Month: March 2014

The posts from 20-28 March 2014 were originally posts formatted for Tumblr. Click here to see the original blog.

Photos that didn’t make it
Left to right, top to bottom:

• Morning bread deliveries in the Arab Quarter
• The Church of the Ascension seen through the Mosque Gate
• Me – just to prove I was there
• Pilgrim marks made on the walls of the Church of the Resurrection (Holy Sepulchre)
• Muslims using the al-Asqa Mosque Gardens for teaching and learning the Quran – many such groups can be seen dotted across the whole of Haram al-Sharif.

The posts from 20-28 March 2014 were originally posts formatted for Tumblr. Click here to see the original blog.

More photos that didn’t make it
Left to right, top to bottom:

• Early on a Sunday morning approaching the Church of the Resurrection (Holy Sepulchre)
• One of Jerusalem’s many crows
• Crosses for sale on the Via Dolorosa
• Roof lights in the Turkish Bath
• Lamps for sale in the Arab Quarter market
• Muslim Graffiti behind the Via Dolorosa
• A cuddly snowman seemed a little out of place in the Princess Basma Centre for Disabled Children
• Crowds under the entrance light waiting to go into the Nativity Grotto

The posts from 20-28 March 2014 were originally posts formatted for Tumblr. Click here to see the original blog.

There was a whole morning to spend wondering around Jerusalem at leisure before flying home today. Christine, Clive and I decided we would take a walk around the rampart. Only half of the walls were open today, presumably because it was Friday and the security forces were twitchy, so we could only walk the west side. That was good as we have become quite familiar with East Jerusalem and this gave a different perspective.

West Jerusalem is exactly as the name would suggest – more western. Looking out from these walls over the outer city it looked like any bustling busy highly developed European city. I guess the ramparts are a strong metaphor of how the predominantly Jewish Israeli population here feel. They need a wall between them and the Arabs. They do, of course, have a huge separation wall that separates those parts of Israel controlled by the Palestinian Authority (The Gaza Strip and The West Bank) from those places under Israeli State control. Our minibus has sped along lengths of this wall for much of the week, only stopping at check-points, but stopping for a photo shoot has been right off limits. So these ramparts, now maintained for tourist access at ₪16 per adult, serve as a metaphor.

Pictured above:

• Top: panorama looking out over West Jerusalem from the ramparts.
• Triptych left: Excavated Herodian foundations just below the western ramparts.
• Triptych middle: A cafe culture square in the Jewish Quarter on the western side of the Old City.
• Triptych right: A market street in the Jewish quarter. Its glass fronted shops, carefully manicured stone work, expensive goods and open space is in strong contrast with the Arab Quarter. This was a more pleasant experience, but there seemed so much more life and vibrancy amid the corded and messy streets on the east side.

I am left wondering why it is that Jewish streets and Arab streets are so different. Is it because of an imbalance in power advantaging Hebrew culture or is it because Arab society doesn’t care about building the city? My inner city experience in the UK suggests to me there is much more of the former than the latter.

The posts from 20-28 March 2014 were originally posts formatted for Tumblr. Click here to see the original blog.

Well, we have just had our final meal.  Here is Dr Mustafa Abu Sway with the Bishop of Kingston who organised the course. I hope +Richard can get his new scarf through airport security – there can be no guarantees.

The posts from 20-28 March 2014 were originally posts formatted for Tumblr. Click here to see the original blog.

Mount of Olives
The Mount of Olives is a small rise on the edge of East Jerusalem with a great drop from the 1000m height of the city towards the Dead Sea further east and 400m below sea level. You can see the Dead Sea from the top. The mount also has a commanding view of the city if you look west. Presumably it was once full of olive trees. Now it is 50% cemetery.

Our group of Christians and Muslims took to an olive grove near the crest of the ridge to reflect on the past few days. It was clear that we were still not ready to ask really difficult questions of each other but that relationships had grown with a deeper understanding and respect. Perhaps reaching out across the faiths is after all about relationships before anything else. In Jerusalem it is clear that there is a deep level of interfaith friendship between Christian and Muslim (at least in some sectors of society) that could be a real example to the world. Our group had mainly been exposed to Palestinians that the British would think of as the middle classes and it would be interesting to test out how relationships work at other levels of society here another time. But this is a nation that is anxious and fearful. And the fearfulness draws a hard boundary between Jew and Arab that very few yet seem to be reaching across. It is difficult to see hope where there is an imbalance of power and force, but the relationships that the Christians and Muslims we met have forged is somewhere that hope can be found here. I pray that this is a source of spreading hope and not one that will be extinguished. It is a delicate flower and, as Arab Christians flee the land, it only becomes more fragile.

Pictures above:

• Top: The Mount of Olives as seen from the Muslim Cemetery just below Haram al-Sharif
• Triptych
  Left: Poppies growing in an olive grove
  Middle: The Church of the Ascension on the Mount of Olives, now part of a Mosque complex (see the minaret in the background) but open for Christians to worship here – a powerful example of a shared worship space
  Right: The modern and Islamic influenced Church of the Agony of Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane
• The golden onions of the Russian Orthodox Church of Mary Magdalene with the Islamic Cemetery in the background.

The posts from 20-28 March 2014 were originally posts formatted for Tumblr. Click here to see the original blog.

The Jerusalem Princess Basma Centre for Disabled Children
This morning’s visit to The Mount of Olives began with a stop at the Princess Basma Centre for Children with Disabilities. This is a hospital run by the Diocese of Jerusalem seeing mainly out-patients from the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem. The hospital helps children with a wide range of disabilities and their families learn to lead full lives.

• Physical rehabilitation
• inclusive education for children with disabilities
• Empowerment of the children and parents
• Raising awareness
• Building capacity to act as a national resource
• Capacity building and job creation for people with disabilities

It currently runs at a deficit with some voluntary funding and some from the Palestinian Authority (PA). The hospital used to receive money from the American Government but since American disagreement with the PA this has stopped.

If you want to know more visit their web site: www.basma-centre.org

You cannot help but be impressed at what this small diocese does running thirty five institutions, of which this is only one, making a material difference to the lives of Palestinians. In the UK we are used to the idea of running schools but we gave up running hospitals very quickly after the state took responsibility. The Diocese of Jerusalem seems to run on a knife edge. Governance of its institutions is a huge responsibility for senior members of the diocese and the risks are significant. Muslim colleagues said it was difficult to see the same sense of social responsibility turning into action among Islamic societies.

I wonder why that is? I wonder too why we would struggle to find an English diocese running a hospital and yet we have so many schools?