This set begins with the daily ringing of the bells at the Basilica of the Nativity in Bethlehem in the area of Palestine now commonly known as the West Bank. Palestine is recognized as a country by 138 of the United Nations’ 193 member states, but those are mostly small countries and do not include Canada, the US, or the countries of Western Europe. It’s official status at the UN is as an “observer state”.
The Basilica in Bethlehem, like the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem and a few other places on the West Bank, is sacred to all branches of Christianity. Within it is a grotto that is traditionally considered to be the birthplace of Jesus. That grotto is the oldest site continuously used as a place of worship in Christianity, and the basilica is the oldest major church in the Holy Land. The building was originally built in 230-339 AD but was largely rebuilt in the 6th century. It has had many annexes and additions over the years to accommodate the many branches of Christianity who want to have a monastery, convent or their own place of worship there.
The grotto in the Basilica is a major place of pilgrimage for Christians from all over the world, who ascribe to many different theologies. All want their differing forms of worship to be accommodated. The ownership and management of the building is therefore very complicated. It is governed by a complex arrangement with the telling name of the Status Quo that was first issued as an edict by the Ottoman Empire and later formalized by the UN Conciliation Commission for Palestine after the initial creation the state of Israel.
Under the Status Quo agreement various parts of the building and its several additions and annexes are reserved for specific denominations. The central area of the old main building, which includes the grotto, is considered to be jointly “owned” by the Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Armenian Apostolic churches who must make accommodation for worship there by all. That includes the Assyrian, Coptic, Syrian, and Maronite branches of Christianity who have parts of the building, as well as the various protestant denominations that separated from the Catholic church as well as followers of Jesus who are not affiliated with any organized sect.
This recording of the daily ringing of bells by the various resident groups in Bethlehem comes from a 1967 Deutsche Grammophon ARCHIV CD called Christmas in the Holy Land. That album’s main content is on-site recordings of Christmas worship music by various branches of Christianity.
The next part of this medley is called Comfort and Joy and it is a unique version of the most famous English Christmas carol, God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen. (Note that the comma is an important part of the title. The old carol (from sometime before 1640) isn’t about merry gentlemen; it begins with a wish that the listeners “rest you merry,” in other words, that they be contented and in good spirits.)
This performance is by the students and choir of the Mouseitbeh Adventist Secondary School located in the heart of Beirut, Lebanon. The school has been in operation there since 1929. I found their self-published 2002 Christmas CD, titled Jayee, in a thrift store.
The words for I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day are a poem called Christmas Bells written on Christmas Day in 1863 by the great poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882.) He was world famous in his time and was the first American to be able to quit his day job (as a Harvard professor) and make a living as a poet.
The poem that became this song really is about the poet’s thoughts when he heard those Christmas bells in the midst of the tragic fratricidal conflict of the American Civil War that was happening at that time. Longfellow was a pacifist and incorporated antiwar views in many of his works. But this particular poem was much more personal than that. Less than a month before that Christmas day Longfellow had learned that his eldest son Charley, age 18, who had enlisted without his father’s consent, had been severely injured in battle. The initial news was that he might survive but be paralyzed for life.
For Longfellow that brought back memories of two years before, when his beloved wife Fannie had died when her voluminous dress caught fire and he had been unable to extinguish the flames. The news of his son’s injury put Longfellow into severe depression and he found himself unable to write. But his writer’s block was broken by the thoughts that welled up inside him when he heard those bells on Christmas day. This poem leapt onto the page that very day.
The Christmas song leaves out two verses from Longfellow’s poem. You can read the whole of it and a literary analysis here.
This profound poem about was set to music by many composers over the coming years, but none properly captured its message of war, despair and hope until this setting. Surprisingly, it was written in 1956 by the Jewish Tin Pan Alley songwriter Johnny Marks, whose other well-known Christmas songs are Rudolf the Red-nosed Reindeer, Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree, and Holly Jolly Christmas.
Bing Crosby was the first to record Marks’ version, in the same year that it was written, but his rendition of it leaves me cold. This beautiful version was recorded two years later in 1958 by Harry Belefonte. I presume that I don’t need to tell you who he was.
The set closes with a continuation of the Christmas Day ringing of the bells in Bethlehem, from the same CD as the ringing that opened this set.
I began designing today’s medley on Remembrance Day. It seemed appropriate to have a musical remembrance of the angels’ singing about “peace on earth; goodwill among men” which is one of the major themes of Christmas. But the intractable conflicts that dominate the headlines today (and places like Somalia and Armenia that have been pushed out of the headlines) make the many Christmas songs that include that phrase in their lyrics ring hollow right now. I wanted this medley to be a musical message of hope, but that would need to be done with a bit of subtlety. I hope I achieved it.
I am not so naïve to think of the various Christian sects worshiping together at the Basilica of the Nativity as being a model for peace and goodwill in the Middle East, let alone for peace on earth. There have been repeated brawls among the Bethlehem monks over quiet respect for each others’ prayers, hymns and even the division of floor space for cleaning duties. The Palestinian police sometimes need to be called in to restore peace and order. This year, the Palastinian Christians are not holding the usual Christmas celebrations in the public squares for visitors to Bethlehem. That is in protest over the many Christian countries that have not voiced stronger opposition to the Israel’s military and civilian settler actions against Gaza Strip and West Bamk Palastinians in response to the horrific October 6 actions by the Hamas militants.
Also, the Status Quo arrangement does not make provision for how the participating religions should work together on capital maintenance of the building. In 2009 the Basilica of the Nativity was declared to be one of the world’s most endangered historic sites. It is recognized that the major work that is required will not just require cooperation between the resident Christian sects but also participation by the locally-governing Palestine Liberation organization and the government of Israel. Development of a strategic plan began but as far as I can tell little progress has been made. Some emergency work was begun as a first phase but those works came to an end in 2020. As far as I know, any attempts at dealing with this matter are now on hold.
But despite all of those problems, the church remains open to anyone to worship there every day of the year. And when I hear the various bells ringing together in concert with each other it does give me a feeling of comfort if not joy, and perhaps a glimmer of hope for some degree of eventual peace and goodwill.
