Colourful Dreamer

Day two began with a lecture briefing with Rodney around the "Nativity Narratives", and then we departed for Ein Kerem and the Church of the Visitation (Luke 1: 39-56). Ein Karem is about 7.5 km outside Jerusalem. It is a tranquil place of trees and vineyards, a town of Jewish artisans and craftspeople, with the Jewish municipality of Jerusalem spreading to incorporate it. It is a holy place in Christian memory and Christian churches and convents abound.  But hidden in this tranquility is a dark history. Ein Kerem was a Arab/Palestinian village until 1948.  During the Arab-Israeli War that established the State of Israel over 750,000 Palestinians were driven from their homes. Ein Kerem was one of those villages. They thought they would return once the hostilities ceased. Many of those families still hold the keys for their homes. The new state of Israel blocked their return and their land and their lives were confiscated. Today they still wait on that hope of return. O...

Some introduction first. We were booked in to the "Footsteps of Jesus" pilgrimage, one of the courses offered by St. George's College, Jerusalem , operated by the Anglican Diocese of Jerusalem (Arabic: أبرشية القدس الأنغليكانية) (the Anglican jurisdiction for Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon) which is part of the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East. This was my third time trying to do one of these courses. It was the last full course offered. The Hamas attack happened just after we left Israel, and Israel's genocidal response has continued unabated since then.  St George's is The Anglican Centre for Pilgrimage, Education, Hospitality, and Reconciliation. The Very Rev'd Richard Sewell is the Dean of the College, and Rev'd Dr Rodney Aist is the course Director. We were joined by Rev's Canon Dr Andrew Mayes TSSF who as chaplain led us in reflections and worship, and Rev'd Katie Kirk, the Porter Fellow, a very recently ord...

On September 17 Bonnie and I flew from England to  Ben Gurion airport , Israel, to begin our two weeks in Palestine, Israel and Jordan, as part of two courses with St George's College in East Jerusalem. Through the Easy Jet app we organised a car to pick us up and take us to our hotel in Tel Aviv. We were not in England. This was hot. We booked into the hotel (Villa Rothschild by Zvieli) and then set of exploring where we were. We were near Allenby Road, a large central road in old Tel Aviv. We saw groups of protesters returning from the weekly protests against Benjamin Netanyahu 's attempts to reform the judiciary. We had a great meal. T he next day we had a few hours to explore Tel Aviv. We found some amazing spice markets and then headed down to the coast, walking through Charles Clore Park to Charles Clore Beach, which was unlike any beach I had seen before. then we explored a little of old Jaffa, visited St Peter's church, looked around Abrasha Park, and back down to ...

This IPTOC was my last, as I said a long time ago when I started blogging about it. On the last full day I left the room where IPTOC was meeting for the last session, leaving Michael to lead it. It was all his responsibility now. I spent that time editing as many of the minutes of each of our sessions as had been uploaded. they were not all there, but it still took nearly 2 hours. There was a lot. And it felt good to get it done, and to hand it over. I had done as much as I could. It was Michael's to look after now. I had done what was mine to do, and I felt good handing it on. Then it was time for the final service and farewell.   The next days Bonnie and I joined the small group for morning prayer, then after breakfast we left High Leigh. What a gift this time was for me. It did not all go as smoothly as I would have wanted. But I am grateful for those days, and for those years as Minister General. The next week was spent with family. Bonnie and I spent the next couple of days wi...

The rest of these two mornings was led by Budi Tjahjono. Budi is the International Advocacy Director for Franciscans International . I first encountered Franciscan International at IPTOC-JFOC in 2005 in Canterbury. Fr. John Quigley OFM, the then Executive Director spoke and invited any who wanted to visit their office in Geneva. I was going to Geneva, so took him up on his invitation. FI is sponsored by the Catholic Conference of the Franciscan Family (CFF) as its official representation at the United Nations. The Conference of the Franciscan Family is made up of the Ministers General of the First Orders, the Third Order Regular, and the Secular Franciscan Order, and the President of the International Franciscan Conference of the Sisters and Brothers of the Third Order Regular. And the Society of Saint Francis has been invited to be part of the International Board of Directors and to be involved in their work. the current Executive Director is Blair Matheson TSSF (one of us ...

The last two mornings were led by Paulo Ueti ,and Budi Tjahjono who helped us explore our third theme - Sharing our Good News. Paulo is the Theological Adviser and Latin America Regional Director of The Anglican Alliance. Paulo encouraged us to look again at our understanding of who Jesus is. He asserts that most of us are probably strongly influenced by Roman imperial imagery. As I write this we have just had Christ the King Sunday, a Sunday filled with imperial imagery if we are not careful. If we look on the internet for images to use, they mostly show Jesus as "emperor"! – We see it in the Christian Nationalism in the States and spreading out from there. This is something I have been confronted with every Christ the King Sunday. Who is Jesus? Paulo used Luke 24.13-35 (Road to Emmaus), as his recurring text. He suggested that this story was added later to encourage the Christian community to not be drawn into the power struggles of the Roman Church and civic hierarch...