The course begins…

Today was the first full day of the course / pilgrimage ~ the first of 10 jam-packed days under the theme of ‘Women of the Bible’. The summary of the course explains…

“Highlighting the stories of women, the course visits places of the old and new testaments, offering on-site encounters, educational insights, and spiritual reflections upon biblical themes, narratives and characters associated with the land. The course will also engage contemporary voices of women living in the land”

And what that means is that we are not doing the usual ‘footsteps of Jesus’ course. Naturally there will be many places related to Jesus, but we are not necessarily visiting all the ‘usual’ pilgrimage sites, some have been omitted. And we are visiting other places, associated with different women, some of which I haven’t been to, elated to old and New Testament women. Plus we are hearing from women today through, for example, other specific visits and speakers.

After a morning of introductory talk and then a lecture by Paula on, ‘Reimagining women back into our mental image of the Bible’ ~ which was a fascinating beginning to our thoughts and exploration together ~ we had lunch and headed out on our first set of visits.

We left on foot and headed down to the Damascus Gate and into the Old City, with Rodney, the course director, providing a running commentary via a system of individual headsets and receivers to his microphone. There was no doubt we were a bunch of pilgrims!

Apparently, historically, pilgrims to Jerusalem always first visited the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and so we followed this tradition, heading there. This is a large church, with different sections in the hands of different denominations. Within the church are the site of Calvary, where Jesus died on the cross, and Jesus’ tomb, from where he received resurrection life. 

It wasn’t too busy there, but we still didn’t have time to see everything, but had a little time to explore and get our bearings, many of us saying we’d try and return later in the week. It is a complex place with major disagreements between the denominations; a place of continued worship and adoration; as well as it being what often feels like a tourist destination.

Our next stop was at the Western Wall. This is part of the ancient retaining walls, built by Herod, on which the temple stood. This surviving wall is pretty much the closest place to where the Holy of Holies was in the temple and hence a hugely important place for Jewish people. I have been here a number of times, yet it never fails to move me. Perhaps it’s because the men and women are separated; perhaps it’s because it’s a time when it is women together; and, perhaps because it is a place Jesus would’ve known. 

We each took time to pray, and to just be and watch. I have always felt compelled to wait my turn and touch the wall ~ it’s just a very large, old wall, yet has been prayed at for centuries and is a spiritual place. I took time to pray, and then sat in the shade for a few minutes before joining the men and continuing.

We left this area, with its very high security, and headed down, out of the Old City and to the corner of the temple platform wall and the Jewish Archeological centre. There were a couple of things which particularly struck me here ~ firstly the pile of enormous stones in one area. These are stones from the temple ~ they fell into this heap in AD70 when the temple was destroyed, and the city too, In 2000 years they have never been  moved. 

The second thing which stuck me at this site was the fact we could walk and sit on the still clearly visible steps up to the temple ~ steps Jesus would’ve used over the years as he visited this place. We had a brief look around and then Paula led a joint reflection on Anna encountering the baby Jesus in the temple and the Widow who gave her last mite. It was great to pause and have this space to think and ponder the reflection.

We then left the archeological park and headed away from the city to be collected by bus and taken back to the College, and so far we haven’t lost anyone!

There was just time for a shower before evening prayer, which was a nice way to mark the end of the day. Then it was on to dinner in the guest house garden. It was lovely there and we could’ve stayed soaking up the atmosphere… but alas many were really tired after the first full day and simply wanted to crash out, which is what I’ll do now as my eyes are closing as a type!!