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.

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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.

Tuesday of Holy Week

The Risen With Christ Course started the day at Pater Noster, the church originally built over a grotto where it is believed Jesus taught his apocalyptic discourses during the first Holy Week.  Today it mostly commemorates the teaching of the Lord's Prayer.  The conversation about Jesus's teaching about the end times, and the relation those lessons have to preaching and teaching in the 21st century was very rich.  Then we walked down the Mount of Olives, retracing much of the route we took on Sunday, to the Church of all Nations (also known as the Church of the Agony) and the Garden of Gethsemane.  The combination of the garden and church and the passage out of Luke about Jesus's prayer in the garden was sobering, to say the least.  We finished the day with a lecture anticipating the Ceremony of Holy Fire on Saturday--something very new to me as a western Christian.

Monday of Holy Week

The Raising of Lazarus

Lazarus's empty tomb

 For Monday of Holy Week we read the Gospel narratives of Holy Week--comparing and contrasting.  What an experience to be doing so with so knowledgeable group of lay and clergy as those who have come to be part of Holy Week here this year.  In the afternoon we traveled to Bethany, the home of Mary and Martha and Lazarus, to reprise the stories of Jesus's the two times Jesus was anointed there in the week or so before his crucifixion, and of course to visit Lazarus's tomb and the church which commemorates the way Jesus raised him from death.  As we gathered on the SGC rooftop to reflect on the day, we could see the full moon rise--marking the beginning of Passover.  One of our pilgrims brought this nugget:  Eastern and Western Holy Weeks coincide every three years, Passover occurs during Western Holy Week once every 17 years.  It must be awhile before all three will happen like this again.

Palm Sunday 2014--In Jerusalem!

Today was a day of liturgies.  The first was a small Liturgy of the Palms and Palm/Passion Sunday in the Cathedral of Saint George's Saint Michael's chapel.  The second was a much larger service which formed up in the Saint George's College parking lot for the Liturgy of the Palms, and a grand procession into the Cathedral for Holy Eucharist.

The third was the ecumenical procession from the Church in Bethphage down the Mount of Olives, across the Kidron Valley and up through the Lion's Gate and into the city of Jerusalem.  An early estimate forecast a crowd of about 30,000.  I don't know how many people were in the procession, but the 2+ mile walk took a little over 2 hours to accomplish.  We had people of every nation walking with us, and many were using portable amplification systems to share their music and songs.

There were guitars and drums and trumpets, and music of every kind and in all kinds of languages.  And, of course, there was dancing in the street.  It was enough to put one in mind of Pentecost!  How joyous!  How wonderful to be here where it all happened! What a great way to begin our participation in Holy Week!

Muslim-Christian Interfaith Dialogue--Part 2

 As we continued our week together, the Christians in the group were invited to enter the Al Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock on the Harem es Sharrif--a rare privilege considering today's political situation.

The Al Aqsa Mosque is a place of prayer, and five times a day the call to prayer begins with the singing of a phrase in Arabic that means "God is grater than".   Our Muslim lecturer told us that in English the thought is incomplete, but in Arabic it means that God is greater than whatever you are doing, and that it is time to pray.  On Fridays at noon there are about 10,000 who come to the Al Aqsa to pray.  During Ramadan there are upwards of 200,000 who attend Friday noon day prayers there, over flowing onto the entire Harem.


Next we visited the Dome of the Rock, a shrine commemorating Muslim remembrance of a night journey from Mecca to Jerusalem by the prophet Mohammed.  For Muslims its the place where Abraham almost sacrificed his son Ismael.  The interior is now under restoration, but the depth of its decoration makes the Al Aqsa look plain by comparison.  The rock under the dome is held by Jews to be the Foundation Stone, from which all creation began, and the place where Abraham almost sacrificed his son Issac.  It might also be the place where the Holy of Holys of the Jewish temples stood. For Christians it marks the location of the temple where Jesus over turned the tables of the buyers and sellers, and had his final (or initial) conflict with the Jewish temple elders.


This last photo is of part of a quote from the Koran's version of the Annunciation to the Virgin Mary that she would have a son.

Muslim-Christian Interfaith Dialogue

This week Saint George's College has been hosting 14 Christian and Muslim religious leaders for a conference aimed at creating greater understanding between the two faith traditions.  13 of the 14 are from the UK, and 6 are Muslim.  Bishop Richard Cheetham has called the group together and is leading the development of the dialogue.  We've heard from Christian, Muslim and Jewish leaders and scholars as we have visited sites holy to the three faith traditions.  The heart of the dialogue has been focused on the Muslim-Christian interface within the Abrahamic traditions.  Yesterday we visited the Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth--on the feast of the annunciation!  There we read the account of the annunciation as found in Luke's Gospel.  Last night we sort of got down the the "nitty-gritty" as we heard a reading from the Koran about the birth of Jesus.   The heart of the story is similar enough for Christians to recognize it, but the last few verses turn the story a little side-wise as they become a intentional correction to the Christian understanding that Jesus is indeed the Son of God.  This started the conversation!

