearly indebted to the most famous of the early icons in the possession of the monastery – the Pantocrator.

http://touregypt.net/featurestories/cart05.jpg
 
mercygate said:
They must have – if only because of the antiquity of the place. They have the oldest known icons in the world. The prophet Muhammad gave the monastery a writ of protection – an order that the Moslem armies would not invade the place.
Click to expand...
Oh yes, I shall repost Muhammad’s Charter of Privileges to the monks here (since my former post was now buried by the numerous other posts :p):
This is a message from Muhammad ibn Abdullah, as a covenant to those who adopt Christianity, near and far, we are with them:
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Verily I, the servants, the helpers, and my followers defend them, because Christians are my citizens; and by Allah! I hold out against anything that displeases them.
No compulsion is to be on them.
Neither are their judges to be removed from their jobs nor their monks from their monasteries.
No one is to destroy a house of their religion’s church, to damage it, or to carry anything from it to the Muslims’ houses.
Should anyone take any of these, he would spoil God’s covenant and disobey His Prophet. Verily, they are my allies and have my secure charter against all that they hate.
No one is to force them to travel or to oblige them to fight.
The Muslims are to fight for them.
If a female Christian is married to a Muslim, it is not to take place without her approval. She is not to be prevented from visiting her church to pray.
Their churches are to be respected. They are neither to be prevented from repairing them nor the sacredness of their covenants.
No one of the nation is to disobey the covenant till the Last Day."
Click to expand...
 
holdencaulfield said:
I believe that in Axum, Ethiopia one can see the Chapel containing the Ark of the Old Covenant. It is currently under the control of the Ethiopian Oriental Orthodox Church. I don’t know whether it is the true Ark of the Old Covenant, however there would be no way to know. The only person who is allowed to see it is the High Priest who resides there, and is unable to leave the chapel. Even the president of Ethiopia is unable to see it. I guess you would know when you saw it because you would die if you touched it. 🙂

http://www.sacred-destinations.com/ethiopia/images/axum/resized/treasury2-c-gabagoo.jpg
Click to expand...
Here’s an interesting article about that: On the trail of the Ark
 
It’s to bad that rates of terrorism are so high in the most Holy places in the world.
 
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