Another Year in the Holy Land--Inshallah!

Judy and I have been asked to stay at Saint George's College in Jerusalem for another year, and after a great deal of prayer, and consultation with our daughters (who are managing our affairs in the USA), we have agreed.  So, Inshallah (Arabic for God Willing), we will be spending 2015 here in the Holy Land.

I will continue to serve as the College Chaplain, and Judy will continue to serve as Course Assistant.  The Course Assistant role has developed as the year has moved on, and now means that Judy has  picked up several responsibilities.  Drawing on here years of Nursing, she has had many occasions to use her first aide skills, and to do nursing assessments for ailing pilgrims.  On at least one occasion she helped the local clinic to understand the seriousness of a pilgrim's condition.  Restocking the first aide kit (which I carry around with us) had become a regular part of preparing for our next group's arrival.

The Chaplain's role has evolved also, and I'm pleased to say the meditations and presentations have matured over the year.  So has the partnership with our Course Director, The Rev. Dr. Rodney Aist.  One of the joy's of this year has been to get to know him and to work with him.  I think our 2015 courses will be stronger for the maturity on both fronts.

The Inshallah part of the whole thing seems to be the political situation here in Israel/Palestine." The 5 week war in Gaza really hit travel to this part of the world hard.  The College lost a complete course in the days after some US airlines chose not to fly into Tel Aviv.  Judy and I returned from a brief vacation to staff that course--the plane on which we were flying was less that half full.  The streets in the Old City of Jerusalem were empty and the traffic at the venues we visit was nil.  Now the tensions seem to have settled in Jerusalem.  The conflict over who is to control the Haram es Sharif/Temple Mount and have the right to worship there seems to be reaching a fever pitch.  The conflict over who has the right to live in East Jerusalem seems to be growing also.  When we pray for Peace in Israel/Palestine and in Jerusalem, we do so knowing that peace or violence not only effect the College.  Peace or violence have much greater impact on those who are trying to live here, and those who wish to worship here.

The Christian presence in Jerusalem and the Holy Land is numerically small, but the indigenous Christians and we expats try to maintain a call for reconciliation, and for peace grounded in justice.  Judy has hooked me up with a recent book by Desmond Tutu and his daughter Mpho.  It is entitled The Book of Forgiving, and it is informed by the Truth and Reconciliation work done in South Africa after the fall of apartheid.  I find myself wondering if the situation here is really that much more intractable than the one in South Africa.

Our main mission will remain that of seeing that pilgrims and students of Saint George's College have the best experience of the Holy Land possible.  Our prayer is that they will see the land where Jesus lived, walk where he walked, and hear the scriptures in the places where the stories happened, and take it all home with them in their hearts.  Our secondary mission is to pray peace into this dramatic, beautiful and troubled region.

God willing we will be here another year, serving our Lord at this wonderful institution.  Please keep us in your prayers.  Come see the Holy Land with us if you can.

Mike+

Retreat on the Sites

June has been a busy month here at Saint George's College Jerusalem, and an important part of it has been a special course with the Rev. Dr. Andrew Mayes entitled Retreat on the Sites.

Saint George's Colleges Jerusalem's Palestine of Jesus course does a great job of introducing serious minded pilgrims to the life and land of Jesus.  It follows the earthly ministry of Jesus, tracing the incarnation from the Annunciation to the Ascension by visiting the sites where the events took place (often as best we know or according to the pilgrim tradition), reading and reflecting on the appropriate scriptures, and looking seriously at what modern archaeology and study reveal about the setting and times of Jesus' life and ministry.  The pace of the course is not rushed, but the days are very full.  By the end of the Palestine of Jesus course, no one who attends it will ever read the Gospel accounts the same way again.  The Palestine of Jesus is Saint George's signature course.

The Retreat on the Sites course was different.  Dr. Mayes took us into the liminal spaces in Jesus' life, and asked us to live there for a time.  We renewed baptismal vows at the Jordan, and spent time reflecting on what it meant for Jesus to leave Nazareth, cross the Jordan from West to East and then travel south to the place John was baptizing, and to cross the Jordan again, from East to West, leaving behind his life as a techton (carpenter?) and entering into a new life, responding to a call from God.  We spent quiet time in the Judean wilderness, exposed to the sun and wind, or embraced by the earth in a cave, wondering at the time Jesus spent in prayer and fasting before (or during?) his temptations to take his ministry in a different way.  We spent time on the Mediterranean shore, thinking about what that western horizon might have represented to Jesus and his disciples, and about what effect the encounter with the Syrophoenician woman might have had on him.  We spent time in a olive grove near Gethsemane, thinking and praying about things we might need to relinguish if we truly are to live in accordance with God's will for us.