I'm very happy to say that the conversation was completely respectful on both sides, and that the group seems to genuinely have a great deal of affection and respect for everyone who has been brave enough to come here to this focal point of so much religious strife--Jerusalem.  I think the honesty and openness of this conference is a very hopeful sign of what can be done to promote understanding and peace in our world.

Palestine of Jesus Course 3 Complete, a Little Break

We completed our third Palestine of Jesus Course last week to a new phenomena for us--rain.  Since we arrived in Jerusalem back in January there has been almost no rain in Israel, and last week it rained almost every day.  I don't know how much rain fell, but the fig tree outside our window has sprouted new leaves and the grass in the garden under it seems to have grown inches.  I think mother nature is saying thank you.

We took a short break this weekend to visit Tel Aviv.  The contrast between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv is dramatic in almost every aspect.  Jerusalem is in the mountains, the climate is very dry, and religion seems to dominate life.  Tel Aviv is on the Mediterranean Sea, the air is always humid, and having fun seems to dominate life.  We stayed in a hotel near the beach, and saw lots of folks walking their dogs, roller-blading, jogging, playing "beach tennis," and riding their bikes.  We even ate in a non-kosher restaurant that had a cheese burger!

While there we visited one of the world's oldest sea ports in Jaffa, and saw the place tradition holds to be the house of Simon the Tanner of Acts fame.  We might regard Simon's house as the place where Peter received God's message that the Good News of Christ was also for the gentiles, but our walking-tour guide saw it as the place where Christianity broke with Judaism.

It felt really good to get back to Saint George's College today, and to dive back into preparations for the Christian-Muslem Interfaith Dialogue Course that starts later this week.

Grocery Shopping in East Jerusalem

We are between courses at Saint George's, and that means the dining room is closed.  Judy and I have been preparing meals in our little kitchen, and that means grocery shopping.  The nearest market belongs to Marwan, and we have been there enough that we can greet each other my name now.  "Salaam Marwan, kiefhalik?"  He kindly replies in English.  His marked is about 16' wide by 24' deep, and (fortunately) about 12 ' tall.  He doesn't sell vegetables, or fresh meat or bead, but he has just about everything else--the dry cereal is up high and he retrieves your election with a long pole with a nail in its end.  When we wanted something he didn't have in stock, he set it aside for us the next time he had it--when the change didn't work out exactly right, we owed him an extra 10 shekels the next time we were in.  What a wonderful experience.

Tuesday 2/11/2014 Saint George's College visited the Princess Basma Center--a rehabilitation center and school for all of the children of Jerusalem with disabilities.  Bishop Dawani joined us as we heard from the hospital's director about the ministry of the Diocese of Jerusalem through Princess Basma.  The room with the bunk beds is one used to house mother and child for 3 months while the child receives therapy and the mother learns to continue it at home.  They do so much with so little.  Their school teaches grades K through Middle School, some 600 students, in an environment that integrates children with disabilities into the mainstream classroom.  The center's hydrotherapy facility is closed due to the lack of $4500 per month to heat the water--sad.  It was a very moving day!

Visiting the Home of the Good Samaritan

While we were up north, we visited the Samaritan community on Mount Gerizim.  There are two Samaritan communities now days, the other is near Tel Aviv.  There are only about 750 Samaritans in total.  The first picture is of the Dean of Saint George's College, the Very Rev. Graham Dean, greeting the Samaritan Priest who spoke to our group of pilgrims from VTS.  The second picture is of the priest introducing the Samaritan alphabet to us, explaining that it is different from the Hebrew alphabet because it has never changed--and is thus the true alphabet for the children of Abraham.

The Samaritans accept as scripture only the Torah.  They still practice animal sacrifice, but only at passover.  On that occasion the whole of the Samaritan people gather on Mt. Gerizim for the celebration on their liberation from bondage in Egypt.  To understand more about who the Samaritans are and how they came to be separate from the the Jews, Nehemiah 13 is helpful.

Mike

The course has just returned from Galilee--half done with our 14 days.  One of the highlights was renewing our baptismal vows at the Jordan River.  Notice my bare feet!

Settling in our Apartment at St. George's College

We are settling in our apartment (~286 sq ft)  at St. George's College.  Having fun exploring the surrounding area to obtain food and other necessities in various shops and markets.  The first pilgrims should arrive later today!

In Jerusalem!

Judy and I arrived in Jerusalem yesterday (January 7) after a little more than 48 hours of travel.  Considering the travel difficulties all over the US in the past several days, we feel fortunate.

We are getting settled into our apartment in Saint George's College, and today held meetings with the Course Director and Logistic Officer.

The first course of our time here begins next Wednesday--a group from my old alma mater, Virginia Theological Seminary.  How wonderful!