Bethlehem's Nativity Church to Get Overdue Repairs

Mon, Nov. 28 2011
By Anugrah Kumar, Christian Post Contributor

Excerpt:
The church is the main tourist attraction in Palestine, which gets about 2 million tourists each year.

The three Christian sects have had the money to renovate the church but none of them wants the others to be granted a right to a part of the church that is not theirs. “If you repair the roof, under Ottoman law, you own the structure,” Raymond Cohen, author of a book about renovations at Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Selpuchre, told the U.K.’s Independent newspaper. “In the pub, you want somebody else to buy the round. In the Church of the Nativity, it’s the opposite. Everyone wants to pay.”

The church was placed on the 2008 Watch List of the 100 Most Endangered Sites by the World Monuments Fund.

“The present state of the church is worrying,” the Watch List said. “Many roof timbers are rotting, and have not been replaced since the 19th century. The rainwater that seeps into the building not only accelerates the rotting of the wood and damages the structural integrity of the building, but also damages the 12th-century wall mosaics and paintings. The influx of water also means that there is an ever-present chance of an electrical fire.” the rest image by Lyn Gateley