Ludlow Nov 2010

These are the steps from Underhill to Whitcliff at Dinham.

I wonder whether we will be brave enough to go swimming here at Dinham Bridge on 1st March 2011?

This is Dinham Bridge, photographed from the restored Watermill at Underhill.

Welcome

It is already 2010 as I write this, and I wonder whether I will ever stop thinking about this trip and the impact that it made to walk where Jesus walked, to smell the land, swim in the lake, get hot and dusty; to praise and worship in a strange yet familiar land; experience at a visceral level, this land that is still in turmoil, with people who do not think as Westerners think, and who we have to work so hard to understand. It was a disturbing journey, of some sadness and much hope, but one that also helped me to draw closer to God.

Pilgrimage 2009: Western Wall Tunnels

Charles Wilson and Charles Warren were archeologists who excavated the outside of the Western Wall, under the existing streets of Jerusalem. This work started in the 19th century and was continued in the second half of the twentieth century.

In the last couple of years the site has been opened as a visitor site for pre-booked groups. We visited it on day 2 of our pilgrimage, and were able to see a completely different view of the city - from underground.

The entrance is next to the currently exposed part of the Western Wall (security checks are potentially rigorous here and our bags were checked), and the exit is to the north at the Via Dolorosa, in the Muslim Quarter. Guards escort visitors from the exit back to the entrance, and of course, through the security checks.

Our guide for the tour was Jewish, and he started with a model of the temple mount that showed us where the foundation stone sits in relation to the rest of the site, and talked about its importance for Jewish people (and others).

One of the fellow pilgrims initiated a discussion that evening about how the foundation stone can be that if it is made of limestone.  I think highlights one of the problems with seeking a literalist surface reading of the bible, and imagine God smiling as we struggle with some of the challenges in our path. I can almost hear the voice saying, "Think, study, look. The answers are there but you have to want to find them. Seek and you will find." So often our reply is couched in terms of what we can measure, rather than awe when we realise that God doesnlt fit into a box of our making.
The idea of the foundation stone isn't one that has percolated into my consciousness before, but it struck a chord, and when I read ""For the foundations of the earth are the LORD's; upon them he has set the world." 1Samuel 2:8, and ""Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation? Tell me, if you understand."Job 38:4 (one of my favourite parts of the Bible) it now reminds me that place.  Morning Prayer has additional resonance now too.

We then moved into the tunnels themselves. They smelled...damp and earthy with a faint mildew-spore effect, but not enough to trigger my asthma, so cleaner that I thought it would be.

The first point was a small 'cave' where our guide talked about all the treasures that people had hoped to find during the excavations, mainly things like gold from the temple and various holy artefacts. If they have been found everyone is keeping very quiet about them, and there isn't any gold on display. However the real treasures has turned out to be knowledge, and access to a point on the wall that is closer to the foundation stone than is currently accessible outside.

We were able to see stones form the original wall, including this  at the bottom - the rectangular holes are where subsequent Roman wooden beams were put to support the weight of (did I imagine this?) a swimming pool.

During our tour we saw an amazing electronic robotic model of Jersualem with scenery that moved to show how the city changed over time. We women were also able to go into a viewing room that overlooks the library, where the men go to get closer to the stone when they pray. Sadly there wan't time for the men to visit that, and they weren't allowed in the women's gallery, so they missed out. P had been in the library on a previous visit, so didn't mind too much.

I found it moving that as we went through the tunnels, there were papers with prayers on slotted into the gaps between the stones, and several women were in the tunnels praying. Actually they were able to get even closer to the foundation stone than the men outside, and we walked past them quietly and quickly so as not to disturb their prayers.

Our underground tour took us to the intersection with Hezekiah's tunnel and an undergound pool, one of the many water cisterns. (I understood that to be the Pool of Siloam, but subsequent study shows this might not be the case) The cistern contained water, and had been blocked off with a wall, and the story about this isn't one I've found elsewhere. It involved an archeologist called Charles, who discovered the cistern and then spotted a door in the wall on the other side. He made a raft, paddled across the cistern and knocked on the door. The door was opened by a surprised nun, who had been unaware of the excavations on the other side of their underground water supply. The stone wall was commissioned by the convent some years later to preserve their privacy. (See Ecce Homo convent.)

