GREETINGS FROM ISRAEL,
Thank you so much for this opportunity to explore the Holy Land through this Tantur program. I hope you have been able to browse through the pictures I’ve been sharing on our CTK group Facebook. We are a community of 12 pilgrims with 3 guides that know well how to shape, support and encourage community. They have partnered with wonderful people in this larger community to share the many complexities of this holy place.
We begin each day with mass or morning prayer and end the day with ecumenical prayer which each of us takes turns leading and sharing from our respective backgrounds. There is a good mix of Catholics, Anglicans, and Lutherans. The food is very good and westernized to fit the college student’s tastes. I was hoping for more hummus but there is lots of fresh fruit and vegetables.
Each Monday afternoon we share our reflections as well as when we have our meals together. Our time is interwoven with lectures and outings. We explored how the cannon of the Bible was put together and how we weave our lives with God’s story to share God’s good news. Our evangelism, our good news telling is wrapped up in the books of the Bible. The beauty and complexity of community and how God slowly works through us, desiring us to bear God’s name faithfully in our lives and communities. It took a long time for the cannon, the 66 books of the library of our Bible to come together and shape our communities of faith.
We have explored the churches that have been built upon holy sites. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre that is shared by Christians and claims the place of crucifixion and tomb. The Chapel of the Ascension that claims the place of Jesus’ feet leaving the ground as he ascends back to his Father. We worshipped and prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane and explored the churches and chapels. I am learning more about the Eastern Christian Churches – Armenian, Syrian, Coptic. There are 14 leaders in the Eastern Orthodox Church.
Christ Church is the oldest Protestant community in the Middle East and is a center of prayer for all nations with worship reflecting the Jewish context of the gospel and was influential in providing health care and education which the Lutherans also followed suit which helped to transform the society encouraging more religious communities to reach out to those in greatest need.
We had an introduction to Judaism from three different Jews, two who served in the Israeli military as young adults. It is so good to hear first-hand stories and explanations of their faith, ethnicity, and practices. I finally have the Jewish lectionary laid out for me and have gathered some wonderful resources to tap into Midrash, Mishnah and Talmud which Jesus would have been familiar with. I’m getting my bearing in a whole new way and meeting Jesus again and anew. It’s like discovering a whole new part of a friend you’ve known for a long time. It’s a wonderful surprise.
Thank you again for this wonderful opportunity. I am so grateful.
Bold Inquisitive Belief Loving Expansively,
Pastor Connie Spitzack
