Sataf

Its a bit of a crush in the Souk on Shabbat and makes me think about Jesus stopping suddenly to say 'Someone touched me'. Everyone's jostling each other!

The Garden Tomb is quiet and peaceful place to pray and over the air comes a lovely (Chinese?) version of "Because He lives, I can face tomorrow".

Sataf is a lovely place for a walk. At last somewhere that's not religious or political.

Or at least it is now. Back before 1948 this was a small muslim village with 100 houses and 500+ people here. But then the war and now this, homes that were wrecked and have now been turned into a beautiful olive grove. I've no idea where the original people now live but hey its a really nice park to walk in.

Ir-Amim

is the name of a free tour around the southern and eastern bits of Jerusalem that are this side of the Wall of Separation. Our Israeli guide prefers to call it the Fence. In part because quite a lot of 760km is fenced and because it helps him think about this being temporary even reversible.

The 4hr lecture in a nice air conditioned bus with 45 students, some of whom want to listen, took us to see: looking towards Bethlehem, an olive grove on the wrong side of the Fence (from the Palestinian owner's point of view). There's a law from 1949 that said If you ran away from your home during the 1948 war then you're clearly Enemy and that means we can confiscate your land. Its called the Absence Property Law. If you're clever you can use try and apply this law to this man's olives.

On the east side of Jerusalem there's a cream building (top photo) designed to be the Palestinian Parliament. But its on the wrong side.

And then if you're an Arab, living in Shu'afat (north jerusalem) on the plus side you get to pay Jerusalem taxes because you're a resident. On the downside Israel built the Wall through your neighbourhood so that you're on the wrong side of it. (next photo)

Ordinarily this shouldn't matter, after all you've got a pass that will take you through the check point when its open. On the downside the Binmen don't like coming here, and Firemen insist on having an army escort and you can forget about getting a plumber out here or an ambulance.

Bear in mind that this lecture was from an Israeli who is proIsrael and hopeful about the possibility of real peace and a two state solution.

Sorry about the lack of comic content today so here's a photo of a camel you can ride for £1 round the roundabout much to the annoyance of the Taxi drivers. No, we didn't.

Rampart Walk

For a mere £3 you can walk the walls of the Old City. This is a handy way to get used to the heat and for me to impress Lucy with all I've learned.

I expected to see little else but religious sites but here's a shot of a basketball (left) and a dusty football field (right) with the Dome in the not so far distant, as taken from the Muslim Quarter. I've got a similar pic from the Jewish Quarter. (trying to be even handed).

St Anne's was one of the many churches on a lunch break last time I walked past so I was a bit miffed to find it closing and walked in the exit. It works well to walk either as a stupid tourist who doesn't know any better Or as a Local who owns it all anyway and just keep walking until someone bigger than you says stop (see also local politics, oops).

There's a priest in the church, putting out chairs, and he invites us to sing, Go on Sing! So verse 1 of Tell out my soul. Marvellous, it slowly resonates all the way up, gathers itself and then booms it back like a hundred angels singing. Also here are the Pools of Bethesda (see John 5). Here Jesus healed a man who'd been an invalid for 38 years.

This is what's called Ground Zero by some pilgrims, a real spot, with real certainty: Jesus did that here. Right here, not making it up, not guessing of all places maybe here, not competing with other possible venues. Solid. Whilst the photo looks really dull, this sort of thing does something tingly funny to me, possibly even louder than a hundred angels.

Lucy's socks have been walked off. The Beard continues. Alas for Germany losing, I'm owed another packet of M&Ms.

Lucy Arrives

There's a sort of Taxi called a Sheroot, a minibus, (£10) vs taxi (£50) but takes quite a bit longer because (unlike a bus) they pick you up from your home, when they're full then off we go!

I sat next to Sonia who's a professor in America and about to publish a book on The Abuse of Women in the Holocaust.

She says Its easier to learn modern hebrew than Biblical hebrew - (today's English to Shakespeare). She said how usually the word "Jesus" is a conversation stopper as its often followed by "says you're going to hell" etc. I wonder what sort of Christians she tends to meet. She wanted to hear about the ethics of american creationism (see my Grand Canyon talk of last year).

