experience of an open-air “thousand star” hotel, especially when followed by a comfortable night indoors! Israel features hotels of every grade and price range, ranging from super deluxe to those offering simple, basic accommodations. Some are managed by local chains or independently; others are affiliated with well-known international brands. Many feature conference facilities, both indoors and out, suitable for pilgrim group prayers and assemblies.
Christian hospices, located mainly in Jerusalem and Nazareth, are run by various denominations and offer a very special Christian experience. Many have private chapels. The hospices are generally small and bookings are recommended well in advance. Other popular accommodation options include kibbutz hotels, recreational villages (self-catering bungalows, etc.) “zimmers,” (bed/breakfast facilities in private homes, or kibbutzim), youth hostels and field schools. Guiding Israeli guides are arguably among the best in the world, and are available to guide in a broad range of languages. Professional guides can provide a wealth of information concerning holy places, historic sites and ancient Israel, since they undergo a two-year training program to study the history of Israel, the Old and New Testament, and the differences among the perspectives of the various Christian denominations, and they must know every inch of the country. They have to know how to travel the land and its topography, and they have to know exactly where history lies. In addition to the two-year training program, guides must take an annual refresher course. This assures that they can supply the latest information as to recent discoveries of archeological and/or religious significance. It also means that guides are well equipped to lead a pilgrimage along the most comfortable, efficient, and interesting routes - and in order to pass their licensing examinations, they must be bi-lingual at least. Clergymen leading groups are often surprised that Israeli guides know more about the Bible and holy sites than they expected, and sometimes even more than the preachers themselves. Experience tells us that the insights they bring to a pilgrimage add to the group’s experience while supporting and reinforcing the efforts of the religious leader.
Denominations Egidius of Assisi, the disciple of St. Francis of Assisi, was the first Franciscan to come to the Holy Land as a pilgrim in 1215, and afterwards, as part of a process lasting centuries, the Franciscan Order was given custody of many sacred holyland sites. The presence of the Greek Orthodox Church in the Holy Land is even older, and the Greek Orthodox patriarchate is in charge of dozens of monasteries and holy sites throughout Israel. While it is only in charge of the churches in Jerusalem’s Armenian Quarter, the Armenian Church’s significant presence in Jerusalem began with the development of early Byzantine monasticism, and sixth-century ruins with inscriptions in Armenian have been unearthed near Damascus Gate and on the Mt. of Olives. Since older Churches built and control most of the early churches and sites that attract Holy Land pilgrims today, Protestant visitors, although they may well visit these ancient churches, monasteries and the like, have few sites they can “call their own,” save for the Garden Tomb in Jerusalem. Other than that, while they share many of the same motivations with Catholic pilgrims, their experience, more often than not, is one of direct communication with their Savior, and does not rely on any historical continuity, or even on the Church to which they are affiliated. As one Protestant commentator has noted: “Christian pilgrims ‘see’ the heart of Jesus when they visit the Dominus Flevit Sanctuary on the Mount of Olives, where Jesus wept for the city of Jerusalem.
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