Saturday evening - Dec 8 - Walking the Via Dolorosa

Today was the walking journey down the Via Dolorosa, beginning the first thing this morning with a bus trip to Herod's Gate (Muslim quarter) and culminating at Holy Sepulchre Church where we exited at the Jaffa Gate (Christian quarter). It was a long and intense walk, and that wasn't the end of the day's journey. We ended today's travels at a place called the Garden Tomb which I'll describe a little further on in this post.

My, so much to absorb in a day! Our pictures, our notes, and a couple companion publications will tell us the story - over time, that is. It was too much to take in with one gulp. It was a day to ponder for a long time.

The picture above is a scene I captured in the Holy Sepulchre Church.

Lest anyone believe that old Jerusalem is simply a series of holy places, as I might have thought before we came here, know that the town is most definitely alive and bustling with people and the business of living. There are markets and people milling about everywhere. People make their homes there, conduct all sorts of businesses there. The city buzzes with activity.

It is interesting that every type of God-worshipping religion seems to have its own place in this city; and those places were won and continue to be won with a lot of rules and regulations brought about by battles, arguments, and sometimes good will. It seems to be a peace that works, but at times it must be somewhat uneasy. Everyone stakes a claim to Christ; and, as one might expect, everyone has a different idea about how to pay homage to (and assure that other people pay their proper respects to) that claim. The fact that it works is a miracle.


Although I don't have the notes handy about the history of the Holy Sepulchre Church, I'm pretty sure this church was originally established, like many other traditional religious sites, during the times of Constantine; and then it would have been enhanced and rebuilt a number of times, over time, as other nations or groups became dominant and gave their own expression to the site. The tradition underlying this church is that it encloses the tomb where Jesus was buried. Lauren went through the line to see the tomb while I wandered through the church itself. The church seems to be the size of a couple small cities, and it has many, many rooms.

There's another site that proposes that it could be the site of Jesus' tomb -the Garden Tomb. This site is sponsored by the Garden Tomb Trust from London, England.

After we left the Holy Sepulchre Church (and therefore left the old city), we had lunch and then went to the Garden Tomb grounds. They are beautiful. David Longworth, from the UK, was our docent, and he gave us an excellent tour of the small area. Truly an exceptional speaker!

Afterward, we split off with our partners or alone and walked through the gardens; and then we regrouped in one of the reserved areas and Pastor Matt lead us in communion. It's good to travel to a place like this with like-minded Christians. There's much we might not agree on - we surely come from different lifestyles and generations - but we are very much in agreement about the foundation of our faith. When we come together, we ARE together. I am thankful for that.

One very fun thing today was that Anise (our NAWA guide) did find us a couple fabric shops in the old city, and he gave me five minutes to look at and purchase fabric.

When I protested that I couldn't even take stock of the fabric in five minutes, he relented and told me to take all the time I needed. I ended up purchasing 2-1/2 meters of some nice cottons and 1-1/2 meters of what the shop keeper called Damascus cotton.

In the meantime, Pastor Matt and his group from Gloria Dei decided they needed some of this fabric for new paraments for their church, and they were still busy shopping when I was through. It was funny, and dear Anise just shook his head and accepted that we would never move as fast as he would like.

At supper this evening, I learned that these hotel kitchens are Kosher. One of the dining room people explained to us that they might as well close down the restaurant if they weren't Kosher.

After yesterday's (Friday) activity at the hotel, I can understand how that might be. On Friday afternoons before sunset, many orthodox Jewish families head for local hotels where they enjoy the fellowship of other families, eat well, have places for whatever observance they need to have to honor the Sabbath, and break no rules. Our hotel was full last night, with children playing all over the huge lobby area and groups sitting here and there just chatting away. The function of one of the elevators was changed so that if you got in it, the door would close and take you to the next floor. You didn't need to push buttons. Now, that may be too simple of an explanation and the elevator may have done more than that, but it was a puzzle to us. Over the course of the evening, someone explained the strange behavior to us.

Some of us were puzzled as the obviously orthodox Jewish families joined us in the same dining room, but now we know. The dining room (and the kitchens) are ALWAYS Kosher! We have learned much, and we're delighted to add these few additional tidbits to our bank of knowledge.

Tomorrow, we head to Galilee for two nights, to Tel Aviv for one night, and then straight on to the airport to begin our trip home. Our trip is going fast, but we're packing it with wonderful memories. What a way to spend Advent! We may not have any additional posts to blogger until we're home, but I'm glad I have been able to keep a little bit up to date so that those who are "traveling with us" know a little of where we are and what we're doing now.

As for last things for today, we had a beautiful sunset this evening - the first we have seen here. My picture doesn't do justice to it, but it was such a lovely treat to discover when we arrived back at our hotel and opened the curtains in our room.