At the end of our tour we came out of the works into the Muslim quarter of Jerualem, and were escorted back by a soldier. It seemd over-dramatic to be escorted where we had walked previously, unaware of danger. However, our guide said that becasue we had come out of that particular door, people would know where we had started, and that some visitors to the Western Walls were stabbed there last year. Such is Jerulasem it seems - and another reminder that tension isn't far below the surface.

he advantage of shepherding us back through security was that we moved as one group and could be counted in and out.

There is more information and photographs at this web-site.

Pilgrimage 2009 - The Garden Tomb

Gordon's Calvary, a site claimed as Golgotha, is at the back of the Bus Garage ("the most calamitous bus station"); this is behind a street market and smells of diesel and rotten vegetables. The heat from the bus engines and exhausts adds to the general oppresive heat, and the street is single file, so there is often a traffic jam with hooting, shouting and gesticulating.

Behind this modern chaotic place is a rocky cliff face, with a moslem cemetary on the top. There have been rock falls over the years, so the photograph of Golgotha, 'the place of the skull' that was taken a century ago shows a slightly different face to that which we can see now.

Right next to the modern transport terminus is the Garden Tomb.

On our first evening in Jerusalem we walked round there and took some photographs of the locked door and wall. I was eager to see inside, and very pleased when we finished our first day of pilgrimage with a visit inside the walls.

The Garden is well maintained and quite beautiful, filled with mature trees that provide shade and filter the noise, and also many brightly coloured flowers.

I have to say that walking into the garden and seeing a grave with a tomb that was contemporary with the story we were exploring was fascinating. There was a rolling channel in which the stone would have been placed (roll away the stone), but although the excavations have revealed the tomb, the actual stone hasn't been found.

Memories of the ossiaries on the Mount of Olives at Dominus Flevit (see previous blog) came flooding back, along with the 75lbs of myrrh and aloes that Nicodemus brought with him when he helped Joseph of Arimethia to bury Jesus. It didn't take a huge leap of imagination to understand why they were needed in that climate. However today it all looks very clean and tidy.
This is the grave that is attributed to Jesus. (Don't forget you can click on any photo to see a bigger picture)

No-one is saying that this must be the place that Jesus was buried, although there is an evidence trail that suggests it as a possibility. But again, this is one of at least two sites claimed for history; the other one is inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and has none of the peace and serenity that is found in the Garden Tomb. This site gives us a way into the story of Jesus' death and burial, and another place to sit and consider, and ponder and pray, but ultimately, wherever we look for the tomb, we are faced with the reality of the Easter message, "He is not here, He is risen."

We experienced one of life's delightful co-incidences when we met our guide. As I chatted to him near the entrance, I discovered that he was part of a group chaired by Bishop John Taylor, a retired Bishop of St Albans, and that he knew our churchwarden etc etc. Small world... Ken was interviewed by Ian Pearce of Three Counties Radio about the Garden Tomb and his clear and faith-affirming commentary can be found (for a short while) on the Three Counties Radio Pilgrimage site. It's definitely worth listening to!

[Just a short summary of his points:

1. Crucifixion at crossroads of a busy thoroughfare - used as a warning.

2. Next door to man-made tomb (not a cave).

3. Graves on right hand side of entrance (Mark)

4. Rich man's tomb so expect a large weeping chamber.

5. Two graves, only one has been used - info about how graves were cut.

6. One grave has been cut for someone's feet.

7. Rolling stone entrance.

The garden was purchased and occupied in 1894 - no church building was to be placed there, no-one to pay to come in, available for a variety of traditions.]

If you want a place of peace, this is a gentle counterpoint to the Bus Garage, the souk and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre..

Pilgrimage 2009 - Via Dolorosa

After leaving the convent we then started our journey following the Stations of the Cross along the Via Dolorosa. On this part of the pilgrimage, I took very few photographs. Most of these pictures here were taken at other times.

The street is a market place, and as we walked were continually approached by traders. One or two laughed at us and attempted to distract us from our prayers, but most were respectful.

The archway is part of the decoration of the Church of the Flaggelation.

