To the Mediterranean Sea and back

Our day starts extra early as we have a 3 hour drive this morning to get ourselves to Alexandria- the city named after Alexander the Great, what used to be the main port city for the Greeks and Romans coming to this part of the world. Its' population is 15 million and its the second largest city in the country of Egypt whose population is over 90 million. Our drive takes us back through dessert like topography past huge fruit farms, fertilizer industries, a huge technology centre with corporate offices with all the big names, and the large prison complex out in the middle of nowhere where ex president Mubarak, his family members and political allies are being held.

Driving on the roads in Egypt is itself a major adventure. Speed limits, lanes, directions - these are all western ideologies that don't apply. At times we can be going down a one way street and we will find ourselves facing on coming traffic anyways as such rules are meant to be bent. Unless you are aggressive you will go no where in traffic. Trucks and bicycles are loaded to overflowing and people cram into buses, in between cargo in pickup trucks or simply hanging from a back bumper as needed. Motorcycles are common with between 2-4 riders on each. I never once saw a helmet on anyone as they swerve through and among the traffic. On this trip we have an armed security guard that the travel company has sent with us in case there is trouble on the road. - over protective from my standpoint as I have not felt ill at ease at all during my time here.

We visit the site of the lighthouse Cleopatra had built. It was destroyed 3 times due to earthquakes but some of the remaining stones have been incorporated into the new building that commemorates it. It has an amazing view of the city of Alexandria and of the Mediterranean sea. We also visit the catacombs used by the Romans to bury their dead. In their attempts to integrate and honor some of the traditions of the Egyptians, these catacombs are unique because they found Egyptian style paintings of the mummification process and ashes within the tombs. No writing about the persons life was found of the walls as they did not hold to a belief in resurrection. As well, about 300 mummies were found in the wall holes where usually only ashes in containers were found. A large room is near by where relatives would come to visit the tombs on the anniversary of the death. Plates, glasses etc would all be broken at the end of the meal in good Greek fashion to ensure good luck. These catacombs go down 5 stories deep. Amazing but alas no pictures allowed.

Following lunch we visit the Egyptian library, the largest library in the world. After a large competition from architectural design firms where some 1400 submissions were made, a Denmark firm is hired and with the help of UNESCO, it is built. It has 8 stories for books, multi media and computer terminals with enough space for 2000 plus reading/comp patrons at any one time. It has enough space for 8 million books though at this time 1.5 million fill the shelves while they work to add 15% to the collection each year. All languages are represented here. It also has 2 amazing machines that will copy and bind a 300 pg book including cover in under 5 minutes .

We then return to Cairo for packing and saying goodbye . This will be my last post related to this trip. Thank you all for sharing this journey with me. I'll have more to reflect on in relation to this learning experience that I shall endeavor to share in a variety of ways. I will post some other reflections from time to time on other insights I'm having while on sabbatical and then I will try to do something similar blogging wise when Hannah and I head to Ecuador at the end of June with the Me to We foundation. Looking forward being back home with loved ones and friends !

A balloon with a view

Up at 3:30 am, we head by bus to the waters edge, cross on a boat, load onto another bus and make our way to a field near the edge of the dessert. By now it is 5 am and we climb into the basket of the hot air balloon and ascend into the air just in time to see the sunrise. The air is cool but the heat off the burners more than keeps us warm. I've wanted to take a balloon ride for some time now and I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to do so in this location. Ballon rides have only just begun to be offered again after the tragic accident a few months ago.

We fly on the edge of the valley of the kings, the Hatshepsut temple, remnants of Ramsey's temple, wheat fields, sugar cane fields. We float along and across the Nile river with fishermen in their boats below. Our ride is about 1.25 hrs with a soft landing. The perfect first experience and exhilarating in many ways. We head back to the boat to check out and board the bus to visit the Karnak temple.

This temple is the largest ever found and covers 62 acres of land. Construction of the temple cover the dynasties of 10 pharaoh's family lines and archeological evidence shows that materials and different parts of the site span of about 2500 years of this temple being built and used through the many phases of it's construction. The columns in this temple are the largest anywhere. The encryptions, the architecture, the statues and the Oblisks create a sense of awe that one can certainly see would have contributed to the ancient sense of reverence and awe. I can see why we visit this one last, as while the other temples are equally impressive in their own right, they would be anticlimactic after seeing this one.