Lucy has arrived. That's the Dome on the Rock behind her, the view from Mike's roof. In the sky there's a tiny white dot, a Police Blimp. It's watching the tension in the City of David below. Its not a good sign.

The Beard, She says it more impressive in the fluff than on film. But it must go. Its a small price to pay.

Sunrise

What do you do if you've already seen something marvellous before 6am? Does it make the rest of the day seem a bit down or does it mean you can relax and not worry about achieving so much? or what?

I went to the Wohl museum where grumpy officious men guard ruins that really posh religious sanhedrin (boo) types lived in. Quite likely this is where Jesus came when he was arrested and Peter too, before the cock crowed.

You're not allowed to take photos here. One of them even followed me about for a bit. Fortunately I took lots of pics last time I was here.

The interesting thing isn't the mosaics or the mikvots its the model and you begin to realise (a) how very corrupt these religious types must have been to have had this much cash and no wonder they weren't keen on Jesus for suggesting a review of their expense claims and (b) how very brave Peter was to get that far inside the house (the courtyard you see, in a Roman-style house would be in the middle, like a quad).

I wanted to join the monks at St James' Cathedral for 3pm vespers and then do the same at St Mark's at 4pm but alas they were both shut. Ho hum. This is not where I'm supposed to be today.

So I went to visit the Loo in Christ Church and bumped into Marie, who I met in 2007 on a Pilgrimage Tour. She seemed really chuffed that I remembered her name.

She remembered me from the Purim party - a sort of pantomime enactment of the story of Esther. Perhaps today is a day to be a blessing and there's at least half a blessing for me in that.

By popular request here's a close up of The Beard. Maybe tomorrow I'll let you see the other side.

St Andrews

Sometimes we have to go the long way round to get to where God wants us to be.

I exchanged what's left of my sterling at the Post Office and got the best rate ever (£1 = 5.76nis). So I thought I'd pray at the Garden Tomb which turned out to have closed for Lunch as was St Anne's as was the Dominus Flevit (after a 30min walk!).

I had cunning plan to write a blog about what I read in the papers this morning - a story about Methodists in UK deciding not to buy produce that comes from (illegal) Israeli Settlements.

This pretty much boils down to certain beauty products and tasty dates. The Israeli writer berates Methodists for being anti-Semitic (its actually anti-Zionist but that's a distinction that's lost and beside the moment that you throw that sort of mud around it sort of sticks). It berates the middle class Christians for being asinine in making parallels between Apartheid (oppresion of black people) and what's going on here (oppression of Palestinians). And so I was going to end my blog with Jesus wept and weeps still. (The "no gun" photo is outside a UNWRA girls basic school, good to see they teach one thing I think is fairly basic).

Alas, my water bottle fell out of the bag and clattered 200yards down the hill. Very funny. Unless you're hot and not in the mood. So I came home and stopped at the Scottish Church of St Andrews. Its a wonderful navigation beacon - if ever you get unsure of your bearings look for the scottish flag and you'll be fine.

Its not a tourist attraction and perhaps for that reason its a great place to pray in. Their prayer for the month, starts like this: Show us good Lord, the peace we should seek, the peace we must give, the peace we can keep, the peace we must forgo and the peace you have given in Jesus.

Christ Church

The sermon was 39mins but delivered by a tour-guide turned priest so its magnificent meat for me.

Its a call to be as passionate about the Kingdom of God as Jesus was/is. The word Kingdom might give you shivers re: power, control and position. But that's not Jesus' Kingdom which is about love and mercy and service. His And finally came 17mins before the end.

At the eucharist he says Those of you endeavouring to put Jesus first in your life are welcome to join us for Communion. Nice.

I went with Mike & family to the Mall which was so uninteresting that I sat down to read the Book of Esther. A Taiwanese man asks 'English bible?' His wife is trying on clothes, so he tells me how Jesus is coming soon to the Mount of Olives, how China is 10% Christian and South Korea maybe 50% and how most pastor's downfall is to do with money or women.

Someone asked me what I'm eating out here; so for breakfast a bowl of (hebrew transliterated) Kurnphlakes, pre-lunch we had slices of mushroom pizza in the car on the way to the Mall and then the most fabulous plate of Indian food and tonight we're making Sushi.