Christmas Eve - A fitting time to talk about my trip to the Church of the Nativity

After going to Jerusalem, I went to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. Hard to believe I was walking around the area where it all began!

I had to pass into the Palestinian territory for that, it was an experience, the huge wall, walking though a concrete and steel checkpoint with Israeli soldiers patrolling on catwalks up above, fingers on the trigger (my God, they're young, Israel has compulsory military service, these are 18 and 19 year olds). No pictures of that, sorry, not allowed to take any.

After a 1 kilometer walk into the town (the taxi drivers said it was six kilometers to the church so we pilgrims would hire them) you arrive at Nativity Square. The first picture is me standing in the square with the Church of the Nativity in the background. According to legend, this is where Jesus was born 2000-odd years ago. A small little square door you have to squeeze under to get into the church is visible at the bottom of the wall.

The second photo is me inside the church after squeezing under that small door with my backpack on my back. I was struck at the mixture of styles of the three Churches inside, Orthodox, Franciscan Catholic and I can't remember the other one.

And the representatives of so many different Christian sects, that's what also struck me in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, all the Orthodox and Protestant denominations and the Roman Catholics too of course, and Coptic Christians and I couldn't keep track of them all. All manner of dress, priests and monks and brothers and nuns of every size and description, all united by their belief in Jesus Christ.

After a couple of hours visiting the church, I walked back to the border checkpoint, pausing to buy some fresh flat bread from a bakery and to buy a souvenir for my mom. Palestine obviously looks poorer than Israel. But I didn't feel nervous when I was there, other than trying to get me to spend my money they left me alone.

Merry Christmas everybody from a land that is just experiencing peace after 40 years of war, off and on. Lets hope for peace next year too for Sudan and Palestine and Somalia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo and .....