The Luxor temple is less than 5 km away for the Karnak temple and it is the temple that was the home of the wife to the god of the Karnak temple. They are linked by road that was lined with 1600 sphinx statues on either side. Parts of many of them still remain to this day. The Luxor temple though was buried under sand for a number of centuries but its excavation has revealed much about its history. During the post Constantinian era, the hieroglyphics were plastered over and Italian type Christian frescos were painted on top. Remnants of these can also be seen but most have crumbled away to reveal the original Egyptian carved limestone underneath. Ramses II was mostly responsible for the building of this temple and several statues of him also grace the grounds. It was said that the two ages would visit one another's home for a holiday each year- 15 days in each place.

We spend the remainder of the afternoon in Luxor relaxing and reading before our night train takes us back to Cairo for the day. Its been a long day having been up 22 hours. The trip is almost over and it has been an incredible journey but I can tell that parts of my mind have drifted home to people and places I love and am ready to return to. A day of rest tomorrow to recuperate from the overnight train ride. Then off early to Alexandria for our last day in Egypt.

Valley of the Kings

Today we stay in Luxor and disembark early In order to make our way to the valley of the kings. I guess I didn't pay as much attention in grade six when we studied ancient Egypt because I was under the allusion that I would be seeing an array of pyramids here. But no! Instead in this valley, accessible by only one entrance, are limestone hills where hundreds of tombs are tunneled into the mountains and are still being discovered. Most of them when opened had little if any contents in them, having been robbed some centuries earlier. The only exception was Tutankhamen tomb whose contents I described in an earlier post. What is incredible is the depth of these tunnels and caverns, the polished limestone walls, the drawings and descriptions in detailed color and the encasement containers and rooms at the bottom. Stories and instructions from the " Book of the dead" are also on these walls as instructions to the king to follow when he returns from death.

These tombs were begun when a Pharaoh took the throne and the depth depended on how long his life and rule was. The workers lived in a small town nearby and were part of a community where their sole purpose was the building of these tombs. When they got word that the king was dying, they had to then hurry to finish the tomb endpoint cavern, sometimes leaving some of the descending walls undecorated. Only the family was allowed to bring the treasures and the body over so that no others would know the location of the tomb and more importantly where the mummified body lay. If anything happened to the body, then their would be no next life for the Pharaoh. Period. We were allowed No cameras on this site which was hard for me as the walls inside we're incredible. Thus no pictures of the inside to post for now till I can scan some in later.

From here we go to Hatshetsut's (the man queen) temple which was complete destroyed by her stepson along with any statues and depictions of her after her death. The temple has been reconstructed on the bases of the remnants by the polish government beginning in the 19 th century and continuing today. Sections of the original have full color renderings that withstood the test of time. It's a mammoth structure the basically backs on to the valley of the kings. Her mummified remains have recently been identified.

We come back to the boat and hear a lecture along the way about some elements of life in modern day Egypt. An afternoon on deck to soak up some sun and read is followed by some entertainment of a belly dancer and a whirling dervish before supper.

Tomorrow morning some of us will be up very early at 3:30 am in order to return to the valley of the kings for a sunrise hot air balloon ride over the west bank of the Nile! I'm so excited as it will be my first balloon ride which I've always wanted to do.

Down the River Nile

We begin our journey down the river Nile, which is the life blood for Egypt. On either side of the Nile is green fields, palm trees, sugar cane, and small farm plots. Not far from the edges of this green is simple dessert. Dry, harsh, hot dessert. Before the dam, there were seasons where the river dried up and communities would perish. This reality is reflected in the temple life along the river.

Our first stop is Kom Ombo where we visit the temple share by two gods Sobek and Haerorsis. Gods of fertility and medicine. Sobek's incarnation was in the Alligator and so this temple had a pit where an alligator was kept and fed and offerings made to until it died. Then the alligator was mummified and place unto the catacombs below and a new alligator would be brought up for the waters of the nile and the process would begin again. Haerorsis was the god of medicine and on the walls are descriptions of operations for cancer, surgical tools, anesthetics, etc of a very advance civilization.

