In the Garden

This is my 818th post on this blog. My first was on January 3, 2010. At the time I was the rector of St. Francis Church in Holden and preparing to attend a class called "The Palestine of Jesus" at St. George's College in Jerusalem. I was new to the idea of blogging but wanted to have a place to post pictures for parishioners and friends.

I had been to the Holy Land briefly during my junior year of college but this was my first more "intentional" pilgrimage,and as a preacher. I shared that  experience a decade ago with my stepfather, Marty and my longtime friend, Chris - both pastors - and wrote about them here before my arrival at St. George's.

A lot has happened in the years since then. Among other things, Marty is now among the saints triumphant. Numerous "ruminations" were dedicated to that first pilgrimage. At the time I could not know that I'd return again in April 2016 with the brothers of the Society of St. John the Evangelist, again to St. George's but this time to the cathedral guesthouse. This program was less "academic" and more focused on spiritual pilgrimage as one might expect with monks leading. Again I wrote lots of posts. And I figured that might be my last time here.

One year ago, however, an opportunity emerged to share leadership with a rabbi friend in Worcester, Aviva Fellman, and to bring Christians and Jews to this holy land for a shared experience in dialogue toward the goal of deeper mutual understanding. I remain grateful for that time and that different experience of this place. Many more ruminations.

And so I now find myself once more at St. George's, in the Diocese of Jerusalem, again at the cathedral guesthouse. This time I'm travelling with my boss, Bishop Doug Fisher, and the retired dean of our cathedral, Jim Munroe. And 24 others, clergy and laity, from our diocese of Western Massachusetts.

Our itinerary will be very similar to the program I did with SSJE. But of course you can't step in the same river twice. I am changed - and we are a different group. Nevertheless, I think my previous posts from these past three journeys have been somewhere between a travelogue and theological reflection. I've posted a lot of pictures. My plan this time is to post less often but try to go deeper - to pay attention to what I am seeing for the first time or learning at a deeper level. That, at least, is the plan at the moment.

This morning I was up early and sat in the quiet of the gardens here. Sitting at a Christian cathedral,in a Jewish state - and listening to the pre-dawn call to Muslim prayers. This is an extraordinary place. As I work to get acclimated to this time and place - and allow my body to catch up to my mind and soul after a ten hour flight and a seven hour time change - I begin with gratitude. I love this holy land, not only as the place where Jesus once walked but as a (still) contested land where Christians and Jews and Muslims are called to help Jerusalem live into it's name as the City of Peace.