Well, one thing different from any other Holy Saturday, and from any other March 22 in my memory, is the temperature. It’s 29 degrees C. Each day of Holy Week has got just a bit warmer.
There are other things that make this Holy Week different, apart from weather and celebrating it in Jerusalem. The continuing bombardment and blockade of Gaza which is like a gigantic concentration camp! Tension in Jerusalem because of the killing of the seven yeshiva students gunned down by a Palestinian gunman seeking revenge for the more than 100 civilians killed by the Israelis in Gaza, followed by the retaliation by Israeli soldiers gunning down 4 Palestinians in Bethlehem for no apparent reason other than being known as activitists! Such is life in this part of the world.
It’s a melancholy week too. Our friends are leaving, or getting ready to leave. Shannon, who worked for Sabeel, left for the US on Friday. Susanne left last week. Kendra is leaving next week. Diana is returning to Germany next week. Our good friend Gillian is packing to leave in a few days. David, also with Sabeel, came back from Turkey expecting a 3-month visa but was given only a month to pack up and get out. Maybe he’ll be able to have it extended, but Sabeel is an organization that promotes liberation theology, and so probably not!
Oh yes! March 20 was the Milad an Nabi (the prophet’s birthday) and so we experienced longer calls-to-prayer and more celebratory fireworks and music from the Muslim communities than usual. And the Jews celebrated Purim this weekend, dressing as devils and clowns and going just a little crazy as they remember what Esther did for the Jewish people during the Babylonian exile. Interesting ingredients in the Jerusalem Triduum mix!
We gathered at Redeemer for the multilingual Maundy Thursday liturgy at 4:30 pm and then walked in procession through the suq to Lion’s Gate, and then across the Kidron Valley to St. Mary Magdalene Russian Orthodox Church on the western slope of the Mount of Olives just above the Garden of Gethsemane for final prayers.
Up at 5 am on Good Friday to make it to the 1st Station of the Cross just inside St. Stephen’s gate by 6:30 am! Lutherans and Anglicans followed the Via Dolorosa, stopping at each of the first nine Stations for readings and prayers. The last five Stations are in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where we could not go, and so we venerated the last five Stations in the few metres between Redeemer and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and the completed the Good Friday liturgy in the Redeemer sanctuary.
As we followed the Via Dolorosa, we were assailed with the activity and noises of an awakening suq, and jostled up against shops to make way for the various carts, some motorized, that bring goods to the vendors. We were just a curiosity! It must have been like that when Jewish carried his cross through the Old City. Just an interruption and curiosity to the people he was dying for!
There are other things that make this Holy Week different, apart from weather and celebrating it in Jerusalem. The continuing bombardment and blockade of Gaza which is like a gigantic concentration camp! Tension in Jerusalem because of the killing of the seven yeshiva students gunned down by a Palestinian gunman seeking revenge for the more than 100 civilians killed by the Israelis in Gaza, followed by the retaliation by Israeli soldiers gunning down 4 Palestinians in Bethlehem for no apparent reason other than being known as activitists! Such is life in this part of the world.
It’s a melancholy week too. Our friends are leaving, or getting ready to leave. Shannon, who worked for Sabeel, left for the US on Friday. Susanne left last week. Kendra is leaving next week. Diana is returning to Germany next week. Our good friend Gillian is packing to leave in a few days. David, also with Sabeel, came back from Turkey expecting a 3-month visa but was given only a month to pack up and get out. Maybe he’ll be able to have it extended, but Sabeel is an organization that promotes liberation theology, and so probably not!
Oh yes! March 20 was the Milad an Nabi (the prophet’s birthday) and so we experienced longer calls-to-prayer and more celebratory fireworks and music from the Muslim communities than usual. And the Jews celebrated Purim this weekend, dressing as devils and clowns and going just a little crazy as they remember what Esther did for the Jewish people during the Babylonian exile. Interesting ingredients in the Jerusalem Triduum mix!
We gathered at Redeemer for the multilingual Maundy Thursday liturgy at 4:30 pm and then walked in procession through the suq to Lion’s Gate, and then across the Kidron Valley to St. Mary Magdalene Russian Orthodox Church on the western slope of the Mount of Olives just above the Garden of Gethsemane for final prayers.
Up at 5 am on Good Friday to make it to the 1st Station of the Cross just inside St. Stephen’s gate by 6:30 am! Lutherans and Anglicans followed the Via Dolorosa, stopping at each of the first nine Stations for readings and prayers. The last five Stations are in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where we could not go, and so we venerated the last five Stations in the few metres between Redeemer and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and the completed the Good Friday liturgy in the Redeemer sanctuary.
As we followed the Via Dolorosa, we were assailed with the activity and noises of an awakening suq, and jostled up against shops to make way for the various carts, some motorized, that bring goods to the vendors. We were just a curiosity! It must have been like that when Jewish carried his cross through the Old City. Just an interruption and curiosity to the people he was dying for!
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