Two speakers at dinner last night: Tala Dawani who works for World Vision as their fund raiser here and is also the Bishop’s daughter, and Aminah Abu Sway who works at al-Quds University and is daughter of Dr Mustafa Abu Sway, our Muslim guide earlier in the week. They both spoke about loving your neighbour as yourself. As Christian and Muslim Palestinians they were united. But both struggled with the idea of loving one’s enemies. I think they wanted to, but it was hard now under the experience of oppression.
Tala told us of her journey to work in the morning. A house was being bulldozed down and the soldiers had surrounded it, clearly pleased it was being demolished. Some of them looked only 17 or 18 years old. And they were rejoicing that someone’s home was being destroyed. And she had to drive by because you couldn’t stop or help or do anything. It was a raw moment shared over beautifully cooked Palestinian food.
A fantastic afternoon today with 15 year old pupils and their English teacher from St George’s School, one of many institutions run by the Anglican Diocese of Jerusalem. The students at the school are approximately 10% Christian and 90% Muslim. They told us that they see themselves primarily as Palestinians together, not divided by religion. Many make best friends with others of a different faith. We talked much about marriage and future educational and employment prospects. For a Muslim girl to marry a Christian boy would be difficult. The students tend not to proselytise one another, but sometimes young adults change faith for the sake of marriage if they have to.
Most Palestinians cannot hold an Israeli passport. For foreign travel they sometimes obtain one from Jordan. But without Israeli citizenship they cannot serve in the Israeli Army and this hinders their futures. They are also limited in their education beyond the school and told they will be barred from restricted professions such as being a pilot or working as a nuclear scientist.
For these young men English was their second language, yet they spoke with eloquence, passion, hope and intelligence about their faith, their nation and their futures.
The corner of the wall beyond the plaza created for prayer. The al-Asqa Mosque sits above this wall, and only a small length from where you can see the city ground level rising from the ruins is set aside for prayer. Within this walled mount Jews believe the Foundation of the World to be. A holy place against which to pour out your soul in prayer.
Two pictures of the division between men and women with their separate entrances and separate areas of prayer. Women stand at the fence and peep over or take photographs. Men pray against that part of the wall closer to the Foundation Stone.
Fountain for ritual ablutions.
When you visit this place you can be left in no doubt that this is a part of God’s earth that matters.
Well, today our Christian and Muslim group was granted special access to the two principle buildings on Temple Mount, or Haram al-Sharif as it is called in the Islamic world. The two buildings we were secreted around were the Dome on the Rock and the al-Aqsa Mosque.
The Dome on the Rock (exterior: top; interior: left and middle of the triptych) is an extremely ornately decorated octagonal building surrounding the rock from which Muslims believe the Prophet ascended to heaven. In Jewish thought this rock is the Foundation of the World, the centre of all things and first point of creation. This was a holy place, quiet and prayerful despite extensive restoration work under way. Muslim Prayer space is generally very open – all that is needed is a carpet to kneel on and an indication of the direction of Mekkah.
The al-Aqsa Mosque is a much larger rectangular and aisled building facing the Dome on the Rock (interior: bottom). Two insults were pointed out to us by our guide one of which he is pictured standing alongside (right of the triptych). This is a cabinet of the remains of American made weapons that have been fired at worshippers on the site. I couldn’t help but catch a hint of irony in his voice as he described America as “the king of democracy”. The other “insult” was a corner of the Mosque that the Crusaders turned into a church in the twelfth century.
Our Muslim colleagues described a sense of deep sadness that this holy site has become a source of deep dispute. To them it would seem most fitting that all faiths were free to worship here. But in an Israeli State that is so fearful for its own existence and future it looks for now as if mistrust is the dominant force.
The Feast of the Annunciation
Phew! We’ve spent a lot of time in the minibus today covering the miles between Jerusalem and Galilee. It was frustrating to see so much go by through the windows and not be able to dwell a little longer.
The Judaean wilderness was green today. Apparently it rained last week. It will be brown again soon.
Agriculture across the West Bank seems to thrive albeit with a much lower level of technology, mechanisation and irrigation than we see in areas under Israeli control. The West Bank is not just a waste land.
We crossed the Jordan several times. It was in full flow we were told. I can’t understand why Joshua had so much trouble crossing back over it after Moses died because it looked an easy jump.
The Bedouin camps were not as attractive as a film about the Arabian Knights had led me to expect – mainly made up of sticks and plastic sheeting.
There was indeed a sycamore tree in Jericho but I can’t be sure it was the same one Zacchaeus climbed.
The mine-field boundary of the West Bank was shocking.
The Golan Heights were pleasant.
Galilee was a beautiful spot – why did Jesus leave to come to Jerusalem?
Looking south east across the Sea of Galilee from a point only a short walk from Jesus’ home in Capernaum. Ibrahim said to me here, “No matter what has been built around us, this landscape here is what Jesus saw. Nobody can take that away.”
The Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth has been a bit of a challenge today. The two top-most pictures are inside – upstairs and downstairs. Upstairs is a magnificent church with a large nave. It was packed with worshippers. Today is after all the Feast of the Annunciation. Downstairs and visible through a well in the main church poor was a crypt containing the remains of a troglodyte home thought to have been that of Mary and of Jesus’ childhood. It was all most beautifully done. A light and well ordered church with good space for worship and free of tat. Just how the Church of the Resurrection (Holy Sepulchre) in Jerusalem or the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem could have been. The Nazareth Church is looked after by Roman Catholics, the Jerusalem and Bethlehem ones by Orthodox. But somehow the Orthodox churches engaged me at a spiritual level and the church at Nazareth did not. The home of the childhood Jesus and possible place of the Annunciation felt just like a museum and engaged me as such. I may need to review my assessment of what it is that obscures the Gospel and what reveals.
Also pictured above are two Muslim colleagues reaching in to the Sea of Galilee, Shafique on the left and Ibrahim on the right. Between them sits a bird from the ancient mosaic floor of the Church of the Multiplication. The natural environment of the Sea and the birds on the floor of the church were a strong reminder of the world in which Jesus lived, rich and teaming with life in the water and the air.
Underneath are pictures of the Church of the Beatitudes (uppermost) and the church at Capernaum built directly over Peter’s Mother-in-law’s house where Jesus is thought to have lived for some time (bottom). It is perhaps in the simplicity of Capernaum above all places that we have felt, Muslims and Christians alike, we were in the footsteps of Jesus.
Bishop Suheil Dawani, Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem, spent an hour and a half with us this evening. Tim Biles, one of the participants on our course, told us all that Bishop Suheil occupies the hottest seat in the Anglican Communion. The Bishop is leader of a small and slowly emigrating Arab Christian Church in Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. Whilst the church is small, it runs thirty five institutions of real value in promoting justice, peace and harmony between the faiths. He was a delight to listen to.
And Bishop Suheil helped me reconcile myself better with the Church of the Nativity. (If you have read my earlier post below you will understand what I mean.) The oldest church in Christendom in continuous use has attracted pilgrims for nearly 2000 years to Bethlehem. In the past this has brought the town prosperity and it is now doing so again. The number of pilgrims willing to visit is growing and the signs of regeneration in the town are visible to those who know what it was like before. Social and economic regeneration is a good thing. I hope and pray too for the spiritual regeneration of Bethlehem.