We return to the boat and continue down the river until Edfu where we visit one of the best preserved cult temples dedicated to Horus . This Temple is massive and it is hard to convey the scale of it in pictures. Here we see some good examples of color, design, destruction again from the crusades and then ottoman empires, and a very good sense of the worship practices. A statue of less that a meter was what would eventually be housed in the inner most sanctum and would be brought out and paraded at certain times of the year. The huge amount of hieroglyphics and illustrations all over the walls is an incredible testament to the power of myth and story telling in the development of culture. The role the Greeks played in resurrecting these temples as a way of cooperatively bringing the egyptians into the control and oversight of their expanding empire is a testament to alternative ways to dealing with integration and assimilation instead of war and annihilation.

To stand in places where many ancients have walked, worked, imagined, worship, struggled and prayed is a truly humbling experience and I am grateful for the opportunity to be here and one cannot do a trip like this without realizing how privileged we are to live where we do and have the resources to do these kinds of things. Often on this trip I've encountered sellers whose things I do not need or wish to carry but I buy simply to support their small enterprise and to give some hope in very hard times. Egypt's economy is in a tough place since the uprising and many people are suffering and despairing in the new presidents lack of positive action since taking power.

A day in Aswan

We arrive by 10 am by train and I'm feeling a bit haggard from time in the sleeper car. I'm grateful to head to our boat and after finally being checked in, having the opportunity to have a shower and some time simply sitting in the sun.....yes finally HOT sun!

By 1 o'clock though we are off to visit the sites of Aswan, a city that became famous in ancient times because it was the site of many gold mines and huge granite quarries. We begin by visiting the site of the unfinished obelisk. These massive pieces of granite where typically carved/hewn from the quarry into a tall rectangular shape with a triangle on the top, about 40-50 meters in length. These were then transported to the burial sites of Pharaohs and royalty. What we see today is an example of one not finished. As well, an earthquake in subsequent years has rendered it unmovable . It is equally unimaginable that these could be created and moved with the equipment of the time.

From here we tour the two dams on the Nile river. Because of the source of water for the Nile and the seasonal floods, it was decided that it would be in the best interest of an emerging modern society to have a dependable flow of water on the Nile year long. These dams also bring with them the capacity to create power for the entire country plus a bit extra to export. We learn about the political allies that were also created in this making of these dams. However, with these dams also came to the need to relocate entire villages and people's and some ancient sites were also submerged. The benefit to these villages was a consistent source of water for their crops and their daily living.

From here we go to the Philae temple which was submerged with the flooding. UNESCO worked with locals to restore and move this temple over a ten year period of time. The temple itself is also incredible in its intricacy of hieroglyphics the inscriptions which when the temple was. Use would have been in full color as well. It's hard to describe the energy, the size, the complexity . Our guide has so much history and knowledge of the various stories that after an hour my head is full and on overload. We return to the boat where we will begin our descent down the river Nile by early morning.

It is increasingly interesting to me the ways in which early religion's development of mythology always tackled the issues of afterlife first AND how ones succession was depended on how kind/generous ones heart was in this life.

By the Pyramids

What a surprise to wake up this morning to discover that we are right beside the three great pyramids! We meet our new guide who is a wealth of knowledge and make our way to visit these three great monuments . How exciting and overwhelming is it to see these tombs! What we are seeing is actually the remnants of the inner casing and structure. Each of these pyramids should have had a shiny polished white limestone coating with a gold painted top. The three largest of the pyramids are for the father, son and grandson, each slighter smaller than the first as the fathers could never be dwarfed by a successor. Scattered around a number of smaller ones for the various wives and queens. We do not go inside these as there is little to see apparently, and we are best to wait to the valley of the kings before going inside. Rocks for these pyramids come from 45 km away and were floated down the Nile after being dug out of the quarry and shaped. 2.3 million stones are in the biggest on the pyramids that we are standing in front of .

