Border Crossing and Symbiotic Relationships between Christians in Jerusalem

Based on ethnographic work carried out in Jerusalem's Old City over a period of fifteen months, this article outlines the historical background necessary to understand the development of the diversity of Christianity in Jerusalem and explores the nature of relationships that are forged between resident monks as well as between local Palestinian Christians within the context of everyday life in a major shrine of Christianity, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, or Anastasis, in Jerusalem. Focussing upon the social lives of people within the Greek (called Rum) Orthodox community as they interact with intra-communal networks as well as those linking them with members of other Christian communities this paper suggests that the kind of relations that get established between people living in and around the Church of Anastasis are often symbiotic relations.