The BYU Jerusalem Center

On the Sabbath we went to church at the Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies. Because the rest of Israel observes the Sabbath on Saturday, the LDS branches in Israel do so as well. So on Saturday we went to church at the Center. It is such a beautiful building! All of the buildings in Jerusalem have to be built with limestone and the Jerusalem Center blends right in. It has beautiful archways. My favorite part is that from the chapel where you go for Sacrament Meeting you can see right out over Jerusalem. The picture here is the view from where we sat for the meeting. I lived at the Center for 2 months when I was in Israel in 2000 and I will never forget singing "There is a Green Hill Far Away" while looking out over that very hill.

You can see more (and better) pictures of the Center at http://ce.byu.edu/jc/ It is an 8-story building. There are a couple floors of student housing, a couple floors of classrooms, a cafeteria, a chapel, a floor for security, and then the top floor is the administration center and library. I just remember that there was only one elevator and students weren't allowed to use it. You really think twice about eating when you know you have to climb six flights of stairs to get to the cafeteria! The floors inside are limestone as well. Limestone is pretty soft so we were not allowed to roll our suitcases on the floor because it could damage them. I can remember a brigade of all the guys in our class going up the stairs tossing our suitcases up and up and up. But now this is turning into a blog about my trip 8 years ago...sorry.

The grounds are beautiful as well and lots of local couples come there to have their engagement and wedding photos taken. The chapel has a lovely organ and that room is used for community concerts on a weekly basis. There is no prosyletizing from the Center, but they still make sure they are a positive presence in the community.