Structures of Faith: The Holy Sepulchre Church over Time

The course aims to introduce listeners to the development of the Holy Sepulchre Church's complex of structures, from the time of Jesus to the most recent excavations. The hope is that in so doing, we will challenge ourselves to consider seriously how physical, timebound reality and the intangible, eternal realities of faith interact in mutually revelatory ways.

Today the Holy Sepulchre Church, or the Church of the Resurrection, is the heart of Christian Jerusalem. For centuries, it was the heart of the Christian world. The hundreds of thousands of pilgrims who visit the city annually, still look on it as their ultimate pilgrimage goal. To those who know how to "read" the layers of its stones, the church's structures offer a visible history of how the Church, living in the intersection between time and eternity, has expressed its faith in widely differing political situations.Each of the 4 course sessions will introduce one aspect of that visible history.

Course Information

Course Description

Live sessions: Tuesday at 8:00 p.m. EST (August 5-26)
Access: July 29 - September 30
Course cost: $200

This is a non-credit and non-transferable course. This online course includes 4 live discussion sessions with the professor (Q&A), 4 pre-recorded lectures, 4 presentation slides based on the lectures, and optional reading material, as well as the recorded live discussion sessions. The live discussion will take place via Zoom every Tuesday at 8:00 p.m. ET (August 5-26). You will have access to all the course material from July 29 - September 30.

Discussion Sessions: ~ 45 minutes each, including introduction, asynchronous material review by the professor, and Q&A (you will be able to submit your questions to the professor before each Zoom live discussion session).

Important: After registration, please note that the course will be available from July 29 - September 30; during this time you will have access to all the lectures, slides, and reading material, as well as the recordings of the live sessions after they are completed. You will need the username and password that you created to log into the course.

There will be no refunds after July 28, 2025.

This is a wonderful opportunity to hear from and work with the dynamic faculty of St Vladimir’s Seminary.

Professor
Roberta R. Ervine, Professor of Armenian Christian Studies

Roberta Ervine was blessed to be a long-time disciple of the late Abp. Norayr Bogharian, curator of manuscripts for the Armenian Monastery of St. James in Jerusalem, and of Bp. Guregh Kapikian, Overseer of the Status Quo in the Holy Places. She taught in Jerusalem’s Holy Translators School and lectured at other Jerusalem institutions, before joining the faculty at St. Nersess Armenian Seminary, in Armonk, NY.

Her primary research interests are in the history of Jerusalem’s Armenian community, and medieval Armenian patristics. She holds a doctorate from Columbia University New York, where she studied under the late Nina Garsoian.