Pilgrimage Day Six – February 5, 2009 – Wednesday

Pilgrimage Day Six – February 5, 2009 – Wednesday

Temple – Upper Room(?) – Dormition Abbey – Notre Dame & Kids - St. George’s & Hatred – Museum

Temple, Dome of the Rock and the Western Wall
We started the day by driving a short distance from the hotel near the New Gate to the entrance to the Temple Mount. There are two Mosques on the site of the Second Temple, Al Asaq and the Dome of the Rock.

Al Asaq is a mosque commemorating the furthest Mohammed road his horse from Mecca. He road to Jerusalem to be at the place it is believed Abraham went to sacrifice his son to Allah. Muslims believe that Abraham went to there to sacrifice Ishmael not Isaac as we read in the Hebrew Scripture.

The Dome of the Rock was built on top of the site of the Second Temple to commemorate the place of Abraham’s sacrifice. It is the second holiest place in all of Islam. Non-Muslims are not permitted to enter either mosque because of the incident in 2000 when Ariel Sharron went with a company of IDF soldiers to the Temple Mount to make a point. This act stopped all peace talks and further divided the two religions.


To get to the Dome of the Rock it is necessary to go through metal detectors. We went through a second set of detectors making our way to the Western Wall of the Temple. This is probably the holiest place for all of Judaism. It is what is left of the Second Temple. A lot of Jews believe that this place is where the Holy of Holies stood.

You can see many Jews in prayer shawls, some with Phylacteries, praying at the wall. Most of them are Hassidim in their black suits and curls hanging down the sides of their face. All are praying swaying back and forth according to custom praying with all their heart, mind and body. The site is divided into two sections, one for men and one for women.



It is customary to write a prayer on a piece of paper and place it into the wall. The wall is literally stuffed with many small sheets of paper and other stuff. I say what looked like a padded manila bag in the crack where I stuffed my prayers. I prayed in the name of the three names of God – all the same God – represented in the Holy City – God, YHWH, and Allah – that there would be a fair and just peace in the Middle East and a two state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.

Mount Zion
We then went up to Mount Zion for two reasons. One the place reserved for the remembrance of the Upper Room where the Last Supper was held is there and the Dormition Abbey is there. The Dormition Abbey is a beautiful church dedicated to Mary who was at the foot of the cross when Jesus died.









Saint Peter in Gallicantu (Saint Peter and the Crowing Cock)
This site is located at the place where the palace of the High Priest Caiaphas was located. This is where they took Jesus after he was arrested and held him possibly in a cistern like cell. There is such a place on the site where we went and read Psalm 88.


This is the place where Saint Peter denied Jesus three times before the cock crowed three times (Mark 14:53-4; 66-72). There is a beautiful chapel on the property where we celebrated the Eucharist.


Above the chapel is a beautiful church dedicated to Saint Peter denial and the gift of forgiveness that he was given by Jesus for his denial.






Notre Dame Center
The Notre Dame Center is a Vatican property in Jerusalem staffed by the Legionnaires of Christ a relatively new order of priest in the Roman Church. It is a magnificent property. While we were there they were conducting a Pontifical Institute course on clergy spiritual renewal. There were several tour groups from various countries including Germany and Portugal and ours form the US, Great Britain and Ireland. Lunch was served buffet style and they gave us complementary wine. Many said that this was the best meal yet. Maybe it was the delicious deserts.
After lunch we attended a presentation by the wife, Katiya, of the owner of Shepherd Tours, Habib. She told us of her work with Sister Davida at a school in Gaza. Fr. John presented her with some of the money the group collected to support her mission work.

The Anglican Cathedral of Saint George’s – Diocese of Jerusalem
We drove to Saint George’s Cathedral and met with the staff there. They told us of the work the Diocese of Jerusalem was doing in this country and the other countries they serve. (Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel and Palestine) They have 23 outreach organizations that they run and they are affiliated with several more.
They are preaching a gospel of tolerance midst a flood of fundamentalism. This is one reason they have a waiting list of Muslim students that are waiting to attend Saint George’s School for Boys. There are about 500 students in the school and only 60 are Christian. That stands to reason because Christians comprise only about 1.5% of the population.
While we were there Bishop Suheil Dawani, the Diocesan Bishop, returned from a trip to the Gaza where he and the Lutheran Bishop were refused entry into the country because they were the only two with Palestinian passports. They were with a group of religious leaders going the Gaza to present a unified front of support for the people of Gaza and visit their ministries there.
While we were there Fr. John presented the bishop with a donation from the money donated by our parishes and us.





Israeli Museum
At the Israeli Museum we saw a scale model of the City of Jerusalem at the time of the Second Temple. It is very intricate and large. The person who built it did it in honor of his son who was killed in the service of the state of Israel.
We also went to the Shrine of the Book, the Israeli center for the study of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Quite frankly, aside from seeing the originals of the Isaiah and Temple Scrolls, the exhibition I saw in San Diego was much more complete and informative.

Dinner
This evening several of us elected to forego dinner at the hotel and sup in the Armenian Quarter at the Armenian Tavern. The food was excellent and the Armenian Brandy was the best.
On the way dinner we stopped at a ceramic shop owned by, Vic Lepejian, a renowned ceramic artist. I purchased a set of Stations of the Cross for Saint John’s that are similar to the ones at Saint George’s.
After Dinner several of us walked through the Armenian and Muslim Quarters to the Western Wall. We stopped on a path built on top of the suk (marketplace) to take in an incredible view of the city at night. A long arm could have reached out and touched the Dome of the Rock. A thing that we witnessed was the Israeli police frisking a Palestinian teenager. The Israeli police persons were not from Israel – probably Jews from Ethiopia – and the Palestinian was from his homeland. The security at the Wall was tight – an Ethiopian guard had her 1911A1 45Cal pistol at the ready.

Tomorrow we walk the Via Dolorosa. My soul in silence waits…