Pilgrimage to the Holy Land

I know that this ability has, for many of us, added an extra vividness and reality to our worship, and especially so through Holy Week. We have walked along part of the route which Jesus followed in triumph on Palm Sunday and seen the site of the temple where he was accused. We have visited the garden of Gethsemane where some of the olive trees were old enough to have witnessed the agony and betrayal of Jesus and descended into the hideous cells under the house of the High Priest which are almost certainly where He was held after His arrest. We followed the Way of the Cross along the Via Dolorosa and through the city, jostled by preoccupied crowds who reflected, in a very small way, the cruel disinterest so many showed towards the fate of Our Lord. We venerated the site of the Crucifixion; a most emotional and inspiring place despite now being marked by the rather dilapidated Church of the Holy Sepulchre and thronged with pilgrims and tourists.

In ten very hectic days we visited numerous other places which help bring to life many Bible stories. We went to Bethlehem and the fields where the shepherds received the good news. We saw the remains of an ancient street in Nazareth where Jesus must have played and worked as a youngster. We sang hymns on a boat on the Sea of Galilee and enjoyed the peaceful gardens and views over the lake from the church of the Beatitudes. We explored the source of the river Jordan, believed to be where St Peter, at last, realised exactly who Jesus was, and filled bottles with water from the beautifully clear pools.

Traditionally a pilgrim should face all kinds of dangers and privations but, thanks to Fr. Roger’s excellent arrangements, our conscientious and devoutly Christian guide, Joseph, a brand new Mercedes Benz minibus with our driver, Kamal, many of us had a very easy time. However this was not always the case for the less agile in our group and the way they overcame the difficulties of getting to many of the places, particularly the myriads of steps, in a country where little concession seems to be made towards any infirmity, was a very real inspiration to the rest of us.

There are countless other enduring memories of our visit, such as the friendship and unity of purpose of everyone in our group, the visit to the fortress at Masada, the swim in the Dead Sea, the special Arabian-style lunch that Joseph arranged for us, the sadness of an under-funded rehabilitation centre we visited - the list is nearly endless.

But I think I am speaking for everyone when I say that the most fulfilling aspects of the Pilgrimage were the Eucharists we celebrated whilst we were in the Holy Land. Each service was memorable in its own particular way, whether in a cave near the shepherds’ fields, St Anne’s church in the city of Jerusalem, the Pater Noster church on the Mount of Olives, the Anglican Church in the centre of Nazareth or the Church of the Multiplication on the shores of Galilee where the miracle of feeding the 5,000 is thought to have taken place.

For all of us, the Pilgrimage was altogether a most inspiring experience and we are extremely grateful to Fr. Roger for the way in which he led us and ministered to our spiritual and practical needs throughout. I hope that, in the years to come, he will be able to arrange further Pilgrimages to the Holy Land so that many more members of our congregation will be able to participate and find out for themselves just how uplifting and very special an experience it is.