For starters, all participants dress in sackcloth and ashes. It’s never too late to repent.

How about a spitting contest?

Mike,

Fabulous news about Laodicea. When I was there, they had just started the dig, and they’ve made great progress.

By the way, the immediate area is rich in Christian history. There is Colossae, a city St. Paul wrote to, and Hierapolis, where the deacon Philip was martyred. Hieraoplis was also the home town of Abercius, Bishop of Hierapolic, who traveled to Rome in the third century, and had his experience commemorated in stone. The Abercius Inscription is a great source of early Church history.

On top of that, Hierapolis is built on top of one of the great natural wonders of the world, the so-called “Cotton Castle”, a giant outcrop of Travertine Marble. It can be seen for miles around, and it is fabulous. all in all, it would be a great pilgrimage destination, if a person happened to be in that part of the world to begin with…

Peace!

Carl

Hmm, how about a mass taste test of the local tepid, vomit-inducing mineral water? That’d be a sight for the press!

I suppose they haven’t found the remains of any early churches, or perhaps those ended up in the lime kilns or to build houses, knowing what locals tend to be like….

They have found the remains of a fourth century basilica, but nothing earlier. Yes, the ancient city was mostly quarried by later civilizations.

[…] According to the Turkish Press, the ancient city of Laodicea is being excavated. The city was famous for its warm mineral springs. People flocked to it to bathe, thinking the water had healing properties. The water was not really fit for drinking, which may be behind the seers mention of the city in the book of Revelation: “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were cold or hot. cj(3,16); So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will vomit you out of my mouth.“ Mike Aquilina of THE WAY OF THE FATHERS writes: “the biblical city of Laodicea, renowned for its lukewarmness (see Rev 3:14-22), is making a comeback. Its streets, now excavated, will be once again “open to the public with a ceremony some 1,300 years after being all but completely abandoned.”Let your imagination go wild. What kind of ceremony would you plan?” To which Kevin Edgecomb responds: “Hmm, how about a mass taste test of the local tepid, vomit-inducing mineral water? That’d be a sight for the press!” […]

A few of those fountains where the water comes out the stone dude’s mouth might be the right touch.