The Immovable Ladder

The immovable ladder, Church of Holy Sepulchre, made of cedar wood has remained in the same exact location, since the 18th century. Could it have been for a window cleaner?

The Metaphor of the Immovable Ladder (by Kathy Schiffer) - Some years ago, a coworker told me the story of the vacuum cleaner and the bow.  My coworker was by nature a neatnik, putting his dirty clothes in the hamper and his mail in the trash as a matter of habit. When he married a woman who was a clutterer, there began a silent war between the two.  She left the upright vacuum cleaner sitting in the living room; and after several days, he made his point–adorning it with a large red bow.  There it stood from that time forward, a reminder of the great chasm between his impeccable lifestyle and her more casual approach to housework.

I hadn’t thought of that vacuum cleaner for years, until I read recently about the Immovable Ladder. The Ladder–with its five or six rungs of cedar–leans against an upper window of Jerusalem’s famed Church of the Holy Sepulchre.  It’s stood in the same spot for at least 150 years. What’s it doing there?

The Old City of Jerusalem is home to many religious sites, one of which is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.  Completed in the year 335, the church sits atop the site where it’s believed that Jesus was crucified and buried. The Immovable Ladder–leaning, as it does, against an upper window at the iconic church–is one of the most powerful symbols of the divisions and religious disputes within the Christian world.

Atlas Obscura explains the controversy which prevents workmen from putting the ladder away in its proper place: The care over the church is shared by no less than six denominations. The primary custodians are the Greek Orthodox, Armenian Apostolic and Roman Catholic churches, with lesser duties shared by Coptic, Ethiopian and Syriac Orthodox churches. The whole edifice is carefully parceled into sections, some being commonly shared while others belong strictly to a particular sect. A set of complicated rules governs the transit rights of the other groups through each particular section on any given day, and especially during the holidays.

When the complicated rules have been broken, fisticuffs have sometimes been the result.  Christianity Today reported on one 2002 incident in which eleven people suffered various injuries:  “…chairs, iron bars, and fists flew on the roof of one of the most revered sites in Christianity, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. When the dust cleared, seven Ethiopian Orthodox monks and four Egyptian (Coptic) monks had been injured. The fight started when an Egyptian monk decided to move his chair into the shade—technically, argued the Ethiopians, encroaching on the latter’s jurisdiction.”

Church of the Holy Sepulchre in 1885. The Immovable Ladder is visible below the top-right window. Click to enlarge.

So, the members of all six denominations are careful not to offend one another, lest they trigger another violent incident. And so, the ladder remains.  It’s unclear to which denomination the ladder belongs, or which denomination has control of the wall against which it rests. In fact, it’s uncertain why it’s there, when it was placed there, and–most importantly–who put it there. As early as 1757, the ladder is mentioned in writings.  Beginning in the mid-1850s, it shows up in photographs and lithographs. And in 1853, Sultan Abdulmecid I of the Ottoman Empire, who ruled Jerusalem at the time, issued a decree now known as the “status quo.”  The sultan’s decree designated certain areas of the church as “common areas” which could not be altered unless all six of the controlling denominations agreed.

The ladder is subject to the status quo doctrine; so unless all six denominations agree about what to do with the ladder, it cannot be moved. For the most part, the ladder has remained stationary for the last 150 years.  It’s been temporarily moved a few times–falling to pranksters or thieves.  In 2009, the ladder was moved to the left window, perhaps to facilitate cleaning; but no one has been willing to take the blame for moving it.

And so the ladder, like my friend’s vacuum cleaner, isn’t going anywhere.

The Immovable Ladder - literally: The status quo ladder: is a wooden ladder located above the facade, under the window of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the Old City of Jerusalem. Made of cedar wood, possibly from Lebanon, it was first mentioned in 1757 and has remained in the same exact location since the 18th century, aside from being temporarily moved on two occasions. The ladder is referred to as immovable due to an understanding that no cleric of the six ecumenical Christian orders may move, rearrange, or alter any property without the consent of the other five orders.

The Status Quo ladder: Upon the pontifical orders of Pope Paul VI in 1964, the ladder was to remain in place until such a time when the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church reach a state of ecumenism. The ladder has since been related to the agreement of Status Quo which defined the six Christian religious orders which claim rights over the use of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The primary conflicts, however, surrounding the ladder and its immovability have been disputed by a lasting conflict between the Greek Orthodox Church and the Armenian Orthodox Church.

According to various accounts, the ladder once belonged to a mason who was working restoration in the Holy Sepulchre. The first account by mention of the ladder was related to a Firman or edict dated in 1757 by Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid I followed by another edict by Sultan Abdülmecid I in 1852. The ladder is thought to be owned by the Armenian Orthodox Church along with its accompanying ledge.

Various lithographs show that the ladder was in place by the late 1830s. Possibly the oldest image is an engraving which the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land dates to 1728. While the Franciscans make no reference to the ladder, something in the form of a ladder can be seen in the right window above the entrance. The earliest photograph showing the ladder dates from the 1850s.

In 1981, just a month after the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II, an attempt to remove the ladder from its location was made, but was quickly prevented by local Israeli police though the culprit was not caught. In 1997, the ladder was removed (pictured) and remained missing for weeks. Thought to be a prank, it was returned later amidst rumor of further conflicts between the Armenian Orthodox Church and the Greek Orthodox Church leaders.[4] In 2009 the ladder was moved again. It was placed against the left window for a short period, perhaps in order to clear scaffoldings at the completion of renovating the bell tower.

Ecumenical significance: Objectively, the ladder is not an absolute measure of ecumenism. Various key differences in rituals, liturgy, dogma and theology points divide the two churches, rather than the dispute over ownership and use of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. However, during his pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 1964, Pope Paul VI described the ladder as a visible symbol of Christian division,[6] and it is generally regarded as culturally significant as visible symbol of the Status Quo agreement among the six ecumenical Christian orders.

In his book Jerusalem: The Biography, author Simon Sebag Montefiore says that "tour guides claim [the ladder] can never be moved without other sects seizing it. In fact, the ladder leads to a balcony where the Armenian superior used to drink coffee with his friends and tend his flower garden: it is there so that the balcony can be cleaned."