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Dear Friends
A Pilgrim returns….
As I write this it is not yet twenty four hours since we returned home from the Diocesan Pilgrimage to Israel! So my head is full of things seen and experienced, and I think it will take quite some time to reflect back on the places we visited and the people we met in order to put it into some kind of full perspective. So these words are very much my initial reactions to an amazing seven days, which I shared with Annie, Jim and Lynda and 33 other people from the Derby Diocese. I hope you will ask us more over the coming weeks, indeed, I hope there may be an opportunity to share our story with the whole Church in some way.
It's hard to know where to begin, but for me Israel was a place of extraordinary contrasts - in every respect. From the vibrancy and hustle of Jerusalem, to the stillness and expanse of the desert, to the tranquillity and beauty of the Sea of Galilee. From the immaculate clothing of orthodox Jews in black with their wide brimmed hats, to a Bedouin family and their goats scratching a living in the desert. Of revered religious sites adjacent to and accessed through narrow streets full of traders of every description. From Mercedes and 4x4 SUV's to the donkey and camel as the means of everyday transport. From the wide smooth motorway roads, to cobbled streets and alleys wide enough only for the donkey and its burden. From the rich boulevards of the well-to-do, to those living in abject poverty with young children busy hawking on the streets. To those living in recently built 'illegal Jewish settlements' with water constantly available to keep the trees green, to adjacent Palestinian towns where water is only turned on three days of the week. Of people groups, even families, divided by the 8 metre high 'security fence' that is a concrete wall with watchtowers; of the Christian Director of a Palestinian hospital not allowed to enter Jerusalem, to those able to come and go as they please, as long as they are patient enough to get through check-points.
Was it possible to find Jesus in all of this? To make a spiritual connection with the places where the events of the Gospels are recorded? For me it was. Easier in some places than others, particularly because in some places the event is commemorated by the building (or re-building) of a very ornate Churches literally over where it happened. Other Churches and places touched me deeply. There was something very special in hearing the words of the Gospels or sharing in a Eucharist as we stood in the place or site where it happened. We began our Pilgrimage on the Mount of Olives overlooking the Old City of Jerusalem, and our time was split between Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Nazareth, moving on to the Galilee region for the last few days. It was here that I found the greatest sense of Jesus' presence, probably because the landscape has remained unchanged. In my minds eye I can now see the places recorded in the Gospel story, locate where the miracles took place, such as the feeding of the 5000, and where Jesus taught. To have seen these places, to have walked along the shore of Galilee, to have seen the sheep and the goats and other natural things which Jesus uses in His teaching, to recall sights, sounds, smells and things touched will mean I will read the Bible with greater reality, confidence, meaning and significance. My relationship with Jesus moving to a deeper level of shared experience. We also met 'living stones' people today living out their Christian faith in amazing ways, who touched our hearts, demonstrating to others God's love and grace. So much that I'd like to share….. I could go on and on…
It was an immense privilege to visit the Holy Land; there is something very tangibly unique about it. I don't think anyone could visit and remain unchanged or unmoved. And I would want to encourage you to go yourself, particularly in the form of a Christian Pilgrimage as we did. There is something very special about 'walking where Jesus walked'.
With every Blessing, Shalom. Andy
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