When traveling through Israel, especially in Jerusalem and eastern Galilee, it sometimes may seem that there are more churches than synagogues and mosques. This may seem strange, as Israel is a Jewish country with minorities of Christians and Moslems.

But the reason it seems this way is that most of the churches a visitor will encounter are not community churches, but rather memorial churches. What I mean by this is that these churches have been built and are maintained to commemorate an event in the life of Jesus, or a teaching, or a miracle performed by Jesus.

These monumental churches often do not have communities attached to them, but simply belong to a group within a larger denomination, and this group has the responsibility for that site to maintain it and to keep it open to visitors. [Read more...]