Caesarea - our final day of pilgrimage on the Bus called Hope

There is a very old proverb that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. It
has various meanings and has been attributed to various sources. For my purpose here, suffice to say that I fully intended to wrap up my musings around our trip to the Holy Land on the Bus called Hope some while ago, but other busy-ness and business has intervened.
Mea Culpa!
The last post about the trip that I put up on the blog described our penultimate day, spent in Nazareth. So now I must pick up the threads and bring our pilgrimage to a close:


It is the last day - Monday - and I manage to get up early enough to see something of the famous pink hue over the Sea of Galilee from our bedroom window - before we leave our hotel in Tiberias for the last time - driving along the Mediterranean coast to the airport in Tel Aviv. We visit the magnificent ruins of Caesarea on the way, the grandiose city founded by Herod the Great in 37 - 34 BC on the old fortified town known as Strato's tower. (It is not to be confused with Caesarea Philippi, located at the extreme northern tip of Israel.) Here was the capital of Palestine for almost 600 years, and later it was a Crusader port. Pontius Pilate lived here in the time of Christ, and it was the provincial headquarters of the Roman administration. Here also St Peter baptised Cornelius, a centurion in the Roman Army, who was the first Gentile convert.
We have plenty of time to explore the enormous site but first we have a very special and moving service on the beach, the glistening water of the Mediterranean as a backdrop, where we are all anointed with the Oil of Gladness to send us on our way. Two young lads are playing on the beach under the watchful eye of their mother and are somewhat curious as to what is going on, as we sing two hymns and say our special Faith, Hope and Love prayer.
There are the well preserved ruins of a magnificent aqueduct dating back to the time of Jesus Christ, built by the Romans to bring water to the city from the foothills of Mount Carmel. But it is so sad to see shocking litter piled up against the ruins, a complete eye-sore.
Lunch at a local restaurant near Old Jaffa where we enjoy classic Arabic Mezze on a terrace looking towards the sea sets us up for the final drive to the airport and home…

This has been an amazing week - there have been highs and lows emotionally. We are not all moved by the same things. Sites which have reduced some to tears have left me unmoved, and vice versa. We are all different, all unique, coming from many different backgrounds, and with a range of physical abilities. But we have all supported one another along the way. I cannot speak for the other two coaches, Faith and Love, but on our Bus called Hope we have all bonded by the end of the pilgrimage in a way we might not have thought possible and we continue to have reunions to this day where we share food, fun, friendship and reminiscences.
Throughout our week I have nothing but praise for our wonderful spiritual leaders, our local guide, and our driver - who with their own individual skills have enabled us to take such a wonderful trip - with only the smallest of mishaps. And a huge thank you must go to McCabe who are so experienced in this field and who masterminded the whole week. Thank you to you all.

There simply is not enough time to take everything in over the course of one week in the Holy Land. I fully intend to go back again, at least once more, to fill in some of the gaps. I think with the knowledge gained this time I will be able to gain so much more out of the many experiences next time around.

For further reading I can recommend the following books which informed me as I travelled and later in writing this blog:

Every Pilgrim's Guide to the Holy Land by Norman Wareham and Jill Gill Canterbury Press 4th edition 2011
The Holy Land: An Oxford Archaeological Guide by Jerome Murphy-O'Connor Oxford University Press 5th edition 2008

Ecumenism in Jerusalem

walking through Old Jerusalem

Just down the road from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre we find the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer, and it is here that we all meet up again to celebrate Eucharist as a whole group. On the way out I pick up their leaflet, and learn that three different congregations worship here on a regular basis: The Arabic speaking congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land (ELCJHL for short!), the German speaking congregation of the Evangelical church in Germany, (EKD), and the English speaking Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). Sometimes even the Danish Lutherans use this church. As the leaflet goes on to explain, the Christian community in Jerusalem "has always been multi-ethnic, diverse and multi-lingual. Here you will find Greeks and Armenians, Syrians, Coptic Christians from Egypt, Ethiopians, Maronites with Lebanese background, Orthodox Russians, Palestinians, and Hebrew Christians praying side by side."
Here we have a fine lesson of working together in fellowship and partnership, and the church is very clearly a vital part of the ecumenical Christian tradition in the city, from which many of us could learn a thing or two! There is much more information about the church and its ministry, its educational programme, its projects, resources and partners, on its website where there is also plenty of information about the real plight of the Palestinian Christians, which we really cannot discover in such a short pilgrimage visit.

Dormition Abbey - mosaic of Virgin and Child 

It is certainly now time for lunch. Our mornings start early, in an attempt to steal a march on the other coach parties! Without any break, the mornings seem long and many of us are noticeably wilting every day by lunchtime.
Today we walk into the Armenian quarter for our restaurant. As usual the appetisers are fantastic, but the veggie options for main course tend to be unreliable. Today the veggie option is dire - a huge plate of pasta with a very tasteless tomato sauce. I cannot eat it, and even my usually hungry companions are not tempted to take it off me!

Dormition Abbey Basilica

Dormition Abbey Bell tower

Suitably fed and watered, we are off again, this time to Mount Zion and the Dormition Abbey (Dormitio Sanctae Mariae: the falling asleep of St Mary), where legend has it that the Virgin Mary spent her last days. However the House of Mary in Ephesus and the Tomb of St Mary in Gethsemane also make this claim. There is a life size statue of the reclining Mary downstairs in the crypt, made from cherry wood and ivory, marking the place where she is supposed to have died. Some were venerating this edifice, but I have to confess that I felt totally unmoved by it. What struck me was the beauty of the mosaics, on the floor and in the six side chapels, in the main body of the church.The circular floor mosaic represents the spreading of the Word, through space and time and is really very special.
Sadly we are hurried away all too soon as there is still plenty to see today…We are off to the Upper Room, The Tomb of David, and the Wailing Wall.