Later today I head on the final leg of my journey to Jordan so I thought that I would send some reflections from my time in Israel and Palestine.
I sat in the "Garden Tomb" this morning, a place not far from the College, a beautiful place full of trees and shrubs, an oasis really, and watched the groups of tourists circulating the garden hungry for a glimpse of where Jesus might've been.
Not dissimilar to what we have been doing for the last 12 days throughout Israel and Palestine, and yet the sign on the door of the tomb reads: "He is not here, for he is risen".
And so it has been amazing time and I give thanks that I have seen some amazing places and understood the geography of this place and have a better sense of the landscape of the biblical stories, but I do wonder if it is more important to ask - what does the birth, the incarnation of Jesus, the healing stories, the parables, and the way of the cross look like in Aotearoa, New Zealand? What is our Jesus landscape?
Jerusalem in particular has unsettled me as it is a place where men dominate. Although I was able to celebrate the Eucharist in Nazareth I can't in Jerusalem, women need to be more covered up than in other places, we have less of a voice here. It is a place of walls, ancient and modern, that either keep people in or lock them out. Not far from here we visited a town called Nablus, in the West Bank, where we joined with a congregation for Eucharist. We could come and go with few restrictions and yet this is a town that is surrounded by 7 checkpoints and the Palestinians need a permit to leave. So at any time the checkpoints can be closed and 600,000 people confined to this town/city. Throughout Israel and Palestine we always carried our passports with us just in case we were stopped, thankfully this never happened.
It does however feel like a holy place where the Muslim call to prayer rings out alongside the bells of the churches and (in Jerusalem) there is singing to announce the Shabbat (time of sabbath) for the Jews on Friday at dusk.
Religion and prayer is very present and a source of both tension and joy.
I sat in the "Garden Tomb" this morning, a place not far from the College, a beautiful place full of trees and shrubs, an oasis really, and watched the groups of tourists circulating the garden hungry for a glimpse of where Jesus might've been.
Not dissimilar to what we have been doing for the last 12 days throughout Israel and Palestine, and yet the sign on the door of the tomb reads: "He is not here, for he is risen". And so it has been amazing time and I give thanks that I have seen some amazing places and understood the geography of this place and have a better sense of the landscape of the biblical stories, but I do wonder if it is more important to ask - what does the birth, the incarnation of Jesus, the healing stories, the parables, and the way of the cross look like in Aotearoa, New Zealand? What is our Jesus landscape?
Jerusalem in particular has unsettled me as it is a place where men dominate. Although I was able to celebrate the Eucharist in Nazareth I can't in Jerusalem, women need to be more covered up than in other places, we have less of a voice here. It is a place of walls, ancient and modern, that either keep people in or lock them out. Not far from here we visited a town called Nablus, in the West Bank, where we joined with a congregation for Eucharist. We could come and go with few restrictions and yet this is a town that is surrounded by 7 checkpoints and the Palestinians need a permit to leave. So at any time the checkpoints can be closed and 600,000 people confined to this town/city. Throughout Israel and Palestine we always carried our passports with us just in case we were stopped, thankfully this never happened.
It does however feel like a holy place where the Muslim call to prayer rings out alongside the bells of the churches and (in Jerusalem) there is singing to announce the Shabbat (time of sabbath) for the Jews on Friday at dusk.
Religion and prayer is very present and a source of both tension and joy.
Blessings from Jerusalem.
(photos on this post were sourced by Tim from the interweb thingy...they did not come from Helen)
(photos on this post were sourced by Tim from the interweb thingy...they did not come from Helen)
It is cool that you are there for 2 major events.... the funeral of a PM and their New Year.
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