We head up the hill and at the recommendation of our guide find the Bedouin camel headers and as a group we hire camels and go for a 30 min ride out into the edges of the dessert to view these same pyramids from a different angel. The camels are fun the ride and the young boys who lead us take our photos. I'm urged to try standing on the saddle on the camel and nervously I agree to try! No broken neck or hospital trip. After the camel ride we venture to yet another site nearby where the temples for the burial rights and embalming rituals take place are as well as the giant sphinx. This work is carved out of one large piece of stone that the quarried around in the process.

From here we head to the national museum in Cairo to see the treasure of Tutankhamen. This is a massive museum that one could spend days in, however our guide takes us directly to the Tutankhamen exhibit and orients us to it. This find was one of the most amazing and complete finds ever made. 3600 items were found intact in this tomb and they include both the little personal items and the large burial items. So much time, attention, resources and preparation to ensure safe passage through judgement in the afterlife and security for return from the dead and resurrection. The funeral mask is absolutely breathtaking and at moments it's hard to believe that you are looking at the real thing given the number of pictures, replicas etc I've seen in my life time. The archeologist that found this site removed the mask and when he did so, tore off the face of the mummy with it. He died in a car crash 2 weeks later which the Egyptians claim was the curse of the tomb. We can take no pictures in this museum.

We tour a few other sites round the city of Cairo which is hugely congested. It is wildly fun to be in the traffic with over loaded buses, motorcycles, wagons pulled donkeys, and all other manner of things. Suddenly a lane disappears because a seller has set up a stall of watermelons for sale. There is no square inch anywhere that is not occupied by someone or something. 22 million people live in this city. 90 million in egypt as a whole. We head to the train station for an 8 pm train overnight to Aswan.

To Egypt we shall go

Three post in a row because I've been without internet for a few days.

We are up very early today as we have a long journey ahead of us. Leaving Jerusalem at 7 am we journey back towards the dead sea and then head south following the dead sea toward the bottom most corner of Israel. Just before the border some 5 hours later we stop at El'ait for lunch. While there we receive news that this area has just had two missiles fired into it from some unknown location in Egypt. We have heard and seen nothing though as we get to the boarder we see missiles that have emerged from the dessert and are ready for action. We reach the boarder at Taba where we say goodbye to our driver from the last 17 days and walk from one side to the other. It takes 2.5 hours to complete the process of lining up at various check points, paying exit taxes, buying Egyptian visas and paying the boarder tax.

We meet our new arrival's agent and driver and head for a harrowing experience on the road toward Sharm 'Sharek. It's an another 4.5 hour drive but our driver at times is exceeding 130 on gravel like roads and passing aggressively. Some on the bus are very anxious, I decide to relax and ignore, The topography is totally different than I expected. Granite and volcanic rock from large mountains that we wind our way through. At the beginning we follow the gulf of Aquaba but then we wind more inland toward Sharm . The city is in the Red Sea and is primarily here to serve tourists mostly Russians who fly here for sun, gambling and night life. After viewing the large new mosque and the very large new orthodox church, we stop for dinner and then walk around the entertainment district while we wait for our flight to Cairo. Many in the group are tired and cranky but I'm fascinated by the makeup of this city. I walk with the guide and find out that almost all of the guides and shopkeepers speak Russian, and most live and work here for a month at a time, go back to their homes and families for two weeks and then return. 15000 workers reside here, sort of like the whistler of Egypt. We head to the airport to catch the 9:30 flight of our last leg of the trip to Cairo. We arrive in the dark, new agent, new driver, and off to the hotel. We can see very little around us as we go. It's been a long day and we are grateful for a nice hotel, crisp Egyptian cotton sheets and a scotch.

A sign of hope

Today our day begins with a visit to the Hand in Hand school. This is a bilingual school where 1/2 the students and teachers are Arabic and 1/2 are Jewish. The school goes from pre-k to gr 12 with about 560 students in total. Each class In the younger grades has 2 teachers and both languages are learned and used. By middle school there is only one teacher and kids are expected to be proficient in what ever language the course is being taught in and it varies and is mixed.

