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WEEK OF PRAYER FOR CHRISTIAN UNITY – 2

18 – 25/1/21

Introduction

Here beginneth the second instalment of my account of Christian Unity Week in Jerusalem which I attended in 2017.  All the extracts come from my book ‘A Week of Prayer in Jerusalem’ available either from bibleinbrief.org or from Amazon.

Saturday

I left a rainy Sabbath in Jerusalem for an equally cold and rainy day in Bethlehem – a very sad place under Israeli occupation.  As one young Christian woman said to me, “We are in prison here.”

The Unity service was in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church in West Jerusalem, an entirely round church.  The congregation sat in the ambulatory surrounding the circular sanctuary.  The service of Vespers had haunting and beautiful music,  with various processions emerging from the sanctuary into the place of the people, sometimes with ceremonial umbrellas. The service was shared with the Syrian, and Armenian churches.  The service was in Amharic and Arabic and Armenian.  The Old Testament reading was in English from the prophet Micah, highly appropriate for the current situation:

“Out of Zion will go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. He shall judge between many peoples and shall decide for strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more; but they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree, and none shall make them afraid; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.    (Micah 4.2-4)

The priest of the church, Aba Flssiha Tsion, said, “Peace is necessary for the whole world.  Without peace it is difficult to take an initiative.  We are praying God to grant us peace, full peace, in the world and in our own lives”.

After the service we walked across the courtyard for refreshments and the traditional drumming, singing and dancing, an energetic rendering of psalms of praise, which is one of the glories of the Ethiopian church.

Sunday (1)

The first evening service of the Week of Prayer was at St George’s Anglican Cathedral.  Both the bishop and the dean were Palestinians, but the service was entirely in English.  In his homily Bishop Dawani recounted how he had recently hosted a visit to St George’s of a Roman Catholic party, including a Roman Catholic bishop, and how a hundred years ago that would have been completely unthinkable.  We then renewed our baptism vows, taking a pinch of salt and lighting a thin candle or taper as a sign of our mission to be salt and light to the world.  The service ended with the toccata and fugue in D minor by J S Bach on the organ, which everyone seemed very impressed by.  To have organ music at all in a place where most churches, being Orthodox, have only unaccompanied singing, can sound quite exotic.

SUNDAY (2)

As usual, the Week of Prayer ended at the Greek Melkite Catholic Cathedral of Our Lady of the Annunciation.  The Melkite or Greek Catholic Church dates itself from the earliest Christian community in Jerusalem. They are principally based round Syria and Palestine.  There are 1.6 million Melkite Christians world-wide.

The church is very fine indeed, everything is either painted or gilded.  The service was mostly in Arabic, but the whole service was translated into English.  The readings were in English, in French and sung in Arabic.   Archbishop Joseph-Jules Zehry radiated good humour and love. He gave an impassioned sermon, in Arabic, pleading for unity. Helpfully an English translation was provided:

“Although the Greek Melkite Catholic Church entered into full communion with the Catholic Church since 1724, She has not left her elder sister but continues to follow the same liturgy, rites and feasts according to the Eastern Byzantine Christian tradition.  In prayer, we ask the Lord that the full unity with the beloved sister Greek Orthodox Church be re-established.  In this holy church, I personally raise my daily prayer for His Beatitude Patriarch Theophilos and my brothers of Orthodox, Anglican and Lutheran Churches as well as my brothers Bishops of the Catholic Churches….

“My beloved brethren, We all, who live in this holy city surrounded by its great walls and marked by its holy places, witness to the Divine salvation which took place here.   The Cenacle where the Last Supper took place, and from Gethsemane to Caiaphas’ palace then to Pilate’s palace where Christ was condemned to be crucified and taken carrying His cross to Golgotha, the tomb where Christ’s body was buried from which he rose after three days.  How beautiful and sacred is this holy city.  However, we heard in the second reading (Revelation 21.1-5)  of “The New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God”.  This new Jerusalem is much larger than this holy city we see on earth.  It is larger than the universe…. This is the Church, the ‘bride of Christ’…  All those who believed in the passion, death and Resurrection of Christ, and went on preaching with all their power and love of Christ and their faith in the Resurrection; but also who suffered or were martyred for the sake of Christ enter in their white garments this holy city, ‘holy Jerusalem’ coming down from heaven.

“My prayer today is for us to reconcile with each other quickly as Christ reconciled us.  Let us embrace each other and reconcile with each other starting from this holy city so that our reconciliation and unity may be a ‘a spring of life-giving water’…”

At the end of the service came the “artoklasia” or “breaking of the bread”, an Agape or love-meal.  Loaves of bread were carried ceremoniously around the church, and brought to the front.   After the blessing everyone was invited to  receive a piece of the blessed bread dipped in wine,  a fine and fitting conclusion to the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.

Note:  This experience was the stimulus which led me in lockdown to conclude my Wednesday morning service on Zoom with each of us sharing the bread of fellowship virtually through our screens.

Next year in Jerusalem?

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