An AP reporter spends the night locked inside Jerusalem’s holiest church with clergy and pilgrims

This evening, a journalist found himself locked inside one of Christianity’s most revered churches in Jerusalem – the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. The church is built over the places where Jesus Christ was crucified, buried, and rose from the dead. It's jointly owned by the Armenian Apostolic, Catholic, and Greek Orthodox churches.

As the enormous doors were securely bolted shut from outside, a Muslim representative from a family that has held the keys since the 13th century passed through a tiny door slot to lock the upper bolts. He then passed the ladder back through the same opening, which a Greek Orthodox priest locked shut.

The Church of the Holy Sepulcher, mostly built in the Middle Ages on sites revered since the 4th century, is a labyrinthine complex with different architectural styles for each denomination. Its three main spots of veneration are the spot where Jesus was prepared for burial, the site of his tomb, and the upper chapel of Calvary.

One pilgrim, Peter Stängle from Brazil, prayed on his knees, lost in thought about his past actions and his faith. In the quiet basilica, 20th-century wall mosaics glittered amidst the stones echoing centuries-old history. Only a few oil lamps flickered in the side-by-side spaces of Catholic and Greek Orthodox worshippers.

At midnight, after the evening bell rang, the first nighttime prayers began. The priest Giuseppe Gaffurini of the Franciscan monastery said the reverence of this place enriches the basilica. He laments the conflicts that prevent many pilgrims from attending these services.