18 – 25/1/21

Introduction

Four years ago I celebrated Christian Unity Week in Jerusalem.  There they have a service every evening at 5.00 in a wide variety of churches.  Although I am starting a day late, here are some thoughts from seven different churches for the seven days remaining.  They all come from my book ‘A Week of Prayer in Jerusalem’ available either from bibleinbrief.org or from Amazon.

Tuesday

The service was in the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer, right next to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, a handsome stone neo-Romanesque building.  The service was in English, Arabic and German with music by Hildegard of Bingen and Schütz.  The reading was about Saul’s conversion on the Damascus road.  The sermon was by the Lutheran bishop of Amman, Dr Munib Younan.  

“As churches we have scales on our eyes which keep us from seeing Christ in the other, even other Christians.  These scales are called tradition, theology, history, pride, status quo, and sometimes deep pain from past disagreements.  Like Saul, we cannot follow the Lord’s call until these scales have fallen from our eyes.  We cannot be one, until we can see the image of Christ in each other clearly.”

As President of the Lutheran World Federation he had earlier in the year celebrated the 500th anniversary of the Reformation at a service in Sweden – co-hosted by the Pope!!  “It was a moment that no one could have envisioned fifty years ago…Our prayers for unity have already been answered through the trust and friendship we share across our various traditions.  Trust  and friendship make it much easier to be in partnership – and make it much harder to be in competition!”

Wednesday

Today we were at the church of San Salvatore, St Saviour.  This is the home of the Franciscans, who are responsible for many of the holy sites in Israel/Palestine.  In keeping with the fact that it was St Francis who created the first Christmas crib, the crib in the service was magnificent!  The church was like a mini-St Peter’s in Rome.  The service was in Italian, English and Arabic.  

Cardinal Pizzabella gave the English sermon.

“Every year, the atmosphere is more positive, there is more and more opportunity to build something new.  Nothing sensational, there will not be huge changes, but there has been a rise in awareness of belonging to a single body, which is the Church of Christ.”  At the end we sang ‘Make me a channel of your peace’, first verse in Italian, the second in English…

Afterwards over squash and nibbles I had a great conversation with Ken, a white-bearded American carpenter, and Nino, a Greek dentist.  We discussed all the high-rise buildings going up in Israel and the politics behind it.  As the singer/songwriter Carly Simon said, “They found paradise and put up a parking lot”.

Thursday

As always on the Thursday of this week, the service was held in the charming Crusader chapel of the Cenacle/Supper room.  It is now a mosque, but Christians are allowed to worship there three times a year.  The service was taken by German Benedictines from the next door monastery, with beautiful chanting of songs from Taizé.  Brother Elias spoke of being born again.

“When a child is born, it does not have to do very much.   The work and the pain is the mother’s.  The act of being born is somehow passive and inactive.  So is being born again.  We have to accept our helplessness and poverty.  We have to live in the wind of the Spirit, in the Gospel, in the love of Christ.  We cannot entirely change our state of mind, but we are able to realise that, despite our smallness, our weakness, we are simple creatures, but loved by God. And within this deep love, we can, not only change, but also and above all, be transformed.”

Afterwards in the monastery dining room we had sesame bread dipped in olive oil za’ater – a typical Palestinian mix of herbs like oregano, bail, thyme and caraway seeds.

Friday

The service was held at the St Anthony’s Coptic Orthodox Church, with the service shared between Egyptian and Syrian priests. The service was in Coptic and Arabic.  Half way through all the lights failed, but the singing continued the pitch blackness without a hesitation.  They come on again and then off.  It made absolutely no difference to tehe service.  Afterwards I asked if that had been because of the monsoon-like rain.  I was told, no they probably just overloaded the fuse board.  The Arabic sermon was translated on the back the service sheet:

““Dear guests let’s leave this negative speech and the words of despair which say most of our times.  we should know that there is one truth which is the history which mentioned a lot for the events that led to the misunderstanding of the accurate meaning of the theological words in some occasions which led to the division*.  But in this era we hope to reach the unity of the church and we insistonit… 

Finally, we should pray not just in this week but all the time for the unity of the church.  Till someday this desired unity comes soon.  Thank you all.”

*Note:  This refers to a theological split that occurred as a result of the Council of Chalcedon AD 451.  The issue was whether Jesus had two natures divine and human, or one combined nature, or a divine nature with the human nature being a kind of play-acting etc.  The churches on all sides have now come to accept that the split was all about a linguistic misunderstanding.

On Friday I will publish part 2 of the Week of Prayer of Christian Unity, when we will visit the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, the Anglican Cathedral, the Greek Melkite Catholic Church (thus covering two Sundays), and ending with the Armenian Orthodox Cathedral.