Footsteps of Jesus Pilgrimage Day 4 - Getting Hotter in Caesarea Philippi, Galilee and Nazareth

This was a big day. After breakfast at the Sisters of Nazareth Convent we set off to up into the Golan Heights below Mt Hermon to the Banias National Park and the site of Caesarea Philippi – the Roman city built by Herod the Great’s son Philip on the site of a Greek Temple for Pan and the Dancing Goats. It is built at the source of the Banias Stream, one of the main tributaries for the Jordan River. This is another wahi tapu - long been seen as a holy place – hence the Greek temple built at the time of Alexander the Great. It had been occupied for 2,000 years until the Syrian population fled after the 1967 Six-Day War. It is now part of Israel. The border with Lebanon and Syria were in the hills above us. When we were there, on the border, it was peaceful with uncertainty and danger lurking at the fringes. Last year it became part of the war zone with Hezbollah.

We spent over two hours at the Banias National Park, walking through the ruins of the Temple of Pan and the first Greek settlements there. It was a cool way to begin an otherwise hot hot day. Andrew led us in a reflection on Jesus’ visit here – to this Gentile/pagan place, and his questioning his disciples, “who do people say I am, and who do YOU say I am?” which resulted in Peter’s so-called confession of faith. An interesting question for them in that gentile place. And interesting question for us, for me. How do I answer that in that tapu place with so much uncertainty around us. How do I name God in light of who I say Jesus is? I decided to use the calls to prayer to pray both Francis’s names for God and 99 names/praises of Allah. After Katie's reflection on the incarnation I added the Angelus and it’s focus on the incarnation to that list. I need to go back to that.

We then had free time to explore further around the park. A group of us walked down the stream to an old water driven flour mill from the time of the Ottomans, which was the mill for that part of the world. On the way there we walked under an old Roman bridge. We stopped at a Druze house where a lovely lady cooked outrageous pita bread with honey and Nutella, yes Nutella, and served Arabic coffee with cardamom. Such a delicious stop. Then we walked through some tunnels into the palace of Philip and then Agrippa II. The path took us around the outside of the crusader fort, passing a watch tower that has been repurposed several times – as building are. You could see the additions and repairs. I think it has been unoccupied since 1967 – another refugee story. You can find out more about this place and see a map here. And here are my photos on Facebook.

Then we were on the bus and driving back down into the heat and humidity of Galilee.

 

After lunch at the Pilgerhaus Tabgha, very near the church of the multiplication we gathered for a lakeside Eucharist with Andrew presiding. At one level it was a great experience. At another I struggled. The language was very patriarchal, which it is in most Anglican churches. We forget in this Province how radical our Prayer Book still is when it comes to God-language. We used the traditional Lord’s prayer as the version everyone knows – except I don’t because I never use it. In the efforts to be inclusive I felt excluded. The cup was offered by intinction, which was forbidden in our church at Covid time, and has not been allowed since. I had some sad discussions with people about that at home, and in fairness to them I did not intinct (and it is a little gross if we think about it) Holding community together is hard work. What includes some excludes others.

After a cooling swim in the warm water of the Sea of Galilee, and a mandatory ice cream, we returned to Nazareth, another visit to the Basilica, and a treat lurking under the Sisters of Nazareth’s convent and guesthouse. The Sisters bought their first place in late 1800’s for a school. When they needed to expand, they bought the two neighbouring properties, but one of them was twice as expensive as the others. When they asked why they were told that it was on the House of the Just Man. When building their school they discovered some archaeological ruins. 

Long story short, they have since had the place investigated by archaeologists (2006-2010). Beneath their convent and guest house are the remains of an extensive Crusader church, and within that a large Byzantine church. Beneath that is a house, and beneath that two tombs. Is this the long lost Church of the Nutrition described by 6^th century pilgrims, but lost after the Crusaders were evicted. What is the Church of the Nutrition? It is said that this church was built over the house where Jesus was nurtured as a child – the house of Joseph (the just man) and Mary, and where some traditions say Joseph was buried. The house certainly dates from the time of Jesus, and Nazareth being a small community, Jesus would have come into this place. What a gift. Here’s my Facebook photos.

After dinner Katie led us in a beautiful reflection on Mary and the Annunciation. She was doing it tough as one of her close friends had died and she was feeling the grief and the distance, wanting to go home.

Bonnie and I were supposed to go out with Archdeacon Samuel Barhoum and his wife Susan. I met Samuel in 2004 at the International Anglican Youth Network meeting in New York, and again in 2005 when the executive met in Jerusalem – hosted at St Georges. I was supposed to do a course after the meeting, but it was cancelled due to a lack of people. So, Samuel invited me to spend a few days in Nazareth – where I stayed at St Margaret’s Hostel. He and Susan looked after me well during those days and I was looking forward to catching up with them both. Sadly, their adult daughter told them she had just tested for Covid as they were leaving the house – so Samuel and I got to talk for about 45 minutes on Messenger instead. Not quite the night I was looking forward to. Sadly, he died suddenly last year of a heart attack. He was younger than me. He was the President and General Director of Christ Anglican School in Nazareth, a school for all Palestinians, Christian and Muslim. I visited it when I was there in 2005. So different from New Zealand Schools. A big job then was finding the funding to provide the level of education they wanted for their students. We talked about the stress of that role as their funding had been cut because the taught the Nakba – Israel demands that history not be taught to receive state funding – this central story of the Palestinian experience of living in Israel, West Bank, Lebanon, and Jordan. It means that Jews have no idea of the Nakba and get angry when they hear Palestinians talk about it or see graffiti refer to it. When he and I talked he was feeling the stress of his role and wondered how much longer he could continue.

After our talk Bonnie and I went for a walk through the souk (Ottoman market) and up the hill to the school and St Margaret's Hostel. One of the retired assistant priests Gate Pa had worked there as a young woman in the early 1960’s when it was an orphanage for the Society for Promotion of Female Education in the East. She met her husband while she was living there. It was great to at least show her pictures of it at night.

On the way back down the hill a young Palestinian stopped and offered us a lift back down to the main part of town. He was concerned for us. His family owned a bar and had a coffee bar running during the day – which we looked for the next morning.

It was another big day. But deep and rich and challenging.