The church itself is Presbyterian and has regular services in English, Dutch, and French. It is the city's only Reform or Calvinist church, with a small but regular congregation. A guesthouse with a difference is also a feature of the Sisters of Zion Convent in the Jerusalem suburb of Ein Kerem, where John the Baptist was born. Ein Kerem, though officially within the Jerusalem municipal boundaries, retains the charm of a hillside village, cut off from the hustle and bustle of the city. The rustic atmosphere is accentuated at the Sisters of Zion Convent by the nuns, who grow their own fruits and vegetables and keep bees on their extensive grounds.
Visitors can wander through groves of olive and citrus trees.
While some of the nuns are French, the current directress of the Sisters of Zion, Sister Donna, hails from Saskatchewan, Canada. This will be her first Christmas in charge of the convent, although she has spent many years in Israel. We do not offer our guests at Christmas anything special in material terms, only the opportunity to join us in this very simple and stark spiritual experience. The convent was built in 1860 by Theodore Ratisbonne, younger brother of Alfonse Ratisbonnes, who founded the Sisters of Zion movement in France, headquartered today in Rome. The Ein Kerem convent served as a girls' orphanage until 1945, and several of its buildings were subsequently converted into a guesthouse.