Our journey ended in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and away from the over-decorated, fought-over and challenging places on the journey, we arrived at this chapel - the chapel of the Resurrection. Compared to everything else we had seen as we retraced the story of Jesus' last journey, this was another little place of calm.

Pilgrimage 2009 - Ecce Homo Convent and Lithostrotos

After leaving the Pools of Bethesda we travelled a few yards along the Via Dolorosa. We saw the 'Ecce Homo' arch (behold the man), which tradition states was where Pilate displayed Jesus to the crowd. Archeology suggests the arch was built slightly later.

Attached to the arch is the Ecce Homo convent.

The convent is a pilgrim house, where visitors can stay or visit, and it is next to the Ecce Homo church.

The roof of the convent is a huge verandah which has panoramic views across to the Dome of the Rock, and other sights of Jerusalem.

We ate lunch in the roof-level dining room. This is a good place to see over Jerusalem and start to get an idea of the very short distances between many of the points of interest. Everywhere there is a church there is also a minaret, which is a reminder of the troubled history of this city.

This is the view back towards the Lion Gate along the Via Dolorosa.

The convent is built over the Lithostrotos, an ancient Roman pavement at the level that the road would have been during Jesus' time.

Traditionally this is celebrated as the original pavement on which Jesus walked, but again the archeological evidence disputes this. The nuns are careful to point out that they do not claim this as true; simply that this is where they remember that event.

I found it a good indication of the type of environment, and seeing the striations on the re-cycled paving stones, and the Roman games of chance carved into the stones (just as we also saw in the souk and elsewhere) helped me to imagine what it might have been like then. The area is set out as a chapel, and there are several points where the pilgrim can just sit quietly and ponder. This rather beautiful mosaic is a visual reminder of Christ's final journey.






The Lithostrotos is actually the cover to a huge underground water cistern called the Strouthion Pool (we saw the other side of it when we went to the Western Wall tunnels).

The window in the top of the photo on the left is at ground level - as you can see from the right-hand picture, there is a steep street along the side of the wall, and the window is on the bottom right at ground level. This puts the height of the Lithostrotos in better perspective.

We continued down the steps, below the level of the Roman pavement to investigate the water systems below ground. It was very dark and damp and we didn't have a lot of time to read all the notices explaining the layout. But much of it became clear the following day when we visited the Western Wall Tunnels, and were told this story.

In the 19th Century a British archeologist who was excavating the Hasmonean water system from the Western Wall side came upon a large underground pool. He wasn't entirely sure where he was, in relation to the buildings above ground, and set out in the dark, on a makeshift raft to find the other side of the huge pool. He was then fascinated to discover a door in the end wall. Being very British, he knocked on the door, which was opened by an extremely surprised nun. The nuns had thought until that point that they drew water from a closed pool. While they were apparently polite to him, their reaction to discovering a rather dusty floating archeologist was to build a solid wall that now separates the Strouthion Pool and isolates the convent.

Although this story is not mentioned on their website, you can see the wall in one of the photographs.

Pilgrimage 2009 - Pools of Bethesda

These are amazing. This is a complex of cisterns and baths which has been in use by many different groups since the 8th century BC.

At one stage the water from the pools is thought to have been used to wash the temple after sacrifices (the pools are uphill from that level).

Our guide gave us a potted history of the various religious and other uses, including a story; Queen Victoria was offered a choice between Cyprus or the Pools of Bethesda as a present. She chose Cyprus, so the Pools were given to the French.

It seems likely, from the excavations, that the site in Jesus' time would have had one pool dedicated to a Roman god of healing. That puts a different slant onto the story of Jesus' healing of the disabled man,

Later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews. Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie — the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.

When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, "Do you want to get well?" "Sir," the invalid replied, "I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me." Then Jesus said to him, "Get up! Pick up your mat and walk." At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.

The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, and so the Jews said to the man who had been healed,"It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat." But he replied, "The man who made me well said to me, 'Pick up your mat and walk.'

So they asked him, "Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?"
The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there. Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, "See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you. "The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. John 5

This couple were on the pilgrimage. The picture gives an idea of the size of the site. The pools below this point were about 30-40 feet deep.

The single poppy below stood out against the white stone.