Church of the Holy Sepulchre officials in Jerusalem disavow keymaster's refusal to receive U.S. Vice President Mike Pence

Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem.
And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it...
...In that day will I make the governors of Judah like an hearth of fire among the wood, and like a torch of fire in a sheaf; and they shall devour all the people round about, on the right hand and on the left: and Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place, even in Jerusalem...
... In that day shall the Lord defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David; and the house of David shall be as God, as the angel of the Lord before them.
And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. Zechariah 12:2-3, 6, 8-9

I can't recall the site or blog where I read a post earlier this year by a Christian who had visited the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and came away with the impression that the place is demonic--which may or may not have anything to do with the following, as reported by Dov Lieber of The Times of Israel, December 13, 2017 (link in original):

Officials at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem on Wednesday dismissed the significance of a letter written by the site’s Muslim keyholder in which he vowed not to receive US Vice President Mike Pence as irrelevant, since the man is not an official of the church and does not represent it.

A spokeswoman for Pence, who is due next week, said the vice president has not reached out to plan a visit to the church at this stage, and a church official said no visit had yet been planned.

Adeeb Jowdeh al-Husseini, the Custodian of the Keys to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, wrote in an Arabic statement this week that he “refuses completely to receive United States Vice President Pence in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.”

Stressing his opposition to US President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, Husseini further said he would not be present when the US vice president visits the church, and called on church leaders of the different denominations not to receive Pence.

However, no church visit is planned and Husseini does not represent the church, officials said.

Pence’s press secretary Alyssa Farah wrote on Twitter that Pence, who often plays up the role of Christianity in his public life, had never reached out regarding a visit to the holy site. “This report is false,” she wrote.

A senior church official also said no visit had been planned.

“We didn’t receive any formal or informal request and if there is a request, there is a status quo procedure to respect involving the three communities. Anyway it is not up to one of the key keepers to decide anything about this kind of issue,” the official said.

Two other church officials said Husseini is not a church official and does not represent any of the of Christian denominations who have a stake in the church where, according to Christian tradition, Jesus was buried.

“He is not an official and represents himself,” said one of them, Ibrahim Shomali, chancellor of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem.

Husseini is part of a long tradition of Muslim men who inherit the responsibility of opening and closing the Christian holy site in order to keep the status quo between all the different parties at this sensitive sacred spot.

“We will say to Mr. Trump, it’s not reasonable that one can give something away that doesn’t belong to him to someone that doesn’t deserve it,” wrote Jowdeh al-Husseini in his statement.

In an address last Wednesday from the White House, Trump defied worldwide warnings and insisted that after repeated failures to achieve peace, a new approach was long overdue, describing his decision to recognize Jerusalem as the seat of Israel’s government as merely based on reality.

The move was hailed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and by leaders across much of the Israeli political spectrum. Trump stressed that he was not specifying the boundaries of Israeli sovereignty in the city, and called for no change in the status quo at the city’s holy sites.

Last week, the senior Egyptian cleric Al-Azhar’s Grand Imam Ahmed al-Tayeb cancelled a scheduled meeting with Pence.

“Al-Azhar cannot sit with those who falsify history and steal the rights of people,” a statement said. “How can I sit with those who gave what they do not own to those who are undeserving?”

On Wednesday, the head of the Joint List of Arab parties in the Knesset said his faction would boycott Pence’s speech to the parliament.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas also cancelled a planned meeting with Pence.

On Saturday Abbas’s diplomatic adviser, Majdi Khaldi, said that a meeting planned between the PA president and Pence was canceled “because the US has crossed red lines” on Jerusalem.

Abbas had viewed close ties with Washington as strategically important because of the US role as Mideast broker. The snub of Pence signaled a sharp deterioration in relations.

The White House warned on Thursday that canceling the meeting planned for the West Bank would be “counterproductive.”

Jibril Rajoub, a senior member of Abbas’s Fatah party, had said Friday that Pence was “not welcome in Palestine.”

As reported by Julia Manchester of the Washington newspaper The Hill, December 13, 2017 (link in original):

The official custodian in charge of the keys to one of the most sacred sites in Christianity will not welcome Vice President Pence when he visits the Old City of Jerusalem this month.

“It has come to our attention that Vice President Pence intends to make an official visit to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, and asked me to receive him officially,” Adeeb Joudeh, who is responsible for the keys to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, wrote in a letter on Wednesday, according to Israel's Channel 2 News.

“I absolutely refuse to officially welcome the American Vice President Mr. Mike Pence at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and I will not be physically in church during his visit," he continued.

“This is an expression of my condemnation of President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel."

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is located in the Christian Quarter of Jerusalem's Old City and is said to contain the sites where Jesus Christ was crucified and where Christians believe he was buried and resurrected.

Officials from the church have downplayed the importance of Joudeh's letter.

“We didn’t receive any formal or informal request and if there is a request, there is a status quo procedure to respect involving the three communities. Anyway it is not up to one of the key keepers to decide anything about this kind of issue,” a church official said, according to The Times of Israel.

A senior church official told the publication that no visit had been planned.

Pence, who was raised Roman Catholic and now identifies as an evangelical Christian, is set to travel throughout the region this month seeking an "end to the persecution of Christians and all religious minorities."

However, a prominent Christian group in the region has signaled they will not welcome Pence on his official visit in the wake of Trump's decision on Jerusalem.

The leader of Egypt's Coptic Christian Church said last week he will not meet with Pence, saying Trump's decision came "at an unsuitable time and without consideration for the feelings of millions of people."

A group of Christian churches in Jerusalem also penned a letter to President Trump urging him not to recognize Jerusalem as the capital, prior to his announcement last week...