Catching up on my return from the Holy Land

We started our pilgrimage in the city of Bethlehem - a CITY now, no longer 'the little town'....

O little town of Bethlehem
How still we see thee lie
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep
The silent stars go by
Yet in thy dark streets shineth
The everlasting Light
The hopes and fears of all the years
Are met in thee tonight.

Our hotel was in Manger Square, right next to the Church of the Nativity, with this Christmas tree there in the square !  Once we had eaten and sorted ourselves into our rooms (I was sharing with Wendy, whom I took to Kisumu with me about four or five years ago) .... I persuaded her to come out in the dark, to see the church, literally twenty steps from the hotel.    

The tiny door into the church can be seen in the distance, to the right of two or three people 

... and is indeed tiny; the previous arch was blocked up as the Crusaders used to ride into the church on their horses, and only a small doorway left, so to enter, one has to bend and bow the head .... 'the door of humility' it's called now !   

(Picture from my previous visit to the Holy Land, six years ago ... 

friends Dilys and Bp. Dominic entering).

The church was originally commissioned in 327 by Constantine the Great and his mother Helena on the site that was traditionally considered to be the birthplace of Jesus.

That original basilica was completed sometime between 333-339, but was destroyed by fire during the 6th century, and a new basilica was built in 565 by Byzantine Emperor Justinian.

... to be continued !