We get a chance to talk to the a director of the society, some students and a teacher or two. The school is built on the premise that if we can get younger generations to know one another as people then we plant seeds of hope for them treating one another and developing policies and a land around those same principals. They work hard to demonstrate that respect In all that they do. Not only do the kids get to know one another as friends but their families end up interacting too and becoming friends and break down stereotypes of one another. Unfortunately there are not a lot of these schools around and there is quite a lot of politics involved in getting each one started with resistance to the idea coming from both sides. The kids we talk to there are very enthused about the project, their school, their friends from different cultures and about what they hope the future will bring with this kind of engagement.

From here we journey to mount Zion, the last of the holy places for Christians that we've not visited yet. Here archeologists have found evidence of what would have been the high priests house, the dungeon and the torture chamber. ( I remember when I was in Europe the first time and how shocked I was that the residences of bishops had torture chambers in them too!) This is likely to be the spot that Jesus was held after he was arrested and brought to the high priests house. Again the steps that are here date back to the time of Jesus and lead up from the Kidron valley and the garden of gethsemane. The court yard and church on this site is also there to commemorate Peters betrayal of Jesus in the courtyard. As usual, there are bus loads of weeping pilgrims singing songs about how "Jesus died for me and my sins" and praying prayers asking for forgiveness. Too much worm theology for me.....it must be time to go!

Today is the Israeli equivalent of remembrance day for military soldiers who died I this ongoing conflict. It backs on to the national holiday of Independence day and so there is much celebrating and hollering this evening coming west Jerusalem. Here in east Jerusalem, the Palestinian quarter, things are quiet and subdued. The group gathers to reflect and integrate tonight while sound of fireworks and large gatherings of people are heard in the background.

Tomorrow is an unstructured day in Jerusalem. We shall see what it brings .

Love thy neighbor - still hard words to live

Today has been a very challenging day!

We take a trip to Hebron, a Palestinian city in the west bank. However, it is a city of intense antagonism, abuse of power and a demonstration of the worst of human behavior and the inhumanity with which we seem capable of treating one another.

Within the city of Hebron which has expanded over the years from the old city, there have been 6 little settlements placed within and on top of this city by Israel. Neighborhoods have been cut up into little pieces, shops and streets closed arbitrarily, military check points set up all over the city and settlers building and expanding their homes and spaces overtop of existing Palestinian homes and shops. We meet up with Sue and Imar from Christian Peacemakers Team, an international group that helps to monitor the interactions between the military and the Palestinians. We are toured around the city and see where homes have been destroyed and roads have cut off Palestinians from one another and from their businesses and places of worship.

Everyday, children must pass through a military check point, have their back packs inspected and sometimes detained for no reason as they go to school. Everywhere you go in this palestinian city there are security cameras, military towers, and soldiers on roofs with machine guns. When in one of the main market squares, even our group has a gun trained on our gathering as a suspicious one. Because the Jewish settlers have built up homes on top of Palestinian homes and shops, metal grating and tarps have been installed over the markets and shops that line the streets because the settlers through garbage, rocks, urine and feces out of their windows and onto the people and the shops below. This city has been divided up into zones where Palestinians may not go any longer. Imar tells the story of the recent arrest of his 12 year old brother who was detained on the way to school. He was thrown in jail without parental access with no charges laid. When charges were finally laid he was accused of throwing stones at the soldiers (which he denies) and kept in jail for 12 days until bail was set and could be paid. Trail date is still pending. This is but a few of the many examples of antagonism and inhuman treatment that keep this conflict on the edge of the boiling point all the time.

Every Saturday there is a military accompanied walk through the Palestinian area by the jewish settlers and their friends as a way of intimidating and putting pressure on the inhabitants and asserting their rights to go wherever they please. We take a walk up to the mosque, a site of a horrific massacre, and we must go through 2 screenings by Israel military just as the Muslims must do on their way to worship each day. Even inside the temple there is Israeli security cameras monitoring. We leave Hebron sad and discouraged at how entrenched the conflict is.