Sharing Holy Eucharist

The Church of the Beatitudes

A high light of the course for me was sharing in the Holy Eucharist in a beautiful outdoor chapel at the Church of the Beatitudes, on the top of the Mountain of Beatitudes, above the shore of the Sea of Galilee on Pentecost Sunday.  I wore the red stole that once belonged to the Rev. Richard Brown of Medway, Massachusetts, which his widow gave me hoping that it might see service in the Holy Land.  Through it Fr. Brown was there with us as we celebrated another liminal moment in our Christian history--the birthing of the church, and the empowering of the disciples to go forth and change the world.

The Retreat on the Sites was another blessing of our year in the Holy Land and ministry to pilgrims.

The Mission of the Church in Nablus

On May 22 our plans for visiting the refugee camp in Nablus fell through, so a Plan B for the day was created, with visits to two wonderful surprises.  The first was the Hospital the Diocese of Jerusalem supports--a small institution with a wonderful staff and a powerful niche in the Nablus health care scene.

Proud Staff Members pf St. Luke's Hospital

We received an extensive tour of the facility, met many of the staff, and had the opportunity to pray for a patient in a long-term coma.  The staff are justly proud of the role they occupy in caring for those who fall outside the health care insurance coverage of the general populace of the region.



Next we visited Saint Philips Episcopal Church.  A little less that 2% of the population of Nablus are Christians, and only about 10% of them are Anglicans, but they are a true force in the community.  We were able to meet and be greeted and impressed by the kindergarten class as we arrived.  We were also privileged to hear the Rector, Fr. Abraham, speak of the mission trip his older teens will be making to Virginia this summer--helping the poor of the USA with home maintenance!

An Enthusiastic Group--Who Greeted us in English!

Fr. Abraham of St. Philips

Holy Saturday in the Holy City

Holy Saturday in the Holy City

Sit down with a cup of coffee for this one!

Saturday of Holy Week we attended the Orthodox (Greek, Russian, Egyptian, Armenian...) Ceremony of Holy Fire at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.  In the Orthodox traditions all the sanctuary fires are extinguished on Good Friday, and in this part of the world, at least, relighted from a new fire that is miraculously kindled in the tomb of the Holy Sepulcher on Holy Saturday.  Thousands gather from all over Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia to witness the Holy Fire, and some come to take it home to relight those sanctuary fires on Easter Sunday. 

We left the college 8:30, walked around the Old City, and waited behind a security barrier until about 10:30.  

Waiting Behind a Security Barrier

Dressed for Holy Fire!

The Israeli security guards found entrance ID’s for our pilgrims, waved the clergy in, then, at the last minute, let Judy in--they said that with her black shawl, black jersey and black skirt, she could pass for a nun!

We walked from the Zion Gate to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, arriving about 11:00.  The security gates were closing right behind us, so we thought we might be the last to enter.  But when we got to the outer courtyard, there were thousands more waiting to enter.

About 11:15 more folks came in, and the pushing and shoving began.  About 11:30 another group entered, and the pushing and shoving became quite intense.  When things settled down a little, I made acquaintances with some folks from Egypt on my right from Russia on my left.  Then, about 12:00 noon, some folks showed up who bullied their way through the very densely packed crowd until they were up front. (I now understand that it is a kindness that they kill sardines before they put them into cans.)  By 12:10 the temperature in the crowd must have 98.6.  Waiting was excruciating.

The Procession Begins!

At a few minutes before 2:00 a great procession began around the tomb.   Then at 2:00 all the lights were turned off.  A few minutes after 2:00 the Greek Patriarch entered the tomb, followed shortly by the Armenian Patriarch.   (We couldn't see any of that.)  After a minute or two, they emerged with the Holy Fire.  They passed the flames to others, who passed it outward to the crowd.  Almost everyone was carrying at least one bundle of 33 candles (one for each year of Jesus’s life), so within seconds the church was brightly illuminated.   Within minutes it was also full of smoke.  As the passing of the fire began, there was a huge surge toward the tomb.  As the fire spread, there was a surge away from the flames.

