Nativity church to undergo overhaul

BY RANDY BOSWELL, POSTMEDIA NEWS
2/12/2011

Laser scan by Montreal firm revealed flaws to 6th-century building erected at reputed site of Jesus’s birth.

It’s a richly storied place that will be on the minds of millions of Canadians this month – only a tiny fraction of whom have ever set foot there, but whose souls can be stirred each Christmas by visions of a livestock stable, a straw-filled manger and a swaddled babe: the birthplace of Jesus.

Montreal scientist Sorin Busuioc is one Canadian who has had what he calls the “great honour” of visiting the sacred site in Bethlehem, the biblical City of David and starlit “little town” of hymn book lore that lies eight kilometres south of Jerusalem in the present-day West Bank of the Palestinian territories.

In fact, as a digital-imaging expert hired by the Palestinian Authority to conduct a structural survey of the deteriorating, 1,500-year-old Church of the Nativity that’s built atop what Christians believe to be the birthplace of Christ, Busuioc had virtually unfettered clearance earlier this year to move within, above and around the landmark location that gave rise to the Christian religion more than 2,000 years ago.

“I’m not bringing religion and politics into this,” said Busuioc, a Romanian-born aeronautical engineer who came to Canada 20 years ago. “But when you go as an expert, you can’t forget your Roman Catholic side.

“It’s a very, very special site. It’s famous – and I’m not speaking just about Christianity here, but world heritage. It’s extraordinary.”

The ancient building – revered by Christian sects in the Middle East and shared by three of them today as a common place of worship – was nominated in February by Palestinian cultural officials for designation as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

And this fall’s successful – though highly controversial – campaign by the Palestinian Authority to gain full membership in the Paris-based UN cultural agency has added impetus to long-delayed plans to begin a major structural renovation of the historic but time-worn church.

An original church at the site, founded by the Roman emperor Constantine I in AD 330, was destroyed during a revolt 200 years later. The existing church was erected in the sixth century under orders of the Byzantine emperor Justinian I.

“Located on the spot said to be the birthplace of Jesus Christ, the Church of the Nativity is one of the most sacred Christian sites in the world,” the U.S.based World Monuments Fund stated in 2008, when it placed the deteriorating church on its annual watch list of globally endangered heritage sites.

“The roof timbers of the church are rotting, and have not been replaced since the 19th century,” the WMF noted. “Rainwater seeps into the building and damages not only its structural elements but also its 12thcentury wall mosaics and paintings. Due to this influx of water, there is also an ever-present chance of an electrical short-circuit and fire.”

Last year, representatives of the Roman Catholic, Armenian and Greek Orthodox churches that manage the site finally agreed – with prodding from the Palestinian Authority – to tackle the building’s structural problems.

That’s when Busuioc’s company, SCDS PRO, came into play. Along with experts from Italy, the Montreal firm completed a high-resolution, diagnostic laser scan of the church’s walls, floors and roof in January.

Since then, the collected data has been shared with other experts and exhaustively analyzed to create a work plan for rehabilitating the famed pilgrimage site – the most important tourist attraction in the Palestinian territories.

“What was critical in this phase was the roof,” Busuioc told Postmedia News. “It looks fragile, but it still supported us, as we had to go directly on the roof to collect data. But this is very critical, and it’s the first action. Replacing the roof should start next year.”

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