The Archbishop’s Pilgrimage to Jerusalem
Day 8 - Churches over time
The picture you see is of a church building spanning 2000 years. The oldest part is the lowest and dates from the latter part of the 1st century AD. Immediately above, with beautiful murals not contained in this picture, is the Byzantine church from the 4th century. On top of this is the crusader church marked by large columns and a more angular feel to the boundaries and stone employed. Finally on top of this is the current Church of the Annunciation which attracts pilgrims from across the world who worship alongside a regular local community.
This ancient Christian site claims to be the place where the angel Gabriel appeared to the Virgin Mary and brought the news she would bear the Christ-child. This story is sometimes dismissed as legendary and only intended to explain the mystery of the incarnation (how God could take human flesh). It seems to me that the greater miracle is the incarnation itself. If God truly became human in the person of Jesus Christ, it seems a relatively minor matter to bring this about miraculously too.
However the striking matter from today’s visit are those churches, built and rebuilt over time. In every generation, God renews the church to meet the needs of that time. Sometimes this is expressed in very concrete ways with new architecture. At other times we see God bringing change through new movements and with new faith that is mobile and fresh. What will determine the success of these will always be the question asked by the angel of that young girl in Nazareth and whether our answer reflects her response. May it always be yes.
Day 7 - The Holy Spirit of Hope
This morning we celebrated Pentecost in Jerusalem and heard once more the story of the Holy Spirit falling on the disciples. The service was utterly joyful and included churches from the whole diocese gathered at the Lord's table.
Here in this land of differences and divides it was good to pray that God the Holy Spirit might fashion a better future and teach us all the language of love.
We could make that same prayer but with urgency having visited Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial Museum this afternoon. The museum traces the rise of antisemitism in Nazi Germany and the subsequent and systematic attempt to destroy the Jewish people. With harrowing imagery and forensic attention to historical detail you are left in no doubt that this evil ideology was carefully crafted and ruthlessly pursued and might, had the war not turned midpoint, have even succeeded.
What joined these two occasions today, so different in mood, purpose and content was hope. One was born from joyful worship in a time of challenge, the other from the despair and the agony of terrible cruelty. So very different yet sharing a common desire and yearning for a better future.
Holy Spirit you turn the ashes of mourning into tears of joy. Come to us once more and heal what is broken, renew us in holy love and remake us in the perfect image of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Day 6 - The Lord’s song in a strange land
The picture you see with this written piece is all that is left of a once flourishing household in a flourishing village. The name of the village is Kafr Bir’im.
The 1948 war (called Nakba in Palestine) which led to the foundation of the modern state of Israel saw large tracts of land fall into the hands of Jewish Israelis. The village at that time was Christian Maronite and ethnically Arabic. The war saw casualties on many sides and is a complex political event which still divides loyalties depending on ones point of view.
Today we worshipped with Maronite Christians who have returned to their village now located to the south of the original village and some 4 kilometres from the first village. Despite the warmth of the welcome and beautiful hospitality, their repeating story and abiding memory is of that war. A man in his eighties spoke of the moment when the villagers were led to believe they could return to their village only to find the invitation was a cruel hoax: their church was demolished before their eyes. Despite Supreme Court endorsements that the area is theirs they still wait to be ‘reunited with their land’.
Memory is a powerful piece of social capital. Many years ago, the exiles remembered Zion by the waters and mourned: ‘How can we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land’? they asked (psalm 137:4). Corporate memory shapes and influences more powerfully than we realize. Today I have found myself struggling with the tension between this kind of memory which holds us to the task of demanding justice and the liberty which comes from forgiveness. At what point does one move to the other or are they always held in tension? And does rebuilding land once lost resolve matters or leave the sweet, bittersweet taste, which ultimately disappoints us?
Day 5 - Level playing fields and Ben the Goat
The people you see in this picture all work for the Nazareth Trust which supports several activities including one of the three hospitals in Nazareth. The Trust began as a mission venture from the Church of Scotland more than a hundred years ago and today manages a budget of nearly £60 million with nearly 800 staff to provide health care, nursing degrees, psychiatry, education and a multidimensional visitor experience in a 1st century Palestinian village.
The vision behind these diverse services is distinctly Christian. Those who work for the Trust, mostly but not exclusively, have been inspired by a conviction that the love of Jesus Christ can be shared by providing outstanding medical support to all without distinction as well as prayer and educational ministry. They have plans for future development too including a £10 million Visitor Centre to expand their footfall with families and visitors.
The idea of holding the practical love of Christ with a commitment to proclaiming good news is not new nor unique to the Trust but it is an outstanding example of the Kingdom of God made manifest in visible and tangible ways. Speaking to staff they struggle with the repeating dynamic of government discrimination (refusing to honour educational commitments or to treat fairly the financial support regimes) as they resolutely believe in the sheer rightness of what they and doing and achieving. Holding such faith when circumstances militate against it feels apostolic.
Towards the end of our visit in the Nazarene village we spent time in the company of ‘Abraham’ the Shepherd and met Ben the Goat. A momentary minute of levity, welcome at the time, but experienced against a backdrop of courageous acts and wider hostility. In truth a bit more like the issues faced by faithful ones across the years. These rather than the shepherd and his goat will be my abiding memories.
Day 4 - Deserts and discrimination
Two episodes stand out for me today separated by 2000 years. The picture which accompanies this piece is a monastery high in the Judean hills. This is an area which is arid and unforgiving. It is also the general area where John the Baptist once lived and preached.
John’s story begins in this region as he called people to repentance and to turn from their sins, but it ends of course in Jerusalem and his murder. John died because he told awkward truths and refused to modify his position. Throughout history Christians have been persecuted because they refuse to concede their faith in Christ. If the gospel story ends with a command to go, it begins with a call to follow and to follow well.
Our day also brought us into the delightful company of Archbishop Yousef Matte, the Malkite Archbishop of the Holy Land. This is a church with a long history of following Christ in these territories. However, his story reflects those others have shared with us. The Christians in the holy lands are facing multiple difficulties: the government of Israel offers little support to the Christian churches and, at times, systematically opposes their work. Christians also face opposition, and this can be physical or verbal. Securing a future in which Christians are able to flourish looks increasingly challenging and this ought to draw our prayerful concern and active support for projects but also advocacy on their behalf.
Two thousand years separate our reflections today but what unites them is the consequence of faith. If John lost everything for the sake of Christ, the deep fears of many in this region is they might suffer, in a different way, something similar. And this should concern us all.
Day 3 - Picture this
The object you see alongside this written piece is one of the most famous buildings in the world and also one of the most disputed and controversial. This is the Dome of the Rock, the third most holy site in Islam and site of the original temple, referred to as the Temple Mount. In 2000 the prime Minister of Israel caused an international crisis by entering the environs of the Dome and this is often cited as a cause of the second intifada.
The photograph is taken of course from the Mount of Olives and very near the Garden of Gethsemane. Although visited by tens of thousands of pilgrims every year it is rarely a cause of international or religious tension in the same way as the Dome of the Rock. The contrast between the two sites could not be greater. Yet the events which took place there more than 2000 years ago are seminal. A man bowed to pray and was subsequently arrested before being taken a mile or so to the Palace of Caiaphas. The gospel accounts are brief at this point but is it entirely possible Jesus was lowered into a pit or cistern after his illegal trial at night. He was alone for much of his time in the garden and alone either in a dungeon or pit prior to the events which took place from daylight the next day. That day changed the world.
Christians believe in the incarnate God. In the words of St John, that the word become flesh and dwelt among us. Today in those gardens and alongside those ancient trees we stood where God had stood. We looked out onto the same hillside he beheld. And for a moment, fleetingly, prayed for peace. I’m glad we made a connection between the man in the garden, his life, death and resurrection and hopes for that peace which has eluded the world for over 2000 years.
Day 2 - Eyes Wide Shut
The Stanley Kubrick film infamously (‘Eyes Wide Shut’) charts how easy it is to become involved in a situation which is beyond our power to control or manage. It explores how we refuse to see something which is plain to others because we have preconceived ideas of what something should look like.
Today we have spent time in Ramallah, one of the largest cities in the West Bank and in the excellent company of people with utterly contrasting perspectives. Here there is a temptation to be ever looking but not seeing and listening without hearing. In the language of Kubrick, to be present but with eyes wide shut.
Our day began with Communion once more before travelling deep into the West Bank and the offices of the Higher Committee for Churches to meet with their officials. The narrative from the Palestinian Christians is constant and repeated consistently. It can be hard to hear the same story told repeatedly, often with anger and tears, even when that story is true. ‘What might hope look like’, I ask, inviting a conversation along the lines of road mapping and small steps of trust? The answer is blunt and uncompromising: the Palestinian need their lands and anything less will neither work nor satisfy. Any suggestion of compromise is met with disbelief, a shaking of the head and a familiar recitation of the history of these lands since 1948. Contrast this with the outlook of Rabbi Dr Yakov Nagen, having recently moved to Jerusalem from a settlement built on Palestinian land and declared to be illegal under international law. The situation is complex, he tells me, because everyone has suffered in these lands and the Jewish instinct for survival can only be met with deep listening and connection, not criticism or censure. He insists that religion, if part of the problem, is also part of the solution.
The difficulty with the perspectives offered today is that although they sound so different, they each have their own validity. Who would argue that deep listening isn’t helpful, that the current arrangements are just and that no-one has suffered? The problem is that those who have power can make these invitations and pleas from a position of strength. History is not only written by the victors but also largely created by them. In truth, by the time the deep listening has built new capacity to trust, most of the Palestinian lands could have disappeared. Whether this is a conscious tactic or simply part of the complexity of mistrust, who can say? Either way, life goes on for too many with numbing unhappiness, with little to suggest the Kubrick film title is likely to change any time soon.
Day 1 - Bethlehem – a city of many walls
The desert and industrial sand mixes with the air high above the historic cities of Bethlehem and Jerusalem blurring any view of the surrounding hills, houses and settlements adorning the hills around us. If our view is obscured, so too is any clear sense of where the lines of hope lay in these holy lands and how such diverse histories are playing out in the religious and political landscape of the ancient places of Israel/Palestine.
Our day has begun early with a Eucharist in St George’s Cathedral in Jerusalem followed by a welcome breakfast in the excellent company of the Most Reverend Hosam Naoum, Primate of the Episcopal Church of Jerusalem and the Middle East. Listening to his hopes and concerns for the Christians in these lands brings us face to face with the challenges they face: an exodus in the number of Christians here and the real pressures of living in an occupied territory where the restrictions on movement, the opportunities for normal life and developing a sustainable economy are heavily impacted by the political situation.
This theme of challenge is repeated throughout the day as we meet with Ra’ed Hanania, part of the High Commission for Palestinian Churches and Dr Samir Hazboun and Mr J Khair. All Palestinian Christians living in Bethlehem are sharing a common experience of living with severe restrictions. They describe the stress which is common to most Palestinian Christians and the sense of being under threat and vulnerable. Despite all of this, they are people of enormous hope. Justice and peace will not be overwhelmed by the ‘kingdoms of this world’ and God is the One who brings justice for the oppressed and liberating hope. God will not be defeated, and faith believes what is, as yet unseen.
+Andrew Cambrensis