It took nearly a half hour of being pushed and shoved to exit the smoke-filled church.  We left hot, exhausted, dehydrated and famished.

I think there were at least 10,000 inside the church for the ceremony.

The Ceremony Begins

About 8:00 in the evening, we attended the Ethiopian Easter Vigil (part of it anyway) on the roof of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.  

The Light Grows.

Again the crowd was huge, and since the ceremony lasted for hours and hours, the Israeli security folks let groups up to the roof-top as crowd conditions allowed.  Our little group was among the few non-Africans on the roof-top during our time there.  We were welcomed with smiles, and made to feel at home.  A ceremony was taking place across the roof top, which seemed to involve lighting candles.  Soon the light was overcoming the darkness, and people were sharing their candles with us. 

The Darkness Is Overcome.

 A great procession began around one of the rooftop domes, with folks in elaborate costumes, a large banner, umbrellas (apparently at trademark of Ethiopian celebrations), and an elaborate processional cross and drums.  

The Great Procession

Before long folks were dancing in the procession, and our Course Director, Rodney, was pulled out of our little island of non-Africans and into the dance.  

One of Many Umbrellas

After a little more than an hour we made our way out, and others were allowed into the celebration.  I don’t know how many folks attended the Vigil, but I’m sure the party went on for a long time.  I smiled all the way back to Saint George’s College.

Friday of Holy Week--Good Friday in Jerusalem
We began the day by attending the Ecumenical Way of the Cross.  Together with Lutherans and Methodists and Anglicans of all description (about 200 of us), we sang, chanted and prayed our way through the traditional stations of the cross down the Via Dolorosa in the Old City of Jerusalem.  At one point we converged with three other groups who were also doing the Stations of the Cross--what a chorus it was, and in at least 4 languages!  Then, after a late breakfast, we sat for an hour sharing perspectives on the passion--a very rich conversation indeed.  At noon we a Veneration of the Cross service at Saint George's Cathedral, with Holy Communion from the Reserve Sacrament.  Then, after lunch, we attended the Solemn Burial Service at the Armenian Cathedral--again, lots of very good chanting and lots of incense, and lots of processing.  The Armenians really know how to be ceremonial!  Between Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday and Good Friday observances, we finished the day having attended 8 Holy Week Liturgies.

Maundy Thursday in Jerusalem

Wow did the pace of things pick up on Maundy Thursday!  We started out the morning by heading to the Holy Sepulcher for an Orthodox Foot Washing ceremony.  The ceremony is held to remember and re-enact Jesus's washing of the disciple's feet on the night of the last supper.  The ceremony in held on the Parva, the large court yard outside the entrance to the church. We never made it into the  court yard because, an hour before the scheduled start of the ceremony, it was already full.  So we turned right, went up a few stairs, and attended a Coptic ceremony instead.  There was room for us to sit, lots of chanting, lots of changes of vestments, but I had to leave 75 minutes into the ceremony (because of the Chrism Mass at Saint George's Cathedral) without seeing any feet being washed.  In the afternoon we attended another Foot Washing ceremony at the Armenian Cathedral.  There were places to sit for (only) the clergy, there was lots of very good chanting, lots of incense, and the Armenian Patriarch  washed the feet of his bishops.  Then in the evening we attended the Foot Washing Mass at Saint George's Cathedral--our pilgrims and course leader were among the 12 representatives of the people who had their feet washed by our Diocesan Bishop, Suhiel Dawani.  By the time we made it to bed, we had been into the Old City twice, and attended 3 (some of us 4) substantial liturgies.

Show less

1

Wednesday of Holy Week

Wednesday of Holy Week was crowned by a time of reflection at the Church of Peter in Gallicantu--the place that commemorates the house of Caiaphas the High Priest, where Jesus's trial took place and where Peter denied him.  The art work of this beautiful place truly captures the scope of Peter's denial, remorse, and his restoration into the role Jesus gave him as the "keeper of the keys."

We spent the afternoon with a lecture of the Orthodox liturgies of the next 4 days.  Now our stage is set for Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Morning.

Saint Peter in Gallicantu Church

And Peter went out and wept bitterly.