We return to Jerusalem where we are given a tour of east Jerusalem by the communications director for the PLO. He shows us more about the affects of the Israeli policies about the wall, demolition of neighborhoods and settlements east of the green line. He also shares a copy of a letter written by the Palestinian government following the offensive visit by Defense minister John Baird who met with the Israeli government in East Jerusalem in violation of international law and UN condemnation. Once again Harper's government has lowered our reputation in international circles.

It's been a full day and it's hard to see signs of hope for a peaceful solution. It is very complex historically and emotionally, and the levels of fear, anger and distrust is increasing on both sides

Why beer matters.

Our day begins with a trip outside of Jerusalem to the "capital" of the Palestinian west bank area, Ramallah. On the way though we stop in a small christian Palestinian village where a brewery has been started as a Palestinian enterprise. This Palestinian family wanted to start a business to bring the brothers back from the foreign countries they had moved to to be educated etc. They desperately wanted their children to come home and so together they started a brewery to make a local beer that would compete with the only other local beer that is Israeli . The challenge is though, that 98% of the area is Muslim and therefore prohibited from drinking ! They have done an admirable job in creating a good beer and getting it into the market. They have worked with local farmers and are trying to contribute to the local economy to build up resistance to the occupation in tis way. Beer tasting at 10 am...an excellent start to the day!

We also toured around the village of Taybeh and visited the remnants of an orthodox Byzantine church ( again commemorating a site Helena designated on the pilgrim route) . Also in the village is an old house built many centuries ago in the style that hadn't changed for hundreds of years and is similar to the kind of houses that were around in the biblical times. Basically the living area is built up on top of and into a cave structure and the animals live below and the humans above. This house was only abandoned a inhabited home for centuries, in the last decade.

From here we go to Ramallah, a huge thriving city in many respects and we meet up with Cathy Bergan who has been connected with Palestinians through the Mennonites church for over 3 decades. She speaks to us about her love of the land and it's people and the sorrow she feels in the slow process of justice and human rights being extended to the Palestinians . She tells more stories about what it means to live here in the midst of the occupation. For example, in the summer, in order for the Jewish settlements to have all the water they want and to continue to play control games with Palestinians, water is only turned on to flow to Ramallah for 2 days a week...sometimes on a predictable schedule, sometimes not. This means that the population must find ways to store water for daily use for the 5 days in between. Thus all Palestinian homes have large black water tanks on their roofs to fill up to use for the 5 days each week there is no water. This includes businesses as well. It just one of many ways Israel controls the daily lives of Palestinians. This is a story we have heard many times from many in the occupied territories.

Again the journey to and from has us having to negotiate the Wall and the numerous check points set up by Israel.

In the evening we head back through the wall to the Bethlehem area to see a concert put on by a children and youth choir and orchestra. They perform beautifully and it is moving to see them involved in music to the depth and degree that they are. The atmosphere is joyous, the theatre built by the Palestinians is amazing and new. In the music there is both a cathartic expression of the pain and the hope by those on stage. Yet overshadowing it all is a new threat to annex the land and the development here by Israel even though it is all on Palestinian land.

Tomorrow we head to Hebron - a volatile area .

If these stones could talk

As I stand on the mount of olives overlooking the Holy city of Jerusalem, I think of the passage in the gospels of Jesus, looking out from the same place, and weeping . If he could see what this city, what this country has turned in to, I'm sure the tears would be equally strong. There were certainly times for me today when all I wanted to do was weep !

Overlooking the valley toward Jerusalem there is much to see and take in. Below us is the Jewish cemetery which these days is for the very wealthy only. A spot here is 50K us$. It is seen as an important place for Jews because it overlooks the Golden Gate, the place that the Messiah will enter when he comes and those in the graves that face such will be the first to be received . HOWEVER, on the otherside of the valley against the wall is the Muslim graveyard where observant Jews would not dare to walk over the places of the deceased and the golden gate has been sealed to prevent the coming of the messiah. Between the two graveyards is the Christian graveyard and the garden of gethsemane. Hundreds of people are swarming all around us oblivious to much of this history and here simply to "kiss the holy stones" ( a theme I will come back to again shortly)

We journey down the mount to the bottom where the garden of gethsemane is. The olive trees in this garden are protected for many reasons, but many of them are 2500 years old and so would have indeed have been around if this was the place Jesus came to pray on the night he was betrayed. These have more significance for me than the stupid rock with the plaque on it ( as the rock Jesus prayed on) or the church and alters built around the site. In fact I find myself getting increasingly irritated by the crowds of biblical literalists swarming these places.

From here we go the the Via Delarosa, the path that's has been marked out as the final journey from Pilates palace to the place of crucifixion and resurrection. Thankfully our guide has picked up on the theological underpinnings of the group and he denotes that the starting place and the ending place are the only sites that has historical evidence to align themselves with the story in the bible. The first place is Pilates Court house. There is a rock here that has roman inscriptions of a game board that soldiers would have played while awaiting orders. So it is possible that this is the place where Jesus journey to death begins. ALL the other stops along the way that are pointed out have no evidence for such, and in fact, many have contrary evidence opposed to the possibility. I am working hard to not be judgmental of the many in the crowds around me who continue to think that all this is historical sites of a literal truth. I can see that many are moved emotionally by their walk and the many trinkets for sale tell me that redemption theology is dominant in those that take this walk through the 12 stations.

At the end of the journey through the old city we arrive at the church of the resurrection . Here people are lined up for the opportunity to put their hand in a hole in a rock which might have been the spot Jesus' cross was erected, literally kiss a stone slab that was near where is body was laid, and the wait for 60 + minutes for a chance to see inside a rock tomb that Helena declared was the tomb he was buried in and resurrected from. A huge basilica from the byzantine era surrounds all three of these "spots" . Again, like Bethlehem there is a huge fight about what denomination owns what rights to what parts of the church etc. In fact at various times in history there have been shootings, and other violent clashes between those wanting to claim ownership to this church and the sites. All I can think is ...."and Jesus wept " . While this final location in the walk was the site of crucifixions in Jesus day, and there were a number of caves tombs near this site, ( including another similar one hidden in a back alcove that our guide takes us to and that could have just as easily been Jesus tomb), the meaning of the resurrections stories seem to be lost in the attempts to memorialize them. We've created dead letter sites that reduce Easter to the celebration of a resuscitated corpse instead of a living faith that seeks to celebrate the power of the story of resurrection and the transformative power it had on the disciples and potentially on us.

What troubles me most is that so many seem to come to this land simply to kiss the holy stones and be confirmed in their faith and beliefs rather than be transformed and challenged by an encounter with this land and it's peoples. Christianity should NEVER be about simply making us feel good about our comfortable little lives and returning home with a new religious trinket and satisfaction in thinking we are part of an elite group chosen and blessed by God. Christianity MUST be about being challenged by what we see, think, feel and encounter to broaden our understanding of the world, it's people, it's encounters with the divine and the ways it has forsaken the core values that are a true test of the truth of a religion. - compassion, love of neighbor and enemy, forgiveness, hope and grace.

We end our day by visiting a Christian Palestinian organization Sabeel, whose aims to support palestinians and challenge the Israeli occupation through non violent resistance. We meet with Cedar, a 78 yr old woman who is one of the founders of the organization who tells us her own story of her families displacement through the 1948 displacement by Britain known to Palestinians as the Nakba (catastrophe in Arabic ) . Her story is heart wrenching and she is passionate in her hope for peace which she is quite clear will not come in her lifetime but that she hopes her grandchildren will see. She tells us of the many Christian Palestinians who have simply give up hope and have moved away to other countries. She tells of her own feelings of being abandoned by Christians churches in other parts of the world. She speaks of a dark night of the soul experience in her own faith journey as a result. She also observes the ongoing effects for children and youth of living perpetually in states of trauma and stress and the hopelessness and anger this breeds. Our debriefing this evening is intense and the complexity and yet blindness at the same time of the core values of respect, dignity and the honouring of another's humanity is often missing in the ideologies of this "holy land" . The stones of this ancient land have a story to tell and wisdom to share if we could listen to the lessons of history contained within. God help us to open our ears and listen.