Footsteps of Jesus Pilgrimage Day 7 - An Encounter with Other Stories and Traditions

Day seven was quite a day. It was Yom Kippur – the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. The name Yom Kippur translates from Hebrew to English as the Day of Atonement. Jewish people may spend the day fasting, attending synagogue, or observing the holiday in other ways. It follows Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. And it is big in Israel – not surprisingly. And some factions within Jewish Israel are keen for everyone to stop and observe it in some way; including Muslims and Christians, and less orthodox Jews for that matter. It can be problematic. So, the normal programme of our pilgrimage was altered so that we were not needing buses and could walk everywhere.

Our day began with a lecture on Holy Sepulchre, which was super helpful. I wish I had known some of that stuff before. The history begins with Helena identifying the site as that of Jesus's crucifixion and resurrection and Constantine building the first church on that site, a much grander affair than the current one. The history is long – filled with earthquakes and sackings, and then rebuilding during the Crusader period. The current church is basically that church, which is different from Constantine’s church – but elements of that church remain. We were given a little map of the place which made it way easier to work out where we were once we were there.

Then we set off down through Herod’s Gate (again). Now I had worked out the source of my confusion the day before, and I was able to head off on the way to get money from the money machine, and a coffee slushy to keep me going in the heat. I caught up with the group as they crossed the road at that Gate.

I walked with Edward – a really nice guy from Florida. When they booked to do this pilgrimage for 2020, he was in his early 80’s, pretty fit, playing tennis and looking forward to the trip. Four years later he was struggling. He had had to give up tennis due to balance issues, which meant even the walk down to our destination was hard. He and Susanna were not able to join us for lunch as we had to walk back up the Via Dolorosa. I walked with some of the others on that walk, and they were struggling. It helped me appreciate both my fitness, and how much of a climb it is back up towards Holy Sepulchre. And I was grateful for the chance to encourage others less fit than me as we walked slowly down and up, mindful of how quickly my own fitness could go, as it had for Edward. Quite sobering this getting old thing.

Our first destination was the church of St. Anne, a Romanesque Basilica, built by Crusaders in the 12th century on the site where, according to tradition, Saints Anne and Joachim, parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary, lived. Here too, according to the 2nd century Proto-Evangelium of St. James, Mary was born. It turns out there are more than one version of the biblical stories. Actually, if you read Luke’s gospel, and then Matthew’s gospel without tyring to smoosh them together, you might notice some of those differences. Luke is all about Mary and Joseph coming from Nazareth. Matthew is all

about Mary and Joseph coming from Bethlehem, fleeing to Egypt and on returning, not going back to Bethlehem but to Nazareth. It is this tradition that this church and the story behind it belong to. And the need to provide pilgrimage sites in Jerusalem for those pilgrims to be able to stay in town and not need to go anywhere else for – convenience and money baby! The Proto-Evangelium of St. James is a second-century infancy gospel telling of the miraculous conception of the Virgin Mary, her upbringing and marriage to Joseph. It is set in Jerusalem. I only came across it at the Franciscan thing I attended in Phoenix in June 2023.

This church is built at the excavated site of the pools of Bethesda (John 5:1-15) They are much deeper and bigger than I remember, and only part of that complex has been dug out. After we arrived, we had a talk from Rodney, of course, and then had time to wander and take way too many photos. Then we gathered beside the church – something happened to our booking in the church, and Andrew led us in a lovely healing service. Several of our group had been asked to offer prayers of healing. I was surprised by who I chose to line up in front of – a lovely Penty priest from Australia. The Spirit moves in surprising ways. I trusted her prayers for those I took with me and myself although I would never had prayed that way myself. Opening myself to other ways of being.

We did get a brief time in the church, renowned for its amazing acoustics and were able to listen to a lovely group sing the liturgy.

We even had a sing but maybe I was off note a bit. Not such an amazing recording. 

Then we headed off up the hill to the Maronite Guest House for lunch. One of the joys of our time was constantly bumping up against all kinds of Christian traditions beyond our normal western boring protestant and Pentecostal ones. Today we met St. Maron. Wikipedia says of St. Maron … was a 4th-century Syriac Christian hermit monk whose followers, after his death, founded a religious Christian movement that became known as the Maronite Church, The religious community which grew from this movement are the modern Maronites. One of his disciples successfully shared the Maronite variant of Christianity in Lebanon. O yes, Lebanon Christians as Maronites – I remember now. You can read more here on Wikipedia.

After lunch some of us went up onto the roof to see the amazing views of the Old City, down to Al Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock, across to Holy Sepulchre and to the New Gate, and up to the Tower of David. You can find more photos here.

Then we walked back down to Holy Sepulchre to pray and to be in the crowd. It was really helpful to have Rodney’s map. The orthodox priests seemed more relaxed, and I was able to take photos I would not have been able to on other days. I always find being in this place deeply moving, both for what it represents, and for its history. But it took time, and I know many people who really struggle with it. It takes time. You can find some more of my photos on my Facebook posting at the time here and here.You can find some of my random photos of the old city here and here

On the way back to St Georges we stopped at the Austrian Imperial Café again and were restored by the cool of the roof top garden and the beer, apple strudel and coffee. This had the negative side of then not stopping for yummy treats as we walked back up towards the Damascus Gate and back to the College. A small regret.

We walked back through a city reawakening from Yom Kippur, as the Israeli security checkpoints, which had been put up to prevent trouble, and to slow/shut down Palestinian life, were removed. And despite that the Zionist extremists continued to invade al-Haram al-Sharif. Growing niggle and frustration that would explode.

We were now near the end. The next three days were a pilgrimage through Holy Week. It would go quickly.