The church of all nations is at the base of the Mt. of Olives, and within the confines of the traditional site of the Garden of Gethsemane, which determines so much about the inside of the church Antonio Barluzzi (who also did the beautiful round chapel at Shepherd’s Fields). This church was built at the end of WWI, between 1919-24, a very different church than the church of the Nativity. Pilgrims like us usually get there by walking down from the top of the Mt. of Olives after the obligatory photos either at the top, or at Dominus Flevit, the beautiful little chapel named after the shortest verse in the NT– ‘Jesus wept’.
The view is pretty breathtaking, and at the top there is also the large Jewish graveyard. Why is it there? Because according to Orthodox Jewish tradition, Messiah will come across the Mt. of Olives into Jerusalem and the faithful want to be first to be raised to greet him.
The graveyard…
Notice the stones of remembrance laid on some of the graves, usually by former students of a beloved rabbi.
Here is Dominus Flevit… Notice the top is shaped like a teardrop, and the two vases at the top were for catching tears….
It is the Franciscans who maintain the beautiful garden of Gethsemane site. 
The church of all Nations is beautiful but also somber and sobering. There is a rock up at the altar where one can pray at a site like where Jesus prayed, ‘if it be possible, let this cup pass…’ Notice first the doorway with emblems of olive trees on the door. Gethsemane means ‘